Posts Tagged: ‘credit card’

Scam of the day – August 30, 2012 – California man sentenced for identity theft

August 30, 2012 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

Recently, Boris Toumasian was convicted of multiple offenses involving identity theft and sentenced to federal prison for a term of five years.  Toumasian, who had worked at a BP gas station, installed skimmers on the gas pumps at the gas station.  For those of you new to this website/blog who might be unfamiliar with skimmers, they are small devices that are used to read and store the information from your credit cards.  In this case, the skimmers were installed over the legitmate card swiping mechanism on the gas pumps at the gas station where Toumasian worked.  Toumasian took the information gathered from the skimmer and transferred it to American Express Gift cards which he then used to make purchases using his victims’ credit and debit card accounts.

TIPS

Sometimes skimmers are used by identity thieves who are employed in legitimate stores, restaurants and other establishments where you would pay by providing your credit or debit card to the employee.  They run your card through the skimmer at the same time that they legitimately charge your card for the service or product purchased.  Other times, skimmer devices are installed over credit card swiping mechanisms such as you would find at an ATM or gas pump.  When you hand your card to a clerk for a purchase, try to watch your card at all times.  When you use your card by way of a card swiping mechanism, look to see if the mechanism appears to have been tampered with in any way.  Also, make sure that you carefully check your monthly credit card statements and bank statements each month to discover as quickly as possible if you have become a victim of identity theft.  Identifying a loss early is particularly important when using a debit card which does not provide the same level of legal protection that a credit card does.

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Scam of the day – August 9, 2012 – Largest Identity theft ring in American history

August 9, 2012 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

Recently, Amar Singh and his wife Neha Punjani-Singh were sentenced to prison for their role in a thirteen million dollar identity theft ring that operated in the United States with help from abroad between July and November of 2011.  The Singhs were only two of a group of 111 people who were arrested by federl authorities in regard to the scam.  Amar Singh was one of four top operators of the identity theft ring which received stolen personal information on American victims from sources in Russia and China as well as from American based identity thieves who obtained the personal information of their victims primarily through skimming devices, which as I have explained previously in this website/blog are small electronic devices that are used by identity thieves to illegally swipe a credit card used in a restaurant or retail establishment at the same time the victim presents his or her card for a legitimate purchase.  The skimmer steals the information stored on the card.  The information gathered both home and abroad was used to creat counterfeit credit cards that were used by the criminals to the detriment of the identity theft victims.

TIPS

As much as possible, when you pay with a credit card, keep the card in sight to help insure that your card is not being swiped through a skimmer.  Skimmers can also be installed on gas pumps and ATM machines so look for signs of tampered machines.  Also, limit your use of your debit card to ATM machines because the risk of losing money through a debit card is greater than through a credit card due to different federal laws that govern each type of card.  Protect your personal financial information as much as possible and keep it private because data breaches in any place that holds your information puts you at risk.  Finally, read your monthly credit card bill carefully each month to make sure that there are no fraudulent charges and if you do find them, report them immediately.

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Scam of the day – August 8, 2012 – Citadel malware on Facebook scam

August 8, 2012 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

Recently a new version of malware called Citadel has been discovered on people’s Facebook pages.  The scam appears as a request for donations to a children’s charity.  Presently versions of the malware have been found on Facebook pages in England, Italy, Spain, Germany and Holland along with the United States.  In each case, the language used is the language of the country, but the grammar is not good, a common thread for many scams, particularly those originating overseas.  The American request is to help children in Haiti and it asks for a donation of just a dollar and then provides a form for you to enter your name, credit card number, expiration date, CVV code from the card and security password, if one is used.  Unfortunately, the scammers are not after a dollar and they aren’t helping any charity. They steal the entire credit limit of the credit card.

TIPS

Before you give to a charity, first make sure it is a legitimate charity.  Go to www.charitynavigator.org where you can find out whether indeed the particular charity is legitimate as well as, even if it is a legitimate charity, it pays as administrative and fund raising fees.  But even then never give through an online solicitation because you have no way of knowing whether it is the real charity or not that contacted you.  If you want to make a charitable contribution, go to the real charity’s website to make your donation.

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Scam of the day – July 14, 2012 – More Yahoo dangers

July 14, 2012 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

Data breaches such as occurred this week with Yahoo, which shockingly did not even encrypt the data of its users often lead to even more scams through the use of the email addresses of the hacked individuals to send out phishing emails to unsuspecting victims who see an email from a trusted source that may contain a link that they click on to and unwittingly download malware such as keystroke logging programs that can steal all of the information off of your computer, such as your Social Security number, passwords, credit card numbers and more.  The risk of these types of phishing scams always increases following a large data breach such as the recent Yahoo, Formspring and LinkedIn data breaches.

TIPS

Always check with any website or company that will have information about you as to their own security.  Also do not store credit card numbers with companies that you do business with online.  It may be convenient for you to do so, but it exposes you to greater risk if there is a data breach.  Finally, never click on any link in an email even one from a friend until you have confirmed that it is legitimate by contacting the friend directly to make sure that it was he or she that sent it.  And even then you may wish to consider where they got the link to make sure that they are not unwittingly passing on malware to you.

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Scam of the day – June 16, 2012 – Global Payment data breach update

June 16, 2012 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

On March 31st I originally told you about the massive data breach at Global Payment, a third party credit card processing company that works with retailers as a middleman in the processing of credit card charges.  In the wake of the data breach which affected holders of about 1.5 million credit card holders, the company said that it would notify potentially affected people and provide credit monitoring and identity protection insurance free of charge.  However, such notifications have not yet happened as the company has still not completed its internal investigation.  Global payments has indicated that it will provide more information to the public by July 26th as its investigation proceeds.  Meanwhile both Visa and MasterCard are no longer using Global Payment for credit card processing.

TIPS

At the moment everyone should assume that they may have been affected by the Global Payment data breach and although there is no reason to panic, there is every reason to take steps to protect yourself from identity theft, such as carefully monitoring your credit card statement every month for unauthorized charges and putting a credit freeze on your credit report.  You can find more information about credit freezes elsewhere on this website.

 

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Scam of the day – June 7, 2012 – Sacramento low income housing scam

June 7, 2012 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

On occasion, I will provide warnings for particular local scams, both to warn the local citizens of a particular area of a dangerous scam, but also because just about all scams weave their way throughout the country and you can expect a scam that starts in one place to soon go to another.  The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency is warning people about phony websites that are posing as websites where people can apply for subsidized housing under its Housing Choice Voucher Program.  Many people are familiar with the program under its former name of Section 8 Housing.  This week, the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency began taking online applications for the first time in six years to be added to the waiting list for subsidized rental homes and and apartments in Sacramento County.  Unfortunately, scammers are taking advantage of the situation and setting up phony websites that ask for credit card information or offer to sell credit reports.

TIP

The only website to apply for the Sacramento Housing Choice Voucher Program is www.sacwaitlist.com.  The deadline is midnight tomorrow so if you are interested, you must act quickly.  The legitimate website will not ask for your credit card infromation and neither payments nor a credit report is required to make a legitimate application.  For people around the country, never provide credit card information or other personal information on any website that you are not sure is absolutely legitimate.  If you think it may be the legitimate website (and scammers make excellent forgerers) call the agency first to confirm the true website.

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Scam of the day – May 22, 2012 – Skimmers

May 22, 2012 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

Recently a number of people in Iowa became victims of identity theft.  Investigating police found they had one thing in common.   They had all eaten at the same restaurant and paid by credit card.  Although the crime is still under investigation, the most likely culprit is a rogue employee who obtained the credit card numbers through the use of a small electronic device called a “skimmer.”  This device which is about the size of a deck of cards can be used by an identity thief to read all of the information on a person’s credit card.  Generally when you present your credit card for payment, the criminal will swipe the card through the skimmer as well as through the legitimate machine to process your purchase.

TIP

As much as possible keep an eye on your credit card in restaurants and stores to make sure it is not swiped through a skimmer.  Also, make sure that you carefully go through your credit card statements each month to pick up if you have become a victim of identity theft so that you can report it and have the charges removed from your card.

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Scam of the day – April 11, 2012 – Further Global Payments scams

April 11, 2012 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

On March 31st in my scam of the day I told you about the hacking into credit card payment processor Global Payments that compromised the security of millions of credit card holders.  For those of you who were affected by this scam, you should be contacted by the bank issuing your credit card to arrange for a new credit card to replace the tainted one.  However, when you receive a communication from your “bank,” it may not actually be from your bank.  It might well be from an identity thief seeking personal information from you to further victimize you.

TIP

As always, never give information over the phone or through an email to someone you have  not called or have not contacted at an email address that you know is accurate.  If you are contacted by your bank by phone and asked to provide information, call the bank back at a number that you know is accurate to insure that you are not dealing with an identity thief.

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Scam of the day – March 31, 2012 – Massive credit card data theft

March 31, 2012 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

One of the largest thefts of credit card information in history has been recently discovered involving up to ten million MasterCard and Visa credit cards.  As with all of your personal information, you are only as safe as the places that have your personal and financial information.  In this case, a credit card payment processor, which is a company that processes charges after they have been charged at a retail establishment.  This is not the first time that a credit card payment processor has been hacked.  In 2008 millions of credit cards were compromised when heartland Systems was hacked.  In the present case, the information apparently was stolen between January 21st and February 25th, but was only recently discovered.  People whose credit card numbers were stolen will be receiving notices of the breach of security.

TIP

Always review in detail your credit card statement every month to make sure that your credit card was not used for unauthorized charges.  If you find any, contact your credit card company immediately to have the fraudulent charges taken off your card and get a new card number.

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