Posts Tagged: ‘identity thief’

Scam of the day – May 6, 2013 – Hotel telephone call scam

May 6, 2013 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

Some of the most simple scams are also the most effective.  Earlier this week a woman staying at a Double Tree Hotel in Skokie, Illinois received a telephone call purportedly from a clerk at the front desk of the hotel informing her that they needed her credit card information again because of a computer error in processing her card.  She obliged and provided the information over the phone and the identity thief who had really called her promptly ran up $5,000 of charges.  This is a common scam that occurs when a hotel guest gets called from someone who says they are a hotel employee and then requests credit card information under any of a number of different pretexts.

TIPS

Whenever you get a telephone call, you can never be sure that the person calling you is who he or she represents himself or herself to be.  If you are in a hotel and receive such a call, you should hang up and either go to the front desk in person or call the front desk at a telephone number that you know is accurate.  Whenever you get a telephone call requesting personal information such as a credit card number for whatever reason, do not give the information to the caller.  Rather, call the company or agency that purported to call you at a number that you know is correct and not a number that the caller gives you.

 

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Scam of the day – April 17, 2013 – Smartphone credit card scam

April 17, 2013 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

Many scams are merely updates of older scams.  The Nigerian letter of today is actually just the most recent incarnation of a scam that was being done in the 1500s when it was referred to as the “Spanish Prisoner Scam.”  Smartphones and other portable devices have made our lives easier and we all depend on them, however, they have also made the lives of identity thieves and scammers easier too as they use them to foist old scams on you by way of new technology.  The FBI has recently issued a new warning about a text message that people are receiving that purports to be from the issuer of your credit card telling you that your card has been deactivated.  You are then told to call a specific telephone number and provide your personal information including your name, credit card number and other personal information in order to reactivate your card.  Although this scam is being used by identity thieves around the country, the FBI warning dealt with calls coming from the 907 area code which is Alaska.  But even if you don’t live in Alaska, you may well be receiving a text message from your own local area.  This impersonation of your credit card issuer in order to get you to provide the identity thief with information that the identity thief can use to make you a victim of identity theft is called “phishing.”

TIPS

Never, and I do mean never, respond to a text requesting personal information unless you have confirmed that the message to you is legitimate.  In this case, if you have even the slightest concern that the text message may be from your credit card issuer, you should call your credit card issuer at the number indicated on the back of your credit card to confirm whether or not the text message you received was legitimate.  Then you will find out for sure that it was a scam.  You can never be sure when you receive a telephone call, email or text message who is sending you the message.  The risk of providing personal information to an identity thief is too high for you to trust any such communication.

I also urge you to pick up a copy of my book “50 Ways to Protect Your Identity in a Digital Age” which provides you with a wealth of specific steps you can take to make yourself safer on your smartphone, tablet or other portable devices.  You can click on the picture of the book on the right hand side of this page to go to Amazon where you can purchase the book at a discount.

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Scam of the day – March 8, 2013 – Dangerous links

March 8, 2013 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

Once again I had to go no farther than my own email box for today’s scam of the day f0r two examples of scams that operate by getting you to click on tainted links.  Never click on links in an email unless you are absolutely positive that they are legitimate.  When they come, as did the emails copies below, it is easy to see that they are just an attempt to get you and me to click on the links using whatever bait they think will work.  However, other times the email may appear to come from a friend of yours.  The problem is that you cannot be sure that your friend’s email account has not been hacked and that it is an identity thief who is sending you the link.  Other times, even if you independently confirm that it actually is your friend who sent you the link, you can’t be sure that the link he or she sent is not one that is tainted and that he or she is unwittingly passing along.  It is always important to confirm that not just the sender, but the link itself is legitimate before clicking on any links.  The problem with clicking on the tainted link is that by clicking on the link, you unwittingly download a keystroke logging malware program that steals all of the information from your computer and ends up making you a victim of identity theft.

Here are two examples of emails I got today with tainted links.   DO NOT CLICK ON THESE LINKS.

“Couldnt believe this in our area.. Click here to read it.”

“Read this please. Click this link.”

Interestingly enough, the first email came under the heading of “Safety First” while the second came under the heading of “smoking.”

TIPS

As I have indicated above, do not click on any link in an email until you have verified both the identity of the real sender and the legitimacy of the link itself.  Also make sure that you have a Firewall and good security software installed on your computer and always kept up to date.  It is also important to keep the same kind of security software in place and up to date on your tablet, smartphone and other portable devices where you might download material.  Too many people neglect security software for their portable devices.  For more information, check out my book “50 Ways to Protect Your Identity in a Digital Age.”

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Scam of the day – February 16, 2013 – Latest income tax scam

February 16, 2013 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

Every season is scam season, but tax season is a particularly scammed filled time of the year.  The latest income tax scam which has surfaced in Nevada and is making its way across the country begins with a phone call purportedly from the Internal Revenue Service informing you that you are eligible for a refund of $2,000.   You are told that your refund will be processed electronically and that all that is necessary is for you to merely provide your bank account number and routing number for your bank to the IRS agent to whom you are speaking on the phone and your refund will be promptly sent.  Unfortunately, the whole thing is a scam and you are not talking with an IRS agent, but rather a scam artist who will take the information you provide him and steal all of the money in your account.

TIPS

The IRS does not call you by phone or contact you by email to tell you that you are eligible for a refund of any kind.  Further, as I have warned you many times, you should never give any personal information to someone who calls you on the phone unless you are absolutely sure that you know to whom you are speaking and they have a legitimate need for the information.  You can never be sure when you receive a phone call if the person calling you is who they say they are.  If you ever have even the slightest thought that the call might be legitimate, you should merely hang up and call the agency or company, in this case the IRS that is purported to have called you and inquire as to the substance of the call.  I am not a psychic, but I can confidently predict you will be told that the call you received was not from the IRS.

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Scam of the day – October 6, 2012 – FTC freezes accounts of scammers

October 6, 2012 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

On July 15, 2012 I warned you about a scam in which you receive a telephone call purportedly from Microsoft, Dell or other major computer companies or security software companies such as McAfee and Norton telling you that they have remotely determined that your computer is seriously infected with computer viruses and that you need to immediately remedy the problem for fees ranging from $49 to $450.  To confirm the problem, they tell you to go to your Windows’ Event Viewer which is a utility that keeps track of program errors and other events on your computer.  Everyone’s Windows’ Event Viewer will show many errors, but almost universally they are of no significance.  However, when directed to this utility and seeing a long list of problems, people can begin to trust the scammer, not knowing that these “problems” are insignificant.  The victim is then directed to a website to download a code or download a software program that permits remote access to the scammer under the guise that the scammer would then remove the offending malware.  Too often when the victim downloaded the software, they also downloaded dangerous keystroke logging programs that allowed the scammer and identity thief full access to all of the information in the victim’s computer that, in turn, let the scammer steal the identity of the victim.

TIPS

This week the Federal Trade Commission filed legal actions against 14 companies and 17 people the FTC said were involved in this scam and a New York Federal Court Judge ordered the assets of these defendants be frozen while the case proceeds.  I will keep you informed as to the progress of the cases.  Meanwhile, the best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm, so my advice to you is to be proactive and protect yourself from these scams.  Whenever you receive a telephone call from someone saying they are with a particular company, you can never be sure that they are who they represent themselves to be.  Never give out personal information to someone who calls you on the phone.  If you believe a call is legitimate, call the company back at a number you know is accurate.  It is also important to remember that none of these computer companies or software security companies will ever initiate a call to you so if someone contacts you purporting to be from one of these companies to tell you that your computer is having problems, hang up;  they are scammers.  Always maintain up to date security software and if you have questions, call your computer company or your security software company directly at a telephone number that you know is accurate.

 

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Scam of the day – September 22, 2012 – Keeping the family computer safe

September 21, 2012 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

Often it seems that the teenaged and even younger members of your family know more about computers than the adults do; and maybe they do.  However, unfortunately, they are also less security conscious and more susceptible to downloading malware such as keystroke logging programs that can read all of the information from your computer and make you a victim of identity theft.  Often the malware comes when the kids dowload free music, games or videos.  Scammers and identity thieves are adept at luring people, particularly young people into downloading these virus laden software programs that can lead to identity theft.

TIPS

Along with good firewalls and computer security software, which you should regularly update, you should also educate your children about the risks of viruses and malware in free music, games and videos.  However, perhaps the best protection for the adults in the family who should be using the computer for online banking, which is safer than paying bills through the mail, is to have one computer reserved for the adults that they use for online banking, purchases and the storage of sensitive information and another that they share with the kids.  In this way, you can avoid the risks of the kids downloading damaging malware.  Now we just need to educate the adults to avoid the free pornography that is loaded with malware.

 

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Scam of the day – September 11, 2012 – Spearphishing

September 11, 2012 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

By now, most people are aware of the scam tactic referred to as “phishing,” by which you receive an email purportedly from a legitimate company or government agency that has all of the appearances of being a true and legitimate communication from the company or agency, but in fact is from an identity thief who under the pretext of a problem with your account or some other such emergency lures you into clicking on a link contained in the email, which unbeknownst to you downloads harmful malware on to your computer, such as keystroke logging programs, sometimes called Trojan Horses that will steal all of the information from your computer and lead to your becoming a victim of identity theft.  Most often these phishing emails are not directed at you by name, but rather to you as “customer” or “consumer.”  They also may appear to come from companies with which you do not do business as from a bank where you have no accounts.  However, with the epidemic of hacking of large companies and governmental agencies, many identity thieves are able to use the hacked information to send you a personal phony email that contains your name and is definitely from a company or agency with which you do business making you more likely to respond to the urging to click on the dangerous link contained in the email.  This type of targeted phishing is called “spearphishing” and it is extremely dangerous.

TIPS

Never click on links in emails unless you are absolutely sure they are legitimate.  If you get such an email from a company, you should always be skeptical and make sure that you call the company or federal agency before considering clicking on the link to confirm whether or not the email is legitimate.  Merely because the email uses your name and even your account number does not mean that the email is legitimate.

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Scam of the day – August 16, 2012 – Voter survey scam

August 16, 2012 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

Political candidates derive much of their strategy from the information they obtain from telephone surveys so it is not surprising that you may receive a telephone call from a company taking a survey on behalf of a particular candidate.  Even if you are on the federal do-not-call list, the law permits you to receive these kinds of calls.  Scam artists and identity thieves are aware of this and will call you posing as legitimate poll takers.  They will then tell you that in return for taking their poll, you are eligible for a prize and in order to be eligible for the prize, you must provide them with some personal information such as your Social Security number or your bank account number.  Unfortunately, there are no prizes for participating in such surveys and if you provide this information, you will become a victim of identity theft.

TIPS
Legitimate political poll takers never offer prizes for participation in their polls so if one is offered, you know it is a scam.  As I have repeatedly said, never give your personal information, such as your Social Security number to anyone whom you have not called and are sure of their identity and their need for the information.  Finally, as I have indicated before, you may wish to place a credit freeze on your credit report so that even if your Social Security number is stolen, the identity thief will not be able to get access to your credit report to make large purchases in your name.

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Scam of the day – August 3, 2012 – Online gaming scams

August 3, 2012 Posted by Steven Weisman, Esq.

Playing online video games is a popular pastime, but it also can lead to identity theft if you do not protect yourself.  Many multiplayer online games are connected to cerdit card accounts that can make the players vulnerable as we have seen with the major data breach at Sony with its online Play station gaming when 77 million people had their data including credit card numbers compromised.  But there are things you can do to lessen your chance of becoming a victim of identity theft.

TIPS

Use a complicated password and don’t use the same password for anything else.  You should always use a unique password for every account that requires one so that if your security is breached you have not provided the keys to all of your accounts to the identity thief.  Never download add-ons or modifications to your game from unofficial sources.  If you do so, you risk downloading dangerous keystroke logging malware that can steal all of the information from your computer.  Finally, make sure that your computer security software is up to date.

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