Scam of the Day
Scam of the day – March 5, 2023 – Ohio Couple Victim of Puppy Scam
Scams involving sales of non-existent puppies had already increased dramatically in the last few years, but really took off during the Coronavirus pandemic when many people were looking for the emotional support of a loving dog. However, even with the Coronavirus pandemic waning, people are still falling victims to scams involving the sale online of non-existent puppies. Recently an Ohio couple paid $4,000 to scammers to purchase two puppies that never were delivered. People buy dogs or other pets online and, although they think they are taking proper precautions, they often end up getting nothing in return for the money that they wire to the scammer who may have a website or some other way of marketing their non-existent pets with photographs and false information.
Often the scammers hook their victims for more and more money, such as when even after the victims has paid for the non-existent dog, the victim is asked for additional payments for a special crate to transport the dog along with additional transportation company fees. This is what happened to the Ohio couple as they paid additional money for what they thought were transportation costs.
TIPS
It is simple for a scammer to construct a website that appears to be legitimate and scammers can readily steal the name of a legitimate animal breeder. Always check into the reputation of the breeder with the Better Business Bureau, your state’s attorney general and even Google the name of the breeder with the word “scam” to see if a legitimate breeder’s name that is being used has been stolen for scams previously.
Be wary of anyone who asks you to wire money because that is a telltale sign that a scam is going on because once the money is wired, it is impossible to get it back. If you are told that a courier company is being used to transport the animal, check out the company to make sure it is legitimate and actually shipping the dog.
There also are a number of ways such as using the website http://www.tineye.com to search the photos sent to you of the dog to see if they appear elsewhere other than the website attempting to sell you a puppy. If so, this is a good indication that you are being scammed. Also, always get a veterinarian report on any animal before you consider buying it. Finally, you are always going to be better off buying a pet that you can see in person prior to buying the pet.
Some phony breeders claim they are certified by the American Kennel Club (AKC) however, the AKC doesn’t certify breeders. Legitimate breeders will however, register their litters with the AKC and you can find out by calling the AKC’s customer service line 919-233-9767 if a particular litter has been registered.
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Scam of the day – March 4, 2023 – Police Warn About Virtual Kidnapping Scam
The New London, Connecticut Police Department recently issued a warning about a virtual kidnapping scam after an increase in incidents of this crime, however, it should be noted that this is not a crime limited to Connecticut, but is increasing nationwide according to the FBI.
I have been warning you about phony kidnapping scams, also known as virtual kidnapping, for ten years and according to the FBI, the scam is increasing in frequency. Generally, the scam starts with a telephone call informing the person answering the phone that a child or other relative has been kidnapped and if the person receiving the call does not respond by wiring money right away, the relative will be killed. As with so many scams, we are often our own worst enemy and this scam is no exception. In many instances, the scammers gather personal information about the intended scam victims from information that the intended victims or members of their families post on social media. Armed with personal information gathered from social media, a scammer can describe the supposed kidnapped victim or provide personal information that would make it appear that indeed they actually do have the person in their custody.
Sometimes the phony kidnappers manipulate your Caller ID through a technique called “spoofing” to make it appear that the call is coming from the supposedly kidnapped family member’s cell phone.
In a more recent development in the scam, as reported by the FBI, scammers search social media posts looking for people travelling internationally and then contact that person’s family claiming he or she has been kidnapped and demand a promptly wired ransom payment. In many instances the scammers will pose as members of a drug cartel or a corrupt law enforcement officer. Sometimes they will even include realistic screams in the background of the calls although these screams, according to the FBI, are generally recordings.
TIPS
Always be skeptical if you receive such a call. Never wire money to anyone for anything unless you are totally convinced that what you are doing is legitimate because unlike paying for something with a credit card, once your wired funds have been sent, they are impossible to get back. Talk to the alleged kidnapper as long as possible, thereby giving someone else with you the time to call or text the alleged kidnap victim on his or her phone. If the purported kidnapping victim is a young child, call the school to confirm that he or she is safe. You also could ask the kidnapper to describe your relative as well as provide information, such as his or her birth date, which could be found on a driver’s license, however, it is important to remember that much of this kind of information may be available through social media or elsewhere on the Internet. It also can be helpful for the family to have a code word to use to immediately recognize that this is a scam. If the kidnapper can’t provide the code word, it is clear that it is a scam.
As I often advise you, be careful about what you post on social media and don’t post your travel plans on social media. Wait until you return to post any photos..
Finally, even paranoids have enemies. A good protective measure to take to protect yourself from virtual kidnappings is to have a secret password to use in the event of an emergency that can be used to determine if a family member truly is in trouble.
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Scam of the day – March 3, 2023 – Clever New PayPal Invoice Scam
Sometimes it is important to remember that scam artists are the only criminals we refer to as artists and in the case of a PayPal invoice scam presently circulating, their art is impressive – criminal, but impressive nevertheless. I have warned you numerous times about scams in which you receive a phony invoice that appears to come from a company you do business, but if you look at the email from which it is sent, you will see that the email was sent from someone who has no relation to the company it purports to be. However, in this new scam, you get a phony invoice that not only appears to come from PayPal, but actually does come from PayPal and a link in the email to “View and Pay Invoice” that actually would take you to PayPal and an active invoice. The email has a phone number for you to call if you have a question about the invoice and if you do call the phone number, a scammer will promptly answer the phone where you will be advised to download a remote administration tool that gives the scammer access to your computer purportedly to help find the problem, but in actuality what you will have done is give the scammer access to your computer and all of the passwords to all of your accounts.
The truth is that the scammers open PayPal Business accounts which enables them to be able to send invoices from PayPal which makes them appear legitimate when they indeed are sent to you by PayPal. The customer service number that they provide in the invoice does not, however, take you to PayPal, but rather to the scammer who then asks you to give them remote access to your computer to straighten the matter out.
TIPS
Whenever you get an email or invoice such as this which appears to come from a legitimate source, don’t click on links or call the phone numbers in the invoice. Rather call the real customer service number which you can get online. It is also interesting to note that if you call the real customer service number for PayPal, you will have to go through a number of prompts before you get to speak to a real person, however, the scammers customer service number is immediately answered by a person.
This scam and many tech support scams ask you to give remote access to your computer which is something you should not do under almost all circumstances. Giving someone remote access to your computer gives them access to everything on your computer and can lead to serious identity theft.
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Scam of the day – March 2, 2023 – New Social Security Scam
Protecting the privacy of your Social Security number is essential in order to protect yourself from identity theft. Identity thieves use a variety of pretenses to trick people into providing their Social Security numbers to scammers who can then use it as part of their efforts to steal your assets or get loans in your name that they don’t repay. Recently a savvy Scamicide reader received an official appearing notice through an attachment to an email that appeared to come from the Attorney General of Texas although the purported letter from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was on the letterhead and carried the logo of the Social Security Administration.
In somewhat stilted language the letter informed the recipient of the letter that his Social Security number would be suspended because his Social Security had been used for criminal purposes including money laundering. The letter provides a telephone number that it says is that of the Office of the Inspector General for the Social Security Administration to call to resolve the matter.
The notice is a phishing email designed to trick the targeted victim into calling the phony phone number whereupon they will be asked for their Social Security number thereby turning it over to an identity thief.
TIPS
The first thing to look for any time you receive an email such as this is the email address of the sender. In this particular case the email of the sender had absolutely no relation to the Social Security Administration.
In addition, the telephone number to reach the Social Security Administration is not the number contained in the notice.
The fact that the email contained the Social Security Administration logo is not an indication that the communication is legitimate. Counterfeiting the logo is easy to do. Further a legitimate letter from the Attorney General of Texas would not come on stationary of the Social Security Administration.
It is important to note that the Social Security Administration does not police the use of Social Security numbers and suspend them in cases of fraud.
Finally, it should be noted that the Social Security Administration does not initiate communications with people through email and wouldn’t even have your email in their records. However, if you have a My Social Security Account (which I urge you to get) you will receive an email once a year to remind you to review your Social Security Statement online. A My Social Security Account will enable you to get information from the Social Security Administration quickly and conveniently.https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/create.html
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Scam of the day – March 1, 2023 – What Do Recent Ransomware Attacks at U.S. Marshals Service and Dole Food Company Mean to You?
In the last few days, we have learned of successful major ransomware attacks at the U.S. Marshals Service and Dole Food Company. Ransomware attacks in which the targeted victims data is stolen and encrypted in a manner that the victim cannot access is done primarily for profit. If the victim pays a ransom, the criminal provides a key to decrypt the data. The data stolen from the Marshals Service would enable the criminals to identify Marshals Service employees as well as people under investigation while the data stolen from Dole resulted in the stopping of deliveries of Dole products. These attacks along with data breaches in which sensitive information is stolen from companies, government agencies and other institutions are increasing at an alarming level which creates a problem for all of us because regardless of how careful you are as to protecting your personal information, you are always at risk of having your information compromised by a data breach or ransomware attack at a government agency, company or other institution with lax security.
So what can you do?
TIPS
The question is not if you will become a victim of a data breach or ransomware attack at a company, government agency or other institution that has your information, but when. One important lesson is to limit the amount of personal information that you provide to companies and websites whenever possible. For example, your doctor doesn’t need your Social Security number for his or her records.
You should make sure that you have a unique password for each of your online accounts so that if one of your passwords is compromised in a data breach, all of your accounts will not be in danger. If your information is compromised in a data breach, you should immediately change the password for that account.
If you have not already done so, set up dual factor authentication for each of you accounts where it is available. This will protect you from having those accounts stolen by someone who may have access to your password. And while you are at it you should get a PIN from your cellular service carrier so that a particularly enterprising cybercriminal cannot thwart your dual factor authentication by doing a SIM swap which would result in a dual factor authentication text being sent to the criminals cell phone.
Freezing your credit is something everyone should do. It is free and easy to do. In addition, it protects you from someone using your identity to obtain loans or make large purchases even if they have your Social Security number. If you have not already done so, put a credit freeze on your credit reports at all of the major credit reporting agencies. Here are links to each of them with instructions about how to get a credit freeze:
https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-freeze/
https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze/place-credit-freeze
https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
Even after freezing your credit reports, you should still regularly monitor them to look for indications of identity theft.
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Scam of the day – February 28, 2023 – Dead People are Becoming Victims of Identity Theft
Not even the dead are immune from identity theft and this particular type of identity theft is now on the rise. Until new regulations were enacted in 2014 scammers merely checked out the latest obituaries and then went to a free totally available data bank called the Death Master File maintained by the Social Security Administration. Using the Death Master File, the scammer was readily able to obtain the deceased person’s Social Security number which would then be used along with the information gained from the obituary to establish credit, make purchases or take out loans in the name of the deceased person. Since 2014 regulations have greatly limited the access to the Death Master File, but identity theft from the dead remains a serious problem because it is still easy for criminals to obtain Social Security numbers of dead people. Income tax identity theft using the Social Security numbers of dead people is a popular scam with income tax identity thieves because the IRS may not be alerted that the victim of the identity theft has died and is not filing an income tax return. Income tax identity theft from the dead can severely complicate the estate settlement process and threaten the deceased’s assets.
TIPS
Limit the amount of personal information contained in any obituary in order to not provide information exploitable by an identity thief. Also, the executor or personal representative of the estate should contact the major credit reporting bureaus, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax and notify them that the person is deceased and not to issue any further credit. All creditors, such as credit card companies of the deceased should also be notified of the death and the accounts closed as soon as possible.
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Scam of the day – February 27, 2023 – Sextortion Scams Increasing
I have been warning you about sextortion scams for seven years. In December, the FBI issued a new warning about sextortion and more recently, a similar warning was issued by the Greenwich, Connecticut police department. Generally sextortion scams begin with an email in which you are told that your computer and web cam have been hacked and that the scammers have video of you watching porn online. In the email, the scammer threatens to send the videos to people on his contact list unless you pay a ransom in Bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency.
In other instances, as the FBI warns, adult predators, often posing as young girls, contact teenage boys on a variety of online platforms such as games or social media and then convincing the teenage boys to engage in explicit sexual activity while unbeknownst to the teenaged boy, the predator is recording it. The scammer then reveals to the teenager that the scammer has the recording and threatens to post it online unless a substantial payment is made. According to the FBI there has been a significant increase in the instances of his scam with law enforcement receiving more than 7,000 sextortion complaints with the true number of instances of this scam thought to be much higher, but unreported. Many of these scams are organized and based outside the United States, primarily in West African countries such as Nigeria and the Ivory Coast.
TIPS
The FBI advises parents to tell their children to be very careful as to what they share online. Social media accounts which are open to everyone provide predators and scammers with a lot of information that the scammers can use to lure people into scams. Discuss the appropriate privacy settings with your children for all of their accounts.
The FBI also tells parents to remind their children that they can never be sure as to who they are communicating with online and they should be particularly skeptical if they meet someone on a game or app who then asks to communicate with them on a different platform.
In regard to your web cam being hacked, while often this is merely a threat and the scammer has not hacked your web cam, however web cams can be hacked. One thing you can do to protect your webcam from being hacked is to make sure that you change the default password on your webcam when you first install it. Another simple thing I do and you can, as well, is to merely put a post it note over your webcam when it is not in use.
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Scam of the day – February 26, 2023 – Mystery Shopper Scams Continue to Claim Victims
I have written many times over the last ten years about the mystery shopper scam because it continues to ensnare unwary victims. Unfortunately, these scams continue to be effective and are increasing in number so it is important to remind you about them again. Mystery shoppers are people hired to shop at a particular store and report on the shopping experience for purposes of quality control. Unlike many scams, there actually are legitimate mystery shopper companies, but they never advertise or recruit through emails, text messages or letters.
The manner in which the scam generally works is that when you answer an advertisement, or respond to a letter, email or a text message to become a mystery shopper, you are sent a bank check. You deposit the check into your own account and spend some of the money on the goods that you purchase which you are allowed to keep and also are directed to keep some of the balance of the check as payment for your services. You are instructed to return the remaining funds by a wire transfer.
In a Walmart themed mystery shopper scam, the targeted victim was sent a legitimate appearing, but counterfeit check for $2,940 and told to keep $540 as payment and then go to the nearest Walmart and use the remainder of the check to buy six $400 Kroger gift cards and provide the numbers to the scammer. The scam victim was then told to keep the gift cards for their next assignment although there never is another assignment and the scammers use the numbers on the Kroger gift cards to make purchases, making the actual cards worthless. The victim of the scam loses the $2,400 used to purchase the gift cards from the victim’s own bank account when the check bounces.
TIPS
One reason why this scam fools so many people is that there really are mystery shopping jobs although the actual number is quite few and the companies that do mystery shopping do not go looking for you. A firm indication that you are involved with a scam is when you receive a check for more than what is owed you and you are asked to wire the difference back to the sender. This is the basis of many scams. Whenever you receive a check, wait for your bank to tell you that the check has fully cleared before you consider the funds as actually being in your account. Don’t rely on provisional credit which is given after a few days, but which will be rescinded once a check bounces and never accept a check for more than what is owed with the intention to send back the rest. That is always a scam. Also be wary whenever you are asked to wire funds or send gift cards because this is a common theme in many scams because it is difficult to trace and impossible to stop. Legitimate companies do not use gift cards as payments.
For more information about legitimate mystery shoppers, you can go to the website of the Mystery Shopping Professional Association https://www.mspa-americas.org/scam-alerts/
If you receive a mystery shopper scam solicitation or check through the mail you can report it to the United States Postal Service at
http://about.usps.com/publications/pub300a/pub300a_tech_024.htm
You also can report the scam to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which investigates these scams at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/#crnt&panel1-1
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Scam of the day – February 25, 2023 – Pig Butchering Getting Worse
I have been warning you about romance scams for many years. More recently I have been warning you for the last few years about the myriad of scams involving cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. In the last couple of years a new scam combining the romance scam and cryptocurrency scams has surfaced.
Romance scams generally follow a familiar pattern with the scammers establishing relationships with people, generally women, online through various legitimate dating websites and social media using fake names, locations and images. The FBI has issued a warning about a new trend in romance scams in which the scammer tells his victim that he or she has inside knowledge about cryptocurrency investing and directs the victim to a phony website that purports to be a legitimate cryptocurrency trading site. Not long after “investing” in the cryptocurrencies provided, the victim soon finds that there is no investment and that she or he has lost all of the invested money. This scam originated in China in 2019 and is called sha zhu pan or pig butchering in English. The name is derived from the practice of luring in victims, “fattening them up” by convincing them to continually “invest” more money and then stealing all of the money.
The scammers initially contact their victims on dating or social media apps and pretend to develop a close relationship. After a while the scammer informs the targeted victim that he or she is making a lot of money investing in cryptocurrencies and suggests the victim download and use a cryptocurrency app used by the scammer. Generally, the victims are lured into investing more and more money by what appears to be both dramatic increases in the value of their account and their ability to withdraw some of their profits. However, once the victim has been persuaded to invest larger and larger sums of money, the scammers steal the money and the victim is left with nothing.
You might be surprised to learn that typically the victims of this scam are highly educated people. Unfortunately, they also are targeted because they may have also recently gone through a divorce or some other personal difficulty. While the victims are people of all ages, most victims are anywhere from their mid-30s to their early fifties with the average loss per victim averaging $121.926.
TIPS
It is important to remember that you should never invest in something that you do not completely understand. This was a mistake that many of Bernie Madoff’s victims made. Cryptocurrency scams quite often involve complicated language and investment terms that is purposefully unclear in an effort to confuse potential investors from understanding the real facts. You also may want to check out the SEC’s investor education website at www.investor.gov. Scammers can be very convincing and it may sound like there is a great opportunity for someone to make some money, but you must be careful that the person making money is not the scam artist taking yours.
Also, the apps used in the pig butchering scam may appear to be legitimate, but they are not found on official app platforms such as Google Play or the Apple App Store. Do your homework before investing in cryptocurrencies and only do business with well established cryptocurrency exchanges. Never invest merely because of the recommendation of someone you may have met online.
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Scam of the day – February 24, 2023 – New Twist on Lottery Scam
Lottery scams are among the most common scams and although these scams take many different forms, they all have in common that you have won a lottery you never even entered (quite a feat) and that you must now pay money for either taxes or administrative fees in order to claim your prize which never comes. While it is true that lottery winnings are subject to income tax, no legitimate lottery collects tax money from winners. They either deduct the taxes from your winnings or turn all of the money over to you and it is your responsibility to pay the taxes. Also, no legitimate lottery charges administrative fees of any kind for you to claim your prize as well.
Most lottery scammers contact their targeted victims by phone, email or text message posing as a legitimate lottery, such as Powerball to tell people that they have won their phony prize. Recently, however, some lottery scammers are spoofing the phone number of legitimate law offices and contacting their targeted victims posing as lawyers calling to inform the targeted victim that he or she has just won a phony lottery. Of course, the next step is the asking by the “lawyers” for the necessary taxes or fees to be paid in order to receive the prize that never comes.
“Spoofing” as I have explained to you many times is the name for the technique by which a scammer can manipulate your Caller ID so that it appears the phone call comes from a legitimate source when the truth is that the call is coming from a scammer. You can never trust your Caller ID so any time that someone calls you asking for personal information or a payment, you should not trust the call, but independently verify whether or not the call is legitimate before responding in any manner.
TIPS
It is hard to win any lottery or contest. It is impossible to win one that you have never entered. It also is important to remember that no legitimate lottery requires that you pay them fees to claim your prize or pay them the taxes due on the winnings. Legitimate lotteries either deduct the income taxes from your prize or they pay you the entire amount of the prize and you are responsible for paying the taxes on your own to the IRS.
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