Scam of the Day
Scam of the day – June 13, 2021 – Is it You in the Video Scam
I wrote about today’s Scam of the day last February but am repeating it again because I have both heard from a number of Scamicide readers who have been targeted by this scam as well as being the target of this scam myself. The scam starts when you receive a message on Facebook Messenger that looks like this:
(image: Sophos)
The message will have a link and what appears to be a video, which many people would be tempted to click on out of a concern that the video may be significant, however, when you click on the link, you are taken to a phony Facebook login page. If you fall for the scam and type in your username and password, you will have turned over control of your Facebook account to a criminal. When a criminal gains access to your Facebook account, it enables him or her to be able to send out a wide variety of malware infected posts and messages that will appear to come from you and therefore be more likely to lure your unsuspecting friends into clicking on the links in the posts and messages thereby downloading a wide variety of dangerous malware such as ransomware or keystroke logging malware that can lead to identity theft.
TIPS
Remember my motto, “trust me, you can’t trust anyone.” Whenever you get a Facebook message, email, or text message you can never be sure who is really contacting you. The “friend” you think is communicating with you may well be a criminal who has managed to hack your friend’s Facebook account, email account or phone and use these accounts to send out phishing messages that lure you into clicking on infected links. Never click on a link unless you have absolutely confirmed that it is legitimate.
In the case of this particular Facebook Messenger scam, instead of clicking on the link or providing your user name and password, you should contact your real friend to determine if they sent the message to you. Additionally, it is always a good idea to use dual factor authentication whenever possible so that if somehow you are tricked into providing your user name and password, the criminal still wouldn’t be able to gain access to your account. Here is a link to information about setting up dual factor authentication on your Facebook account. https://www.facebook.com/help/148233965247823
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide has been cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is sign up for free using this link. https://scamicide.com/scam-of-the-day/
Scam of the day – June 12, 2021 – New Chase Phishing Email
Chase is a popular target for this type of phishing email because it is one of the largest banks in the United States. Like so many phishing emails, this one attempts to lure you into responding by making you think there is an emergency to which you must respond. As phishing emails go, this one is not terribly convincing. It was sent from an email address that had absolutely no connection to Chase and most likely was from an email account that was hacked and made a part of a botnet used to send out this type of scam. It also does not even contain a Chase logo which would have been easy to counterfeit. I have disabled the link which was found where the email indicates “SECURE YOUR ACCOUNT,” but if you hovered your mouse over the link before it was disabled, you would have seen that the address to which it would have sent you has no relation to Chase. As so often is the case with these type of phishing emails, it does not contain your account number in the email nor is it personally addressed to the receiver of the email, but merely uses your email address.
Here is a copy of the Chase phishing email presently being circulated
We recently received a report of unauthorized Debit/ Credit Card use associated with this account
As a precaution, we have limited your Chase Banking account in order to protect against future unauthorized transactions.
To verify your account, Click on “Secure Your Account” below so you could help us confirm your account information and regain full access to your account.
Warning: Ignoring or giving wrong details means you are not the rightful owner of this account and we are going to permanently lock your account if such activity is detected.
Thank you for being a Chase Customer and we look forward to serve all your financial satisfactions.
Sincerely,
Chase Online Service
TIPS
There are a number of indications that this is not a legitimate email from Chase, but instead is a phishing email. Most notably, the email address from which this phishing email was sent has no relation to Chase. Most likely it is part of a botnet of infected zombie computers used by scammers to send out such phishing emails. Additionally, the grammar is poor where it states “we look forward to serve all your financial satisfactions.” This kind of error is common in scams that originate in countries where English is not the primary language.
As with all phishing emails, two things can happen if you click on the links provided. Either you will be sent to a legitimate looking, but phony website where you will be prompted to input personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft or, even worse, merely by clicking on the link, you may download keystroke logging malware that will steal all of your personal information from your computer or smartphone and use it to make you a victim of identity theft.
If you receive an email like this and think it may possibly be legitimate, merely call the customer service number where you can confirm that it is a scam, but make sure that you dial the telephone number correctly because scammers have been known to buy phone numbers that are just a digit off of the legitimate numbers for financial companies, such as Chase to trap you if you make a mistake in dialing the real number. Alternatively you can go to http://www.chase.com to check on your account.
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide has been cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is sign up for free using this link. https://scamicide.com/scam-of-the-day/
Scam of the day – June 11, 2021 – Mavis Wanczyk Scam Strikes Again
I have been writing about scams related to Mavis Wanczyk for four years but recently I have received many emails from Scamicide readers telling me about various new incarnations of a variety of scams that share the same hook which is that Mavis Wanczyk is giving money away to lucky people. Many of you may not remember the name of Mavis Wanczyk, but she was the lucky winner of a 758 million dollar Powerball drawing in 2017. Not long after she claimed her prize, a scam started appearing in which many people received emails with the message line referring to the Mavis Wanczyk Cash Grant. The email indicated that you were chosen to receive a large cash grant from Mavis Wanczyk. All the lucky strangers receiving the emails had to do was provide personal information in order to qualify for the grant. In addition, phony social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were also set up in Ms. Wanczyk’s name through which people were contacted with the same phony offer of free money informing them that in order to qualify for the grant they merely needed to provide personal information.
Last year, I told you how the scams are also appearing in large numbers through various Instagram accounts and as fast as Instagram closes down one phony Mavis Wanczyk account, another pops up. A Scamicide reader noted that one of the recent phony Instagram accounts purporting to be that of Mavis Wanczyk is maviswanczyk3gs. Many of the versions of this scam now circulating promise $20,000 in return for payments to cover administrative costs. In another creative version of the scam, the targeted victim is told that he or she would receive $20,000 delivered in person within 24 hours, but shortly thereafter receives a text message in which he is told that there is a delay because money is needed for gas and administrative costs to process the necessary paper work. This text message was followed up by another text message in which the targeted victim is told that the person delivering the check was stopped by an FBI agent and that another fee had to be paid. Why an FBI agent would be involved or require an additional payment is certainly unclear.
Another Scamicide reader reported a phony Mavis Wanczyk Twitter account of @MavisWa81674460 was being used telling potential victims that she was giving away $20,000 to the first 5,000 followers. Again while it initially appeared as a gift, ultimately, you were required to make a payment in order to get your “gift.”
More recently a Scamicide reader received a text message from 360 – 872-3773 purporting to be from Mavis Wanczyk telling the Scamicide reader that if he sent $100 to Ms. Wanczyk, he would receive $50,000 from her. It is worth noting that the 360 area code is from the Seattle, Washington area, while Mavis Wanczyk lives in Massachusetts.
TIPS
It is difficult to win a lottery you have entered. It is impossible to win one that you have never entered and neither lottery winners, nor anyone else is sending out messages through the Internet offering free money to anyone who responds with personal information. Never give out personal information that can make you vulnerable to identity theft unless you have absolutely verified that the party requesting the personal information is legitimate and has a legitimate need for the information. Also never pay anything to a lottery claiming you owe fees in order to claim your prize. This is a telltale sign of a scam. No legitimate lottery requires the payment of a fee to collect your winnings or requires you to pay the lottery income taxes on the prize. While income taxes are due on lottery winnings, those taxes are either deducted by the lottery sponsor before giving you your prize or the prize is given to you in full and you are responsible for the payment of any taxes. No lottery collects taxes on behalf of the IRS.
Also, neither Mavis Wanczyk nor any other lottery winner is giving away money to strangers.
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide was recently cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and insert your email address where it indicates “Sign up for this blog.”
Scam of the day – June 10, 2021 – Advance Child Tax Credit Payment Scams Will be Coming Soon
Many peoples’ understanding of the intricate and complex American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) passed by Congress which provided for a 1.9 trillion dollar economic stimulus package is limited to the legislation being the source of a third stimulus check payment of up to $1,400. However, beginning on July 15th and continuing monthly until December of 2021, ARPA provides for monthly payments to eligible families. These payments will be an advance on the families’ child tax credit. Eligible people will get up to half of their child tax credit in these monthly payments and the other half when they file their 2021 federal income tax returns. Payments will total up to $3,000 for each qualifying child between the ages of 6 and 17 and payments of $3,600 for each qualifying child under the age of 6. The best place to go for detailed information about this program and determining if you qualify is the IRS’ website through this link. https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/advance-child-tax-credit-payments-in-2021.
The good news is that if you do qualify for these payments, you do not have to do anything to get them. You do not have to specifically apply for them. The bad news is that, just like we found with the federal government’s stimulus payments to individuals during the last year, scammers will be contacting people posing as government officials promising to help people get these payments. The scammers, however will be asking for personal information they will use for purposes of identity theft or asking for payments in order to process a person’s eligibility for this benefit. The truth is that neither the IRS, which will be administering the program, nor any other federal agency will be contacting people on the phone, email, text message or through social media to help you get your child tax credit and there is no fee to be eligible for the program.
TIPS
If you are eligible the amount of your payment will be based on information in your 2020 federal income tax return so if you got an extension for filing of your 2020 federal income tax return, you should file it as soon as possible to avoid problems. Filing electronically with a direct deposit into your bank account of any refund will speed up getting your refund as well as any of the child tax credit payments.
If you are contacted by phone, email, text message or through social media by anyone purporting to be from the federal government offering to help you get your child tax credit payments, you can be sure that they are a scammer and you should not respond to them. Do not provide personal information to anyone contacting you in these ways offering to assist you in your claim and certainly do not pay them anything to enroll in the program. No payment is required to be eligible.
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide was recently cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and click on the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”
Scam of the day – June 9, 2021 – More to Worry About When You Rent a Car
As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) a few years ago issued a warning about risks which most people still are not aware of that arise when you connect your phone to a rental car in order to access the car’s infotainment system and other connected features. By far, the biggest problem is that the car may store personal information of yours, such as your mobile phone number, message logs, contact lists and even the content of text messages you received while connected to the car. If you don’t delete this information when you return the car, this information can be accessed by future renters of the car, employees of the rental car company or knowledgeable hackers.
TIPS
Don’t use the USB port merely to charge your phone. Connecting your phone to the system may transfer your data automatically without your doing anything further. Instead use a cigarette lighter adapter to recharge your phone in the car. If you do decide to use the infotainment system, a screen may appear on which you are provided options as to the information you authorize the system to be able to access. Limit the access to only those uses that you need. Finally, and most important, when you return the car, make sure that you have gone into the infotainment system’s settings menu and delete your device and your data.
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide has been cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is sign up for free using this link. https://scamicide.com/scam-of-the-day/
Scam of the day – June 8, 2021 – Summer Car Rental Scams
With the Coronavirus pandemic starting to wane, more and more people are intending to take a summer vacation and for many people that means renting a car. The bad news is that due to so many people wanting to rent cars there is both a shortage of cars to rent and the cost of renting a car has increased in many cases dramatically. However, your friendly neighborhood scammer is more than willing to help you out. They are setting up phony car rental company websites and websites that appear to be those of legitimate car rental companies such as Avis or Hertz. Often these phony websites appear high on a Google or other search engine search because the more sophisticated scammers are able to manipulate the algorithms used by search engines to position a website in a search result. In other instances, the scammers take out ads for their phony websites that place them at the top of the first page in a Google or other search engine search. Already, many victims of this scam are finding themselves without a car and losing the money they paid for the non-existent car rental.
In tomorrow’s Scam of the day, I will tell you about a scam that can occur even when you rent a car from a legitimate car rental company.
TIPS
The phony websites can look quite legitimate and be hard to distinguish from the websites of real car rental companies. Always check the URL of the website you use carefully before responding to an offer for a car rental. You also may want to go the extra step and actually do a search to determine who owns the website you are on. There are a number of ways of doing this. One of the easiest is to go to ICANN and enter the domain name and click on “lookup.” This will enable you to find out who actually owns the website. So for instance, if you think you are renting from Hertz and the website you are on is owned by someone in Nigeria, you can be pretty confident it is a scam. Here is the link to ICANN https://lookup.icann.org/
One of the primary ways of knowing that you are dealing with a scammer is that often they ask for payment through gift cards. Gift cards are a favorite means of payment for scammers because once you give the scammer the gift card numbers over the phone or the Internet, the money is gone and cannot be easily traced or recovered. Some scammers tell you that you will get a special low rate on your car rental if you use a gift card. Legitimate companies never ask for payment by way of gift cards so anytime you are asked for payment through a gift card, you can be sure it is a scam.
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide has been cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is sign up for free using this link. https://scamicide.com/scam-of-the-day/
Scam of the day – June 7, 2021 – Congress Considering the Fraud and Scam Reduction Act
Recently 46 state Attorneys General sent a letter to Congress urging the passage of H.R. 1215, the Fraud and Scam Reduction Act. This bill has two sections. The first is the Stop Senior Scam Act and the second is the Seniors Fraud Prevention Act of 2021. According to the FBI elder fraud and scams cost American seniors almost 3 billion dollars each year and the instances of elder fraud exploitation has quadrupled in recent years according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The Stop Seniors Scam Act will establish a Senior Scams Prevention Advisory Group which will provide the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with information about educational materials and programs for retailers, financial services companies and wire-transfer companies to educate their employees to recognize warning signs of elder fraud and stop it before it occurs.
The Seniors Fraud Prevention Act of 2021 establishes the Office for the Prevention of Fraud Targeting Seniors as a part of the FTC. This office will monitor the various fraud schemes targeting seniors and provide information on these schemes to state attorneys general and other law enforcement agencies.
TIPS
Protecting seniors from the various frauds that target them is one of the primary purposes of Scamicide.com. Here is a link to an interesting article I wrote for the magazine of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners that describes some common senior scams and how to protect people from these scams. https://www.acfe.com/article.aspx?id=4295009331
I urge you to support this legislation by contacting your Senators and Congressmen or Congresswomen and asking them to vote in favor of this legislation. Here is a link to a listing of all of the Senators and Congressmen and Congresswomen which has contact information for each of them. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/current
Education is a key element in preventing fraud and scams of all kind. If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com I suggest you subscribe Scamicide and suggest to your friends and family that they do the same so they can receive important new information each day about the latest scams, identity theft schemes and cybersecurity developments and how to protect themselves.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, it is free and all you need to do is to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and insert your email address in tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide was recently cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.
Scam of the day – June 6, 2021 – Social Media Quiz from the Chatham Police Department
Quizzes on Facebook and other social media are very popular, but they can be exploited by identity thieves. A good example of this was the “10 Concerts, but there is one act that I haven’t seen live. Which is it?” Facebook quiz. While this may appear harmless, the information you provide may tell more about you than is safe to make public. It may provide information about your approximate age and preferences in music which can then be used by a scammer to send you a phishing email tailored to appeal to your particular interests that you may trust and click on a link contained in the email that contains either keystroke logging malware that can be used to steal your identity or ransomware. Quizzes that ask about your favorite place to live or favorite movie characters may seem like simple fun, but may have been posted by an identity thief seeking to gather information the identity thief can use to make you a victim of identity theft. In addition, providing this type of personal information can help an identity thief determine your passwords or the answers to security questions that would enable the identity thief to change your passwords. Particularly problematic is when a pop up appears when you start the quiz requiring you to agree to allow a third-party application access to your Facebook profile. If you agree to this, you are permitting the quiz poster to gain access to your Facebook profile information, your location and much more. Don’t do it.
Today on my Facebook page I saw this post from the Chatham, Massachusetts Police Department which explains the problem with quizzes quite succinctly.
TIPS
We all tend to put too much personal information on social media that can be exploited by scammers and identity thieves to our detriment. My advice is to avoid the problem entirely and not play these online games. However, if you, as many people do, find these quizzes and games to be fun to play, you may want to just adjust your privacy setting to “friends only” so that you limit who gets to see your answers. You also may want to check out your Facebook profile and remove personal information such as your phone number or home address.
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide has been cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is sign up for free using this link. https://scamicide.com/scam-of-the-day/
Scam of the day – June 5, 2021 – Facebook Copyright Violation Scam
Scammers love to take over Facebook accounts because people generally trust the posts put up by their friends that appear on their Facebook page. These people forget my motto of “trust me, you can’t trust anyone” and often click on links in these posts or provide information in response to these posts which generally don’t present a problem, but when the post that you think is that of your friend is really from a scammer who has taken over your friend’s Facebook account, the link you click on may download dangerous malware and the information you provide may enable the criminal to make you a victim of identity theft.
There are many ways that cybercriminals take over Facebook accounts, but one that has been occurring recently begins when you get what appears to be an email that reads “Your Facebook account has been disabled for violating the Facebook Terms. If you believe that this decision is incorrect, you may file an appeal at this link.” Sometimes the email implies that the violation is a copyright violation for a post you put up that contained copyright protected music. People clicking on the link to begin the appeal process are taken to an official looking page that asks for your name, username and password. If you provide that information, you have just turned over your Facebook account to a cybercriminal and if you use the same password for all of your online accounts, you have also put yourself in jeopardy as to every account in which you use the same password.
TIPS
The first thing to always look at when you get an email that requests information or instructs you to click on a link is the email address of the sender. If it has nothing to do with the company that is being represented as sending you the email, the email is a phishing email being sent through a botnet of computers whose email accounts have been hacked and used to send out these phishing emails. Sometimes, however, the email address of the sender may appear to be legitimate, but even then you cannot trust it. A sophisticated cybercriminal can make the email address appear legitimate when it is not. The best course of action if you are ever asked for personal information or to click on a link is to confirm that the communication is legitimate. The best way to do that is to check with the real company that the scammer is posing as. In this case you could and should go directly to Facebook through its help center where you will learn that this and similar phishing emails are scams. https://www.facebook.com/help
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide has been cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is sign up for free using this link. https://scamicide.com/scam-of-the-day/
Scam of the day – June 4, 2021 – Geek Squad Refund Scam
Geek Squad is a subsidiary of big box store chain Best Buy and it offers excellent tech support for electronic devices including televisions and computers. In the March 7, 2021 Scam of the day https://scamicide.com/2021/03/06/scam-of-the-day-march-7-2021-geek-squad-tech-support-phishing-scam/ I told you about a scam involving an email that appears to come from Geek Squad informing you of the renewal of your account and providing a telephone number for you to call to dispute the renewal. People falling for the scam, called the telephone number and were convinced to provide personal information used to make them a victim of identity theft. Now, I have had reports from a number of Scamicide readers that they are receiving phone calls perpetrating the same scam. It is important to remember that even if your Caller ID reads “Geek Squad” when you get a call, it does not mean that the call is actually from Geek Squad. Through a simple technique called “spoofing” a scammer can manipulate your Caller ID to indicate that the call is coming from Geek Squad when it actually is coming from a scammer.
In regard to emails and text messages, never click on links or download attachments unless you have absolutely confirmed that they are legitimate and don’t call companies at telephone numbers that appear in the email such as this one. Instead, if the email appears to come from a legitimate company, you can call them at a telephone number you confirm is legitimate. In the case of Geek Squad their real customer service number is 800-433-5778. In regard to phone calls, since you can never be sure who is really calling you, never give personal information to anyone who calls you unless you have absolutely confirmed that the call is legitimate. The best course of action would be to hang up on the caller and contact Geek Squad at a telephone number or email address that you have confirmed is accurate.
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide has been cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is sign up for free using this link. https://scamicide.com/scam-of-the-day/