Scam of the Day
Scam of the day – March 27, 2025 – Interpol Arrests 306 Scammers in Cybercrime Crackdown
Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization acts to get police forces in different countries to work together to fight transnational crime. After an Interpol coordinated operation known as Operation Red Card combining the forces of seven African countries, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigerian, Rwanda, South Africa, Togo and Zambia conducted between November 2024 and February 2025, 306 people were arrested on charges related to a variety of cybercrimes. The initial investigation was also supported by a number of private cybersecurity companies including Kaspersky and Trend Micro. Some of the scams of which those arrested are accused of perpetrating included scams in which victims were lured into downloading malware on their phones that gave the scammers control over their banking apps and family emergency and grandparent scams, The cooperation and coordination of the various law enforcement agencies is a very positive development in the battle against scammers.
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While this is a tremendous development, the best place to look for a helping hand is still at the end of your own arm. Many of the scams that the scammers are accused of started with luring people into clicking on malware infected links. Along with utilizing security software and installing security patches and updates as soon as they are available, the best thing you can do to protect yourself is to never click on any link or provide personal information in response to an email or text message unless you have absolutely confirmed that it is true.
In regard to the family emergency or grandparent scam, this scam has gotten much worse due to scammers using AI to clone the voices of family members to make the scammers pleas seem legitimate. The best thing you can do to protect yourself and your family from this type of scam is to have a code word known only to family members to use in the event of actual family members.
Finally, it is important to remember that whenever you get a phone call, email or text message, you can never be sure who is actually contacting you. Trust me, you can’t trust anyone, so never respond to any such communication even if it appears to come from a trusted sources such as a governmental agency such as the IRS or a company with which you do business such as Netflix, until you have confirmed that it is legitimate.
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Scam of the day – March 26, 2025 – FTC Sending Refunds to Victims of Real Estate Investment Scam
In the Scam of the day for April 27, 2024 I first told you that following the settlement of a lawsuit, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was sending 10 million dollars in refunds to victims of a phony real estate investment scam perpetrated by Response Marketing Group LLC along with Scott Yancey and Dean R. Graziosi who promoted the scheme. Response Marketing Group used social media and infomercials to promote three day workshops at a cost of $1,000 that purported to teach people how to make large amounts of money flipping houses. At these workshops, Response Marketing Group also would pressure attendees to pay an additional $30,000 for a real estate investment coaching program. The scam was also promoted by Scott Yancey who formerly was featured on an A&E television show “Flipping Vegas” and Dean R. Graziosi who writes self-help books and has a YouTube channel with 170,000 subscribers. The entire program was based on false and misleading claims with attendees losing money rather than making the promised large profits.
The FTC first sent payments in March 2024, which resulted in more than $8.2 million in refunds. Because the FTC collected additional funds, they are now sending 3,955 payments totaling more than $8.3 million to people who accepted their first payment or filed a valid claim before the deadline.
TIPS
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Before hiring the services of a business coach, you may want to find out what helpful advice you can get for free through government agencies such as the Small Business Administration. http://www.sba.gov/starting-managing-business
As for flipping houses, here is a link to a Bankrate.com story about the pros and cons of house flipping.https://www.bankrate.com/real-estate/flipping-houses/
If you do decide to hire a business coach, you should find out if there are any complaints filed against him or her. An easy way to do this is to just do a search engine search in which you look up the person’s name with the words “scam” or “complaint” and see what comes up. Also, be wary of buying any program merely because a celebrity endorses it.
If you were a victim of this scam and have not been notified by the FTC in regard to getting a refund, go to the ‘FTC Scam Refunds” section on the first page of Scamicide.com for more information.
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 – March 25, 2025 – Hotel Room Service Scam
Some scams are just so simple and effective that they remind us why scam artists are indeed the only criminals we refer to as artists. An old scam that is still being used effectively by scammers involves a flyer under your door in your hotel or motel room that purportedly is an advertisement for a local pizza parlor or, in a case last year of one family that lost $6,000 taken from their debit card, a phony room service menu slid under the door. The flyer gives a telephone number for the pizza parlor which conveniently delivers to your room or, again in this particular case the phone number for the hotel’s room service.
All you need to do is call the number, give them a credit card and they will promptly send you your fresh pizza or other food. Unfortunately, it is a scam. There is no pizza parlor and this is not the real room service telephone number The scammers have merely gone through the hotel and put their flyers under the doors. They then just wait for the telephone calls, steal your credit card number and use it to make charges to your card.
TIPS
A good rule to follow is not to order any food from a restaurant that puts flyers under the door of your hotel or motel room and don’t trust a room service menu that has been slid under your door. In regard to the pizza parlor or other restaurant you can confirm online or even with a quick call to the clerk at the front desk as to whether the particular restaurant described in the flyer is legitimate and whether indeed the telephone number is their actual number. Sometimes the scammers will use the name of a real restaurant, but substitute their phony telephone number. Never order or provide your credit card unless you have independently confirmed both that the restaurant is real and the telephone number is accurate.
As for room service, you can easily access them through the appropriate button on the room landline or through the number indicated in the booklet found in the room containing information about the hotel.
Finally, as I have often warned you, the protection you get from fraud when using your debit card is far less than what you get when using your credit card so you should never use your debit card for anything other than an ATM card.
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Scam of the day – March 24, 2025 – T-Mobile Data Breach Settlement Update
In August of 2021 I reported to you about a data breach at T-Mobile initially discovered when hackers started offering for sale on the Dark Web data of what they said was 100 million customers of phone carrier T-Mobile for sale. T- Mobile confirmed the data breach but said that the number of people affected was approximately 76 million people. The information being sold included names, phone numbers, Social Security numbers and addresses. Also being sold were the PINS used by some T-Mobile customers to protect their accounts from identity theft that now are in the hands of hackers. This type of information poses a tremendous threat to victims of the data breach, which is the sixth for T-Mobile in the last four years. Social Security numbers in particular can be used by identity thieves to apply for credit cards and loans in your name. In addition, the phone numbers and the fact that the victims of the data breach are known to be T-Mobile customers enables the hackers to create phony phishing text messages, called smishing, posing as T-Mobile and luring the targeted victim into clicking on a link in the text message that can download destructive malware.
A class action on behalf of victims of the data breach was settled, following which, T-Mobile sent notices to affected customers. If you believe you may have been affected and did not receive such a notice, you can call the settlement administrator at 1-833-512-2314 or go to the official settlement website
Affected customers can make claims for the cost of out-of-pocket expenses incurred due to the breach. In addition, there is a small cash payment to everyone affected and T-Mobile is also offering free credit monitoring services for two years.
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So what do you do if you are a T-Mobile customer who may be affected by this latest data breach. Perhaps the first thing you should do is something you should have already done, but as the Chinese proverb says, “the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago, the second best time is now.” Freeze your credit at each of the three major credit reporting bureaus.
https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze/place-credit-freeze
https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
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Scam of the day – March 23, 2025 – Thwarting the Wrong Type of Shredder is Child’s Play
Identity theft can be high tech, low tech or no tech. As we all know, it can result from sophisticated computer hacking, but it also can come from as old fashioned a manner as pickpocketing your wallet or stealing your purse in which you may be carrying credit cards, your Social Security card or other identifying information that can be transformed into you becoming a victim of identity theft. In addition, identity thieves will also go through your trash to find material with information that can make you a victim of identity theft such as old checks, tax records, bank statements or old credit card bills. Many people do not give enough thought to their vulnerability to identity theft through these no tech methods of stealing your identity although the results can be every bit as devastating as becoming a victim of identity theft through computer malware.
Many people think that the common strip shredder which shreds your documents in long strips will protect you from identity theft. The truth is it does not. This fact was reinforced in 2023 when North Carolina television station WFMY did an experiment with a group of fifth graders at the Northern Guilford Elementary School who were given shredded documents which they were able to piece together sufficiently to recognize account numbers and other information which in the wrong hands could lead to identity theft.
TIPS
When disposing of old or no longer needed documentation that has identifying information about you such as old bank statements, medical insurance bills, credit card bills or anything with your Social Security number on it, you should make sure that you shred these documents before disposing of them and make sure that you use a cross shredder because shredders that only shred in one direction do not provide sufficient security. One directional shredded material can be pieced together to provide an identity thief with information that can result in your becoming a victim of identity theft. For years methamphetamines addicts have carefully taken the time to reconstruct documents that were only shredded vertically. The lesson is that everyone should use a shredder when disposing of sensitive documents and the only type of shredder to use is a cross shredder.
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Scam of the day – March 22, 2025 – FBI Warns About File Convertor Scam
The Denver Field Office of the FBI has issued a warning about free online converter tools. Converter tools enable you to change files from one format to another such as converting a Word document to a PDF, image formats such as a JPEG to a PNG, audio files such a an MP3 to WAV, or video files from MP$ formats to AVI. The converter tools about which the FBI is warning people are found for free on websites set up by the scammers. These converters actually do the job of converting your files, however, they also install malware that steal your personal information such as your Social Security number, banking information, credit card numbers and passwords, putting you in serious jeopardy of identity theft. They also can install ransomware malware on your computer or phone.
TIPS
Your computer may already have the tools necessary to convert formats, such as the “Print to PDF” available on most operating systems. If you do need to get a converter tool, the first rule in avoiding malware infected apps is to only get your apps from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. Both of these do their best to weed out malicious apps. In 2023 Apple reported that it rejected 1.7 million app submissions and Google indicated that it banned 173,000 developer accounts from Google Play. However, catching malicious apps is like a game of whack-a-mole. As soon as you stop one malicious app, another pops up. In the past clever scammers would submit apps without malware that they then would update with malware later after the app had already been vetted by Apple or Google.
Along with only getting your apps from the official App Store and Google Play, you should also carefully read reviews of the apps, but even there you need to be a bit skeptical because scammers often will submit phony positive reviews..
Install security software on all of your devices and, most importantly, install security updates as soon as they are available. Also, whenever you download a new app run a security scan to specifically look for malicious code.
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Scam of the day – March 21, 2025 – Banking Data Theft From Cellphones Tripled in 2024
Some of you may have thought that Zeus was just a mythical figure, but, in fact, Zeus is very much alive and represents a real threat to your fiscal well-being. Zeus is the name of a particular type of malware, also known as Zbot, that has been around since at least 2007, but has been recently getting worse and affecting more people. Zeus is a type of keystroke logging malware, sometimes referred to as a Trojan Horse which when downloaded on to a person’s computer, smartphone, laptop, tablet or other portable device enables the hacker to steal information from the victim to use to make that person a victim of identity theft.
Zeus is specifically targeted to recognize and steal bank account information. The Zeus malware passes on to the identity thief, the bank account password, account number and all the other information needed by the identity thief to electronically empty the victim’s bank account. Links containing Zeus malware appeared on National Football League Facebook fan pages. People unwittingly click on the links under various pretences and end up infecting their computers and electronic devices with the malware.
With so much of our banking being done on cellphones, it is not surprising that a recent report from the security software company Kaspersky found that the numer of Zeus and other Trojan bank attack malware on cellphones increased by 196% in 2024
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The first step in your protection is to make sure that all of your electronic devices including your computer, laptop, smartphone and tablet are protected with a good Firewall, security software and anti-malware software. Also it is critical that you keep your security software and anti-malware software up to date with the latest patches. Many of these updates are provided regularly to you here at Scamicide, but the best thing you can do is to both automatically have your security software updated and regularly check for additional updates. Additionally, you should never click on links or download attachments unless you are absolutely positive that the downloads or links are legitimate. Facebook and other social media are filled with malware tainted attachments and links. Never download anything until you have confirmed that it is legitimate. Finally, you should use dual factor authentication for your bank accounts and other important accounts that can be accessed online so that even if a hacker is able to get your username and password, they would not be able to access the account.
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Scam of the day – March 20, 2025 – Social Security Imposter Scams
Imposter scams have long been among the most lucrative for scammers. While there are many variations of this scam, the most common variations have involved scammers emailing their victims posing as a popular company with which we all do business or calling their intended victims on the telephone posing as some governmental agency such as the IRS or the Social Security Administration. The scammer then, under a wide variety of pretenses, demands an immediate payment or personal information that can lead to your becoming a victim of identity theft.
Imposter scams where the scammers pose as representatives of the Social Security Administration (SSA) are common. A recent version involves an email that you get informing you that there has been a problem with your Social Security account and that in order to correct the problem, you need to download security update software. However, if you download the software you will end up downloading malware that enables the scammer to steal all of the information from your computer or phone including credit card information and banking information and passwords.
Other popular scams come in the form of phone calls, emails or text messages purportedly from the SSA requiring you to provide your Social Security number and banking information in order to receive additional Social Security payments
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As I have often reminded you, whenever you are contacted by phone call, email or a text message you can never be sure who is actually contacting you. B.S. Be skeptical. Through the simple technique of “spoofing” it is very easy for a scammer to manipulate your Caller ID to make a call coming to you appear legitimate when it is not. Therefore you can never truly trust your Caller ID. Trust me, you can’t trust anyone. Email addresses can also be made to appear legitimate as can text messages when they are actually coming from a scammer.
Never click on a link, download an attachment, provide personal information or make a payment in response to an email, text message or phone call unless you have absolutely confirmed that the communication is legitimate.
The real Social Security Administration will never ask for your personal information such as your Social Security number, date of birth or banking information. If you do get a communication asking for personal information and you think it may be legitimate merely contact your local Social Security office or call them at 1-800-772-1213.
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Scam of the day – March 19, 2025 – Bank of America Data Breach
Generally when I report to you about data breaches, it involves companies or government agencies that have had their computer networks hacked and personal information that can lead to identity theft stolen. Today, however, I am informing you of a data breach that occurred the old fashioned way, namely paper records being compromised. Bank of America hired a company to pick up paper documents to be shredded, however, according to Bank of America, “a document destruction vendor did not secure bank-related materials appropriately in transport. Some documents were found outside of the secure containers on the exterior of the financial center.” Bank of America has not indicated how many customers were affected by this breach. The sensitive personal data contained in the documents included names, account details, addresses, contact information, date of birth, social security numbers, and other government ID information.
Bank of America has notified people affected by the data breach and are offering two years of free credit monitoring.
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So how do you protect yourself from becoming a victim of data breaches whether or not you this particular data breach applies to you.
More than anything, these ransomware attacks and data breaches are another reminder that regardless of how careful we may be protecting our personal information, we are only as secure as the companies with which we do business with the worst security. About the only way to reduce the risk is to limit the personal information we provide to these companies. Don’t leave your credit card on file with any company and don’t provide your Social Security number to every company that asks for it unless it is truly required. Your doctor does not need your Social Security number, but they often ask for it.
It also is important to freeze your credit reports to help protect you when data breaches do occur. 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.transunion.com/credit-freeze
https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
Also, if you are in the mood to get scared you can go to the free website haveibeenpawned where you can find out what data breaches have affected you personally. https://haveibeenpwned.com/
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive free 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 type in your email address on the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”
Scam of the day – March 18, 2025 – FTC Sending Refunds to Victims of Computer Repair Scam
Tech support scams in which consumers are tricked by scammers into believing there is a problem with their computers that require the expensive services of scammers constitute a major problem. Tech support scams are increasingly common and victimize consumers 60 years or older about five times more often than people between the ages of 20 and 59 according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Last April I told you that the FTC settled charges against two Cyprus based companies, Restoro Cyprus Limited and Reimage Cyprus Limited who lured people into purchasing tech support through a phony Microsoft Windows pop-up indicating that the victim’s computer was infected with a virus or malware. After the victim paid for unnecessary software to remedy the problem, the scammers told their victims that they needed help from a Restoro or Reimage technician to fix the problem at an additional cost. Following a lawsuit initiated by the FTC, the two defendants settled and paid 25.5 million dollars to the FTC which is now using it to send refunds to victims of the scam. If you are eligible for a payment you will be getting an email from no-reply@consumersentinel.gov
The most common tech support scams start with popups on your computer that provide notices of security problems that contain telephone numbers for you to call to fix the problem, Whenever you get a pop-up, email, or text message that appears to tell you that you have a security problem with your computer, you should never click on any links contained in the message or call the telephone number provided. If your screen freezes, all you need to do is just turn off your computer and restart it. If you are concerned that you may be experiencing a real security problem you can contact tech support at the real tech companies directly by phone or by email using the phone number and email addresses you find on their respective websites.
If you call the scammers in response to concerns about your security, they often ask for you to enable them to get remote access to your computer to assess the problem. Providing remote access to anyone to your computer can lead to a myriad of problems including identity theft and the downloading of ransomware. Neither AOL, Yahoo, Apple, Microsoft or any of the other tech companies ever ask for remote access to your computer to fix problems.
TIPS
Often when your computer is frozen and you receive a pop-up ad purporting to tell you that you have a major security problem and warning you that you should not shut down or restart your computer because, they tell you, it would cause serious damage to your computer, the best thing you can do is shut down your computer and restart it.
If you are truly concerned about a security problem, contact tech support at the real tech companies you use at a phone number or email address that you have confirmed is accurate rather than a number or email address from the pop-up.
Never download software or give remote access to your computer to anyone whom you have not contacted.
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