Scam of the Day
Scam of the day – September 1, 2023 – Mobile Beta-Testing App Scams
The FBI recently issued a warning about scammers infecting malware in mobile beta testing apps. Everyone uses a multitude of apps, but before they are formally made available, it is common for legitimate developers to make a limited number of the apps available for what is called beta-testing to help determine flaws and make improvements in the final version of the app before the app is made generally available in places like Google Play, the App Store or the Microsoft Store. Scammers take advantage of this situation to offer apps they create with intentionally injected malware. One aspect of beta testing apps that works to the advantage of scammers is that unlike the final version of apps offered at the usual app stores, beta tested apps are not subject to mobile operating systems’ review processes so they have not been screened before being offered thereby making it easier to disguise their malware.
These malicious apps often appear legitimate with easily counterfeited names, images and descriptions of popular apps. Scammers lure their victims into downloading the apps through phishing emails or often after building trust through a romance scam. The malicious apps can steal information and use it to make someone a victim of identity theft. Another common malicious app appears to be a cryptocurrency exchange that lures people into thinking they are investing in cryptocurrencies, but end up merely sending their funds to a scammer.
TIPS
Personally, I think the risk is too great to use beta testing apps. After years of working in the world of scams, I may be a bit paranoid, but remember, even paranoids have enemies. If you are considering down loading a mobile beta testing app, make sure you research the app’s developers to make sure they are legitimate. Cryptocurrency and investment apps that are in the beta testing mode should be avoided because, at best they have not been fully vetted. For the same reason, you should avoid beta testing apps that ask for personal information.
Common signs of malicious apps to be on the lookout for include your battery draining faster than usual, slow processing speed, persistent pop-ups and requests for permissions that don’t seem to match the described function of the app.
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Scam of the day – August 31, 2023 – FTC Sending Refunds to Victims of Real Estate Development Scam
In November 12, 2018’s Scam of the day I first told you that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had started a legal action against Andris Pukke and five other defendants in regard to a massive real estate scam allegedly masterminded by Pukke, a previously convicted scammer. Pukke sold undeveloped lots in the Central American country of Belize that he represented were to be a part of a luxury development. The development used several different names including Sanctuary Belize, Sanctuary Bay and The Reserve. Victims of the scam were lured in by advertisements on Fox News and Bloomberg News as well as through infomercials. The ads were riddled with false representations including the claim that all of the money obtained through the lot sales went back into the development. The lots sold for between $150,000 and $500,000 and all in all, victims of the scams lost more than 100 million dollars making this the biggest overseas real estate scam ever investigated by the FTC. The FTC initially obtained a temporary restraining order shutting down the scam while the case proceeded in court. In 2020 Andres Pukke was convicted in regard to this scam. As a result the FTC was paid funds by Pukke and his co-defendants to be refunded to victims of the scam and now finally checks are being sent to victims of the scam.
TIPS
It is always important to remember that merely because an advertisement appears in legitimate media does not mean that the company sponsoring the advertisement is legitimate. No one should ever buy real estate without the assistance of a lawyer and you should be particularly wary and careful when considering purchasing real estate in a foreign country. Always do your due diligence and investigate any such investment thoroughly before investing. In addition, you should also look into the people offering the investment to you. Anyone investigating Andris Pukke would have learned that he had already been convicted of previous scam activities.
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Scam of the day – August 30, 2023 – FBI Warns About Bogus Companies Claiming Ability to Recover Funds Lost in Cryptocurrency Scams
In recent years, I have written many times about the myriad of cryptocurrency scams that have cost people billions of dollars. According to the FBI, Americans lost more than 2.5 billion dollars to cryptocurrency investment scams. In some instances, law enforcement has been able to recover some of those lost funds, but in many other instances, the money is lost forever. Sensing an opportunity, according to the FBI, scammers, posing as representatives of companies that falsely claim to be able to recover funds lost to cryptocurrency scams, are luring in victims through social media, messaging platforms or advertisements. Often the scammers claim affiliation with law enforcement, federal agencies or legitimate legal services providers, but it is all a lie. In return for an up-front payment, the scammers claim they can recover all of the funds lost to a cryptocurrency scam. Of course, this is a lie and anyone who pays the fee loses that money.
TIPS
No private company can issue a seizure order to a cryptocurrency exchange. This is only done by internal processes of the exchanges or in response to court ordered legal process as has been done by the Justice Department. If you are contacted by any of these companies, do not give personal information to them as this information can be used to make you a victim of identity theft.
Legitimate law enforcement agencies such as the FBI which works extensively in the area of cryptocurrency scams do not charge any fees for investigating cryptocurrency crimes or for efforts to return funds to people who have been scammed. If you are a victim of a cryptocurrency scam, you should contact the local office of the FBI for assistance.
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Scam of the day – August 29, 2023 – Scammers Targeting Owners of Lost Pets
In a new scam, scammers posing as local humane societies or animal control officers are calling pet owners who have lost pets telling them that they have found the pet and ask for an immediate payment over the phone in order to retrieve their lost pet. Recently, the Idaho Humane Society issued a specific warning about this scam, however, it is occurring all over the country. Often pet owners who have lost their pets will post posters with photos and information about the lost pet which the scammers use to harvest information they can use to make their call appear legitimate. Additionally, through a technique called “spoofing” it is a simple matter for the scammer to manipulate your Caller ID so that the call appears to have come from your local humane society or animal control officer.
TIPS
Neither humane societies nor animal control officers demand payment for returning lost pets. If you do get such a call and think that it may be legitimate, you should merely hang up and call the real local humane society or local animal control officer at a phone number that you have confirmed is the correct one and not from what the scammer may appear to use.
As a rule you should never give personal information or make a payment over the phone to anyone you have not called. You can never be sure as to who is really calling.
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Scam of the day – August 28, 2023 – Two Nigerians Charged with Operating a Global Sextortion Ring Extradited to United States
I have been warning you about sextortion scams for seven years. Last December, the FBI issued a new warning about sextortion. 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.
Two weeks ago Nigerians Samuel Ogoshi and Samson Ogoshi were extradited from Nigeria to Michigan to face charges of operating a global sextortion ring. Samuel Ogoshi is also charged with sexual exploitation of a minor resulting in death. These charges are related to the death of 17 year old Jordan DeMay who committed suicide after being a victim of sextortion allegedly perpetrated by Samuel Ogoshi.
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 – August 27, 2023 – Facebook Quizzes Can Lead to Being Scammed
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 spear 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.
In 2021 Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry issued a warning about social media quizzes and surveys. According to Landry, “Online surveys and quizzes may seem harmless enough, but the truth is they can expose you to hackers and scammers. It is difficult to tell which are innocent fun and which are coves for bad actors trying to steal your identity or worse.”
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. While you are at it, you also may want to check out your Facebook profile and remove personal information such as your phone number or home address.
Be particularly aware not to provide information that can answer common security questions, such as your mother’s maiden name, the name of your first pet, your childhood street address, your favorite food or the name of the elementary school you attended.
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Scam of the day – August 26, 2023 – Brushing Continues to be a Problem
I first told you about “brushing” in August of 2020 after many people in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom reported receiving unordered packages of seeds sent from China. A wide variety of conspiracy theories quickly surfaced to explain what was happening, but the truth was that it was an example of a scam called “brushing.” Brushing is the name for using false orders for products to boost the prominence of an online vendor.
Vendors pay brushers to make large orders of their product and ship them to strangers to make the sales appear to be legitimate. The brushers follow up on these purchases by posting glowing reviews of the vendor’s product. This combination of increased sales volume and positive reviews will, in turn, result in the increased prominence of the vendor in online marketplaces and result in increased sales. Brushing is illegal in the United States and China, however, it is quite commonly used by Chinese companies. Now we are seeing a resurgence of this scam with people receiving a wide variety of inexpensive products that they never ordered.
TIPS
The good news is that while “brushing” is a scam, it does not directly threaten you. The bad news is that this incident emphasizes the fact that you cannot truly trust online reviews and sales figures when determining whether you wish to purchase a particular product. People who have contacted Amazon and other online retailers are generally told that they can either keep the products, get rid of them or donate them to a charity. The primary takeaway, however, is that you don’t have to be concerned that you have become a victim of identity theft or some other scam if you receive an unordered item. In order to make sure that someone has not used your credit card to order the item, you should always confirm with the seller that your credit card was not used.
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Scam of the day – August 25, 2023 – Children Increasingly Victims of Synthetic Identity Theft
According to a study last year by Javelin Strategy & Research more than 1.25 million children became victims of identity theft last year and the true number is probably much greater because in many instances child identity theft is not discovered until the child reaches age 18. Identity thieves steal the identity of a child and then run up large debts using the credit of the child, who generally does not become aware that his or her identity has been stolen until he or she reaches older teen years when the teenager might first apply for a car loan or financial aid for college.
Identity theft of children’s identities is a huge national problem. According to a study by the Carnegie Mellon CyLab, children are more than 51 times more likely to become a victim of identity theft than adults. Children are also the most common victims of “synthetic identity theft.” Many people are not familiar with the term “synthetic Identity theft,” but it poses a significant threat to many people particularly children.
Synthetic identity theft occurs when a criminal takes information from a variety of sources to create a new identity to take out loans, purchase goods and services, or fraudulently obtain credit cards. Synthetic identity thieves combine real and fake information to form a new fictional person. They may use your Social Security number and combine it with the name, address and phone number of someone else. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has said that synthetic identity theft is the fastest growing type of identity theft. Children are the most common victims of synthetic identity theft and it is often many years before the problem is discovered.
In synthetic identity theft criminals then build the credit score of the synthetic identity by having people use the credit cards and make regular payments until the credit score of the new synthetic identity is high enough for the ultimate payoff, which is referred to as the “bust out.” In the bust out phase, the identity thief uses the new synthetic identity to either make large purchases or take out big loans that are never paid back. Some synthetic identity thieves will take years to build the synthetic identity theft credit score by making payments on cell phone accounts, car loans and more.
TIPS
Some telltale signs of synthetic identity theft include being contacted about an account that you never opened or a debt that you didn’t incur. Also, look for aliases listed on your credit report that you do not use. A dramatic lowering of your credit score coupled with a lack of negative information on your primary credit reports are further indications of synthetic identity theft. The reason that your primary credit report will not show negative information due to synthetic identity theft is because when a criminal uses your Social Security number, but doesn’t use your name, the negative information caused by their actions does not appear on your regular credit report. Instead, the information is added to a sub-file of your credit report which will, however, cause your credit score to drop tremendously.
If you do find out that you or your children have become a victim of synthetic identity theft, notify each of the three credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion of the crime and ask them to investigate and remove the false information from your sub-files.
Parents also should, as much as possible, try to limit the places that have their child’s Social Security number and become familiar with the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act which helps you protect the privacy of your child’s school records and enables you to opt out of information sharing by the school with third parties. You also should freeze the credit reports of your children. Until 2018 there was no national law that allowed the credit reports of children to be frozen, but in the wake of the major Equifax data breach, Congress passed laws that now permit children’s credit reports to be frozen and unfrozen for free.
Here are the links to information about how to freeze your child’s credit reports at each of the three major credit reporting agencies.
https://www.transunion.com/credit-freeze
https://www.equifax.com/personal/education/identity-theft/freezing-your-childs-credit-report-faq/
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Scam of the day – August 24, 2023 – FTC Refunding Millions to Victims of Student Loan Debt Relief Scam
In 2018 I first told you about the FTC suing American Financial Benefits Center, Financial Benefits Center, AmeriTech Financial and Brandon Demond Frere for illegal student loan debt relief practices. Specifically, these defendants charged illegal up-front $800 fees and additional excessive fees falsely claiming that they could permanently reduce the monthly debt payments to a fixed low amount or even total loan forgiveness. In 2020 Frere and his companies settled the civil charges with the FTC. Pursuant to the settlement Frere is banned from providing debt relief services. Frere has already in July of 2020 been sentenced to 42 months in prison on criminal charges related to his debt relief scams. Now three years later, the FTC is sending refunds to thousands of the victims of this scam. Most people will receive a check from the FTC. Others, for whom the FTC doesn’t have an address will receive a PayPal payment. For more information about the refund program go to the middle of the first page of the Scamicide website and click on the icon for “FTC Refunds.”
TIPS
The old adage still is true. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t true. Many of these student loan debt relief scammers promise quick loan forgiveness, which is unrealistic. In addition, you should never pay any upfront fees for student loan debt relief assistance. Those fees are illegal and are a sure indication that you are being scammed. Also, remember my motto, “trust me, you can’t trust anyone.” Don’t trust scammers merely because they use names that sound like they are affiliated with the government.
For information you can trust about federal student loan repayment option, go to https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans . There you can learn about loan deferments, forbearance, repayment and loan forgiveness programs and there is never an application fee. If you owe private student loans, contact your loan servicer directly. You can also look into student loan refinancing rather than consolidating the loans. Refinancing student loans can result in a lower interest rate. For more information about student loans go to https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/1028-student-loans Here is a link to a calculator that can help you determine whether you will save more by consolidating or refinancing student loans.https://www.makelemonade.co/calculators/student-loan-consolidation-refinancing-calculator/
Here also is a link to an FTC video that explains student loan scams and what you can do to protect yourself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TjSI4Q6ztQ
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Scam of the day – August 23, 2023 – Passport Scams
With the pandemic behind us, the demand for travel has resulted in a large increase in people either applying for passports or renewing their passports. Unfortunately, the federal government has not been processing these applications very efficiently with routine passport applications taking up to 13 weeks and even people paying the extra $60 for expedited processing taking up to 9 weeks. Capitalizing on the frustration many would-be travelers are facing, scammers are setting up websites that appear to be either a government website or a website for a company that promises to speed up your application. In both cases, people using these websites end up paying for passports they never receive or providing information that leads to their identity being stolen.
TIPS
The only place to apply for a passport or to apply for a passport renewal is the official website of the State Department. Here is a link to that site https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports.html
Websites that promise to be able to speed up the process for you, regardless of how legitimate they may appear are scams. Plain and simple.
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