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Scam of the day – June 22, 2023 – Facebook Buy-Sell Group Scam
The Hattiesburg, Mississippi police department recently issued a warning about increased reports of a scam in which scammers appear to share posts on Facebook buy-sell groups about a missing child. Quite often, people on the buy-sell group will share the post in an effort to help find the missing child. Once the post has been shared in large numbers, the scammer then edits the post to share a wide variety of scams instead of the original post dealing with a fictional missing child. In this way, the scammer gets unsuspecting people to help spread a scam to large numbers of people. When they make these posts the scammers often disable comments so that if someone sees the post, they won’t see comments from people who have identified the post as a scam.
Scam of the day – June 21, 2023 – Jury Duty Scams Increasing
I have been warning you about the jury duty scam for ten years, but it continues to snare many unwary victims. Recently the Oregon Judicial Department issued a warning about jury duty scams in Oregon in which people were called on the phone by scammers posing as court officials threatening legal action if the targeted victim did not pay a fine by purchasing a gift card and then giving the card numbers over the phone to the scammer. This scam is not limited to Oregon and is being perpetrated around the country. This scam has been used effectively for years by scammers to con people out of their money or make them a victim of identity theft.
Scam of the day – June 20, 2023 – Pirated Movie Streaming Leads to Identity Theft
The Super Mario Brothers Movie has been a huge hit. As of May 19, 2023, The Super Mario Bros. Movie has grossed $539.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $689.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.23 billion. It is the highest-grossing film of 2023, and became the highest-grossing film based on a video game after just one week of release. While it is still in theaters, since mid May it has also been available to rent on streaming services Amazon Prime and Apple TV for $25. However, there are a number of websites that are offering bootleg versions of the movie for free online. While all of these sites are violating the law, some of them do not actually provide the movie, but instead just steal your money and your identity.
Scam of the day – June 19, 2023 – FTC Refunding Millions to Victims of Student Loan Debt Relief Scam
In 2019 I told you that the Federal Trade Commission sued Arete Financial Group alleging that Arete charged illegal upfront fees for their services. However, according to the FTC, Arete’s crimes did not end there. In its lawsuit, the FTC alleged that Arete would change their clients’ Federal Student Aid (FSA) login ID, password and contact information with their clients’ loan servicer which effectively eliminated contact between the borrowers and their loan servicers. This enabled Arete, according to the FTC, to place the borrower’s loans into temporary forbearance or deferment status without the borrower even being aware of this. Thus when the borrowers sent their payments to Arete that they were told would be credited toward their loans, the money actually was kept by Arete. Some of Arete’s clients saw their loans become delinquent and their income tax refunds garnished to pay for overdue loan payments. The victims of the scam also lost the money they paid to Arete that was intended to be applied toward their loans.
Scam of the day – June 18, 2023 – Elaborate Impostor Scam Victimizes Nashville Woman
In the recent case of Rachel Smith, of Nashville Tennessee, she received a call purportedly from a border patrol officer in El Paso, Texas who told her that they had seized a package that appeared to have been sent by her containing illegal drugs. She was then told that they understood that someone was using her name for illegal purposes, but that in order to protect her money she should withdraw all of the money in her bank account and deposit it into a Bitcoin ATM account provided by the purported federal officer. She was then told that she would be getting a call from a DEA officer to arrange for her to pick up a check for her money the next day. The call never came and the money she turned into Bitcoin was gone forever.
Scam of the day – June 17, 2023 – Ponzi Scheme and Affinity Fraud is a Bad Combination
WeChat and Weixin are a Chinese instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, it became the world’s largest standalone mobile app in 2018 with over 1 billion monthly active users. The Federal Trade Commission is warning people about investment scams being perpetrated through WeChat. The scams start with a barrage of social media posts urging people to invest in various household good and electronics promising returns of between 20% and 40% in one to three months. The social media posts showed pictures and told the stories of phony successful investors making huge profits, all of which were lies. The scammers used WeChat groups to lure people into paying triple the price for iPhones, laptops and furniture in exchange for the promise to return the payments plus profits within three months. At first, as is the case with all Ponzi schemes early “investors” were paid the promised profits, however, as with all Ponzi schemes, there were no profits. The early “investors” were merely paid with the funds paid by later “investors.” Ultimately, the vast majority of investors lose everything.
Scam of the day – June 16, 2023 – Father’s Day Scams
Identity thieves send emails purporting to contain a link to an electronic Father’s Day card, but instead of an electronic greeting card, what they actually are sending is malware that becomes downloaded when the victim clicks on the link. A common type of malware sent by criminals is keystroke logging malware enables an identity thief to steal personal information from the victim’s computer that can be used for purposes of identity theft. In other instances, the malware is ransomware which will encrypt all of your data which the hacker threatens to destroy unless you pay a cryptocurrency ransom.
Scam of the day – June 15, 2023 – Protecting Yourself from Malware Infected Apps
The first rule in avoiding malware infected apps is to only get your apps from the Google and Apple official app stores. Both of these do their best to weed out malicious apps. Last year 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.
Scam of the day – June 14, 2023 – Another Major Health Care Data Breach.
Here we go again. Health insurance company Harvard Pilgrim recently disclosed that it had suffered a major data breach and ransomware attack affecting more than 2.5 million people. This particular data breach is quite serious because among the records compromised...
Scam of the day – June 13, 2023 – New Aol Phishing Scam
Today’s Scam of the day is about a phishing email presently circulating that attempts to lure you into clicking on a link in order to continue using your AOL account. Millions of people still use AOL. One reason for this is that you get greater email privacy when compared to some other email carriers. Due to its popularity, scammers and identity thieves often send out phishing emails that appear to come from AOL, such as the one reproduced below that was sent to me by a Scamicide reader. If you click on the link in the email one of two things can occur and both are bad. Either you will end up providing personal information to an identity thief or you will, merely by clicking on the link, download dangerous malware such as ransomware on to your phone, computer or other device. I have deactivated the link.
Scam of the day – June 12, 2023 – FBI Issues Warning About Deepfake Sextortion Videos
The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to take the faces and images of people in photographs and videos and put them into realistic appearing pornographic videos has been with us since 2017 although until recently it had been primarily used to create deepfake pornographic videos using the faces of famous actresses such as Gal Gadot, Emma Watson, Natalie Portman and Scarett Johansson. Recently, however, the technology has been used by criminals targeting non-celebrities who are sent the videos by the criminals creating them with a threat to widely circulate the videos unless a ransom is paid.
Scam of the day – June 11, 2023 – FTC Sues VoIP Provider Over Robocalls
Automated robocalls which, for commercial purposes, are illegal, are the number one consumer complaint reported by the public to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at a cost to consumers of billions of dollars each year. Robocalls are used by scammers to perpetrate a wide variety of scams. The ease by which illegal robocalls may be made by computers using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) accounts for much of the problem. Most of the robocalls received in the United States originate overseas. In an effort to stop these overseas VoIP calls the FTC took action against the VoIP service providers here in the United States, warning them that they must stop their services from being used to bring illegal robocalls into the country. While most of the providers of these services have responded in a positive manner, XCast Labs, Inc has not and now is being sued by the FTC for failing to stop transmitting illegal robocalls.
Scam of the day – June 10, 2023 – Bank Text Message Scams Surging
Phony text messaging, called smishing, which purport to be from your bank or credit card company is a scam about which I have been warning you for years, but appears to be a scam that is dramatically increasing. According to a recent report from the Federal Trade Commission, text messages from scammers posing as banks have increased 2,000 % since 2019.
Scam of the day – June 9, 2023 – Cryptocurrency ATM Scams
Cryptocurrencies are quite popular with many people including scammers who find the anonymity provided by cryptocurrencies as a tremendously helpful way to launder funds obtained through a variety of scams. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a warning about a cryptocurrency related scam that begins when you are contacted by a scammer posing as either a government official, a law enforcement officer or some legitimate company demanding payment under some guise. However, rather than ask you to send a check, credit card, gift card or wire funds, you are instructed to withdraw cash from your bank account and then go to a cryptocurrency ATM, purchase cryptocurrency and the using a QR code provided by the scammer, send the funds to the scammer.
Scam of the day – June 8, 2023 – Virginian Loses $14,800 to Impostor Scam
Recently, the Augusta Country Virginia Sheriff’s Office reported that a man was swindled out of $14,000 in an impostor-cryptocurrency scam. The scam started with a phone call to the victim from someone posing as a law enforcement officer affiliated with the Social Security Administration. The targeted victim was told that he was being investigated for illegal drug money having been deposited into his bank account. He was then told that he had 24 hours to move his money out of that bank account before it would be frozen and inaccessible to him. He was then instructed to go to a specific local grocery store which contained a Bitcoin ATM and to deposit his money into a Bitcoin account designated by the scammer. Too late he realized he had been scammed and had been scammed.
Scam of the day – June 7, 2023 – Summer Car Rental Scams
Since the end of the pandemic, more and more people are taking a summer vacation this year 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.
Scam of the day – June 6, 2023 – Another Major Data Breach
Earlier this week, the University of Rochester disclosed that it had suffered a major data breach in which personal information on all of its students, faculty and staff was stolen. The personal information stolen was quite extensive and included Social Security numbers which, in the wrong hands, can readily lead to identity theft. The data breach at the University of Rochester was not a result of their computers being hacked directly by cybercriminals, but rather was done by exploiting a vulnerability found in software used by the University of Rochester as well as 2,500 other users of the same software which can be assumed to also have suffered data breaches. This brings back memories of the 2020 SolarWinds supply side security breach. SolarWinds is a company that provides system management software to 30,000 companies and government agencies. Hackers exploited a vulnerability in its software that, in turn, led to data breaches at thousands of governmental and private entities.
Scam of the day – June 5, 2023 – Justice Department Charges Commodities Trader With Operating a Ponzi Scheme
Phillip Galles was recently criminally charged with operating a Ponzi scheme through which he allegedly stole more than two million dollars from unwary investors who he convinced that he was investing their money in commodity futures, but, according to federal prosecutors, Galles made almost no investments and instead used the money for his own personal expenses including jewelry and expensive cars as well as paying off earlier investors with the money paid to Galles by later investors which is the hallmark of a Ponzi scheme.
Scam of the day – June 4, 2023 – Scammers are Busy Taking Vacations – Yours
It is early June and many of us are thinking about taking our summer vacations that we look forward to all year, however, scammers are also taking advantage of our vacation interest to scam us and the companies we work for. One new scam involves your getting an email that appears to come from your employer’s HR Department luring you to click on a link to submit your request for vacation time. Clicking on the link can either cause you to download dangerous malware that can lead to your becoming a victim of identity theft or luring you into providing your online credentials at work in order to get access to your company’s computers and data. Many of us use vacation related apps and also receive emails and text messages from hotels, airlines and other travel related services so it is not surprising that scammers pose as these companies to lure you into clicking on malware infected links or provide credit card or debit card information. People applying for passports and visas are finding that these governmental services are delayed and scammers have stepped in to contact you posing as governmental agencies offering expedited passports and visas tricking you into providing them with your credit card or debit card information.
Scam of the day – June 3, 2023 – Medicaid Scams Surging
Medicaid health insurance is presently used by more than ninety-three million people, however, this number is expected to drop by as many as eighteen million people because of recent changes in the law. During the pandemic Congress passed legislation that prevented the individual states from dropping people from their Medicaid rolls, however, now that the health emergency declaration prompted by the Covid pandemic is over, no longer are the states prevented from dropping people from their Medicaid rolls. This means that people eligible for Medicaid now need to re-enroll in their state’s Medicaid program in order to continue to receive Medicaid benefits. Medicaid can be quite confusing and, unfortunately, scammers are there to take advantage of the confusion, particularly now that people need to re-enroll. Scammers will be calling, texting and emailing people posing as state Medicaid officials asking for credit card or bank account information in order to qualify for Medicaid.
Scam of the day – June 2, 2023 – South Carolina Passes Sextortion Legislation
More recently, 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.
Scam of the day – June 1, 2023 – Mega Millions Scams
Scammers use lottery and sweepstakes scams to cheat people out of millions of dollars each year by tricking their victims into sending money to the scammers after convincing their victims that they have won a lottery, but are required to pay some fees or taxes in order to collect their prize. It is hard to win any lottery. It is impossible to win one that you have not even entered and yet scam artists, the only criminals we refer to as artists have found that it is extremely lucrative to scam people by convincing them that they have won various lotteries. With so many people having played Mega Millions recently, people may be more susceptible to falling for the pitch of a lottery scammer who tells them they have won one of the lesser prizes.
Scam of the day – May 31, 2023 – FBI Impostor Scam
Recently the FBI’s Pittsburgh office issued a warning about scam phone calls in which the scammer poses as an FBI agent demanding payment by a gift card to resolve a criminal investigation they say is being pursued against the targeted scam victim. In some of these calls, the scammer threatens arrest if you do not make immediate payment.
Scam of the day – May 30, 2023 – MetaMask Phishing Email
Today’s Scam of the day is a phishing email that appears to come from MetaMask. MetaMask is a software cryptocurrency wallet used to interact with the Ethereum blockchain. The email makes for compelling reading, but it is a scam. Phishing emails, by which scammers and identity thieves attempt to lure you into either clicking on links contained within the email which will download malware or providing personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft, are nothing new. They are a staple of identity thieves and scammers and with good reason because they work. As always, they lure you by making it appear that there is an emergency that requires your immediate attention or else dire consequences will occur.
Scam of the day – May 29, 2023 – Federal Court Shuts Down Pyramid Schemer
Now the Federal Court for Arizona has ruled that Success by Health and its principal, Jay Noland and others violated a range of federal laws and have banned them from ever participating in multi level marketing operations and also imposed a 7.3 million dollar judgment against them. This money will be used to pay back the victims of the scam.
Scam of the day – May 28, 2023 – Memorial Day Scams
As we honor our veterans on Memorial Day, May 29th it is important to remember that scammers take Memorial Day as just another opportunity to scam veterans and others. In the case of Memorial Day, you can expect to be solicited by scammers by phone (remember legitimate charities can call you by phone even if you have enrolled in the Do Not Call List because charities are exempt from the Do Not Call List), email or letters asking for your money for various veterans causes or charitable ventures tied to Memorial Day.
Scam of the day – May 27, 2023 – FTC Refunding Money to Victims of Credit Card Interest Rate Reduction Scam
In 2020 I first told you about the FTC and the State of Florida suing GDP Network and its owners over allegations that they operated a credit card interest rate reduction scam. GDP contacted consumers through telemarketing cold calls promising to permanently and substantially reduce their credit card interest rates. After tricking consumers into believing they were affiliated with the consumer’s existing credit card companies or well-known credit card networks such as MasterCard or Visa, the defendants promised to save them thousands of dollars in credit card interest and enable them to pay off their credit card debt three to five times faster. The defendants charged upfront fees of as much as $3,995 for their bogus services, the agencies allege.
Scam of the day – May 26, 2023 – Postal Workers Scammed Out of a Million Dollars
The American Postal Workers Union has disclosed that at least 460 of its members lost a million dollars in paychecks through a scam in which the scammers set up fake USPS HR websites that were used by the scammers to trick the postal workers who went to the phony websites to provide their usernames and passwords which the scammers then used to access the postal workers’ real accounts and have the paychecks sent to accounts controlled by the scammers.
Scam of the day – May 25, 2023 – Two Million People Affected by Medical Equipment Company Data Breach
Once again I need to tell you about another major data breach. This time it was Apria Healthcare LLC a home medical equipment company who, we are just now learning was hacked in 2019 and 2021 by the same hackers. As a result of the data breach sensitive information including credit card and debit card numbers of two million of Apria Healthcare’s customers were stolen.
Scam of the day – May 24, 2023 – Ransomware Attack Cripples Dallas
I have been warning you about the dangers of ransomware for eight years. Ransomware is a type of malware that when downloaded encrypts and make unavailable all of the data on your computers. Once this occurs the criminals then threaten to destroy the data if a ransom is not paid. In other variations of ransomware attacks, the cybercriminals threaten to make sensitive information public. Ransomware attacks have been made against government agencies, companies and individuals. Like all forms of malware, ransomware must be downloaded on to your computer in order to cause problems. This is generally done by luring people to click on links or download infected attachments contained in spear phishing emails. One of the most recent ransomware attacks started on May 3rd against the City of Dallas As a result of the attack, the Dallas government has had man of its services unavailable as well as sensitive data stolen.
Scam of the day – May 23, 2023 – FTC Sues Student Loan Debt Relief Scammers
Recently the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a lawsuit against SL Finance LLC and its owners Michael Castillo and Chirstian Castillo as well as against BCO Consulting Services Inc. and SLA Consulting Services Inc. and their owners Gianni Oilang, Brandon Clores, Kishan Bhakta and Allan Radam alleging that they lured unsuspecting victims into paying approximately 12 million dollars in illegal upfront fees by lying about repayment programs and loan forgiveness programs that never existed. The companies also lied about being affiliated with the Department of Education as well as telling their victims that the money paid to them would be used to reduce their loans.
Scam of the day – May 22, 2023 – Taylor Swift Concert Ticket Scams
It is not an overstatement to say that Taylor Swift is one of the most popular singers of all time. Tickets to her concert tour are in great demand with many of her fans (called Swifties) desperate to buy tickets to her concerts. This desperation is not missed by scammers who have been selling phony tickets to her fans who end up going to the concert only to be doubly disappointed as they are turned away at the door and losing the money they used to pay for the tickets.
Scam of the day – May 21, 2023 – Federal Prosecutors Against Alleged Crypto and Metaverse Scammers
Two days ago, federal prosecutors unsealed charges against Bryan Lee in regard to an investment scam where Lee and the previously indicted Neil Chandran operated companies that purported to be developing metaverse technologies and cryptocurrencies. They promised investors huge returns which they said would occur when their companies would be bought by Jeff Bezos of and Elon Musk. Lee and Chandran managed to convince 10,000 people to invest more than 45 million dollars in these fraudulent companies.
Scam of the day – May 20, 2023 – Debt Collection Agency Data Breach
If it seems like I was just telling you about another major data breach a few days ago, you are correct. It was only three days ago that I wrote about another data breach. ...
Scam of the day – May 19, 2023 – Ghanian Influencer Arrested for Romance Scam
Federal law enforcement recently arrested Mona Faiz Montrage on charges related to operating multiple romance scams in which she is accused of stealing more than two million dollars from her elderly victims. Montrage is a popular Instagram influencer who uses the name Haija4Reall and has had as many as 3.4 million Instagram followers. As with all romance scams, Montrage is accused of convincing her victims into believing they were in a serious romantic relationship and then luring them into sending money to her under a variety of pretenses including payments to assist a fake army officer in Afghanistan. In one particularly unusual incident, Montrage is accused of using her real name in establishing the romance scam and then sending the victim in the United States a tribal marriage certificate that indicated that she and the victim were married in Ghana. The victim later sent Montrage $89,000 to help with what Montrage said were costs associated with her father’s farm in Ghana.
Scam of the day – May 18, 2023 – Massachusetts Diploma Mill Resurfaces
Recently, a website for the non-existent Massachusetts Central University has resurfaced. The phony college claims on its website to have 10,000 students and 1,200 faculty members. The truth is that the college doesn’t exist in any form. The Massachusetts Department of Higher Education first became aware of the Massachusetts Central University in 2021 and ordered the taking down of its website, however, now that website, complete with fake photos of students, faculty and a non-existent campus has reappeared.
Scam of the day – May 17, 2023 – Another Major Health Care Data Breach
It was just less than a week ago that I told you about a data breach at NextGen healthcare, an electronic health record software company which recently notified a million patients that their personal data had been stolen in a major data breach that apparently occurred between March 29th and April 14th of this year. That particular data breach is extremely serious because the information stolen included names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and home addresses. Now, I must inform you of an even larger data breach again in the healthcare industry. This time the victim of the data breach is the national pharmacy network PharMerica. which is now sending out notification letters to more than 5.8 million people informing them that their data was compromised in a data breach that occurred in March, but is only now being disclosed. The PharMerica data breach is serious because among the personal information stolen was names, addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers, health insurance information and medical information. This sensitive data puts
PharMerica’s customers in serious danger of identity theft. In an unusual twist, some of the information stolen relates to deceased people who were customers of PharMerica. Identity theft of dead people can still create problems. Here is a link to a Scam of the day in which I discussed this form of identity theft and what you need to do to correct the problem. https://scamicide.com/2023/02/27/scam-of-the-day-february-28-2023-dead-people-are-becoming-victims-of-identity-theft/
Invitation to Attend a Free Webinar on the Wild Wild World of Scams
I will be a speaker at a webinar entitled "the Wild Wild World of Scams: Crazy Scam Stories & How to Mitigate Your Risk on May 24th at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time and I encourage Scamicide readers to attend this free webinar. Below is a link to click on for more...
Scam of the day – May 16, 2023 – Mavis Wanczyk Lottery Scams Continue
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.
Scam of the day – May 15, 2023 – FTC Shuts Down Debt Relief Scammers
Credit card debt which often carries an interest rate that is so high it could cause a nose bleed is a concern for many people and, as always, anything that concerns many people is something that scammers are interested in. Last November the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint and obtained a preliminary injunction shutting down ACRO Services and its related companies that the FTC claimed was operating a deceptive credit card debt relief scam in which ACRO claimed it could clean up your credit card debt in return for an enrollment fee of thousand of dollars plus additional monthly fees. Now the case has been settled and ACRO as well as other affiliated companies of their four principals have been permanently shut down.
Scam of the day – May 14, 2023 – Sophisticated Airbnb Scam
However, in the last four years a more sophisticated Airbnb scam has arisen. Computer savvy criminals created a subscription service called Land Lordz which they lease to less sophisticated criminals to assist them in victimizing Airbnb customers. Land Lordz helps criminals create and manage phony listings on phony websites that look like Airbnb. The phony listings are generally copied from legitimate Airbnb listings and will include fake reviews as well. The phony Airbnb site emphasizes that all payments will go through Airbnb and will therefore be safe and secure. If someone asks for further details, which is common, the scammers email a response with a link that appears to take you to the real Airbnb website, but instead takes you to a phony website that merely appears legitimate. When the targeted victim of the scam logs into the phony Airbnb website, the scammers are notified and respond by demanding a deposit be wired to them. Once the money is wired, the funds are lost forever.
Scam of the day – May 13, 2023 – Thwarting the Wrong Type of Shredder is Child’s Play
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 recently 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.
Scam of the day – May 12, 2023 – Mother’s Day Scams
One common Mother’s Day scam involves an email that you get offering Mother’s Day gifts such as flowers, jewelry, shoes or clothing at tremendously discounted prices. All you need to do is to click on a link to order online. The problem is that many of these offers are indeed scams. If you click on the link, one of two things can happen and both are bad. Sometimes the link will take you to an order form where you provide your credit card information, but never get anything in return. Instead your credit card information is used to make you a victim of identity theft. Even worse is the other possibility which is by clicking on the link, you will unwittingly download a keystroke logging malware program that will steal all of the personal information stored on your computer and use that information to make you a victim of identity theft.
Scam of the day – May 11, 2023 – Major Healthcare Data Breach
NextGen healthcare, an electronic health record software company recently notified a million patients that their personal data had been stolen in a major data breach that apparently occurred between March 29th and April 14th of this year.. This particular data breach is extremely serious because the information stolen included names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and home addresses.
Scam of the day – May 10, 2023 – Walmart Gift Card Refunds to Scam Victims
Large retailers such as Walmart and Target are the most common places where scammers send their victims to purchase gift cards to provide to the scammers. In 2016 Walmart began tracking the gift card balances from outside the country and developed a system to recognize fraudulent patterns involving these gift cards. Using this technology Walmart identified and froze gift card funds that would have been sent to scammers. However, Walmart did not refund the cost of the gift cards to the targeted victims of the scams. Consequently the Department of Justice filed a legal action to get those frozen gift card funds returned to the potential scam victims who purchased them. This legal action has now been settled and Walmart is returning the frozen $3,958,060.84 to their customers who purchased the gift cards with those funds. People who bought Walmart gift cards between April 1, 2016 and July 31, 2017 that were identified as going to scammers and were frozen can now apply to get their money refunded. If this applies to you, here is a link you can use to apply for your refund. https://kccsecure.com/walmartgiftcardremission/Claimant The deadline for applying for a refund is July 14, 2023.
Scam of the day – May 9, 2023 – Scams Using Car Photos
After more than ten years, it is rare that I come upon a new scam, but today is one of those days. Recently in San Diego it has been reported that scammers are taking photos of people’s cars and then posting them on social media indicating that the car has been stolen and that a thousand dollar reward is being offered for information about the whereabouts of the car. When people respond to the social media post with information about the “stolen” car, they are then instructed to provide their bank account number and bank routing number in order to have the reward sent to their bank account. Unfortunately, once the scammer has your bank account number and the routing number for your bank which is used for wire transfers, they are able to use that information to make purchases where money is wired from your account and the goods purchased are sent to the scammer who then can sell the goods thereby laundering the proceeds of the scam. Some scammers will even use your banking information to set up recurring payments such as for utilities.
Scam of the day – May 8, 2023 – “Smishing” Getting Worse
Although the name may not be as familiar as “phishing” which is the name for emails that lure you into clicking on malware infected links or providing personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft, “smishing” is the name given to text messages that lure you into clicking on links or providing personal information in response to a text message from what appears to be a trusted source, such as a company with which you do business.
Scam of the day – May 7, 2023 – Mystery Shopper Scam Continues to Claim Victims
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
Scam of the day – May 6, 2023 – Phony Hotel Website Scam
Booking a hotel room online for a vacation can be an easy and economical way to find a room. It can also be an easy way to be scammed. According to recent figures from the American Hotel & Lodging Association, consumers were duped into making reservations at hotel websites they thought were those of particular hotels, but actually were websites set up by scammers who victimized 15 million people last year using this scam at a cost of 1.3 billion dollars to the victims.
Scam of the day – May 5, 2023 – Protecting Your Electronic Devices While Traveling
Summer vacation time will soon be with us and many people will be traveling, however, since few of us totally disconnect from the digital world, many of us will be traveling with our cell phones, tablets and laptops. Today, I will tell you about some steps you should be taking to protect your security on your electronic devices while traveling. Using public WiFi in coffee shops, airports, hotels and other places while on vacation poses a particularly significant problem. Whenever you use public WiFi, there are two concerns. First, you can’t be sure that you are actually using the public WiFi and not a phony WifFi readily set up by a hacker sitting near you who is stealing your information and second, someone may be able to hack into your device while you are on the legitimate public WiFi.