Greg's Corner

New scam tries to take advantage of scam victims

The Federal Trade Commission is usually the office of the government that deals with online scammers and returns money to victims. Ironically, the FTC has issued a warning about a website that is impersonating them to scam consumers.

The scam website claims to be the U.S. Trading Commission. There is no such division of the U.S. Government, but the site fake uses the FTC’s seal and street address. The site claims that it is distributing a ‘personal data protection fund’ to victims of identity theft. It promises that you can receive money instantly on top of it.

If you click on the link to obtain the money, you’re asked for your banking information, so you can receive the payment. Of course, this is just a ruse to gain access to your bank account, so the scammers can drain it. The FTC also says there’s a potential chance that going to the phony site could download malware to your device. Scammers could not only gain access to your personal information this way, but they could also spread the malware to people in your contacts list.

Surprisingly, this phony website has claimed victims from all over the world and not just the US.

If you were a victim of a scam that the FTC reclaimed money from, they would send you a check in the mail. They would not have a link that anybody could click on to try to claim money. The FTC would also not ask for personal identifying information like bank account information, credit card number, or Social Security number before they could deliver their payment.

If you come across a phony FTC lookalike site, you’re asked to please report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.