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  • Geebo 8:00 am on October 19, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    New kidnapping scam crosses the line from virtual 

    New kidnapping scam crosses the line from virtual

    By Greg Collier

    If you don’t know how the virtual kidnapping scam works, it can be terrifying for those it victimizes. In this scam, victims receive a phone call from scammers who tell the victim they’ve kidnapped a loved one. Often, the scammers will have someone screaming in the background to make it sound like the supposed kidnap victim is being harmed. Or, the scammers will use an AI-generated voice clone of the victim’s loved one. This can put the actual victim into an emotional state where they’re not thinking clearly, to say the least. From here, the scammers will demand a ransom payment. However, the person the scammers claim to have kidnapped is typically safe and unaware they’re being used in a scam.

    Now, some virtual kidnapping scammers have devised a new plot that takes the kidnapping part of the scam to a new level. This new scam tends to target college students who are here on international visas. They’ll receive a call that appears to come from their home country. The scammer tells the student that they’re in legal trouble back home due to their identity being stolen. Then the student is asked to make a payment to avoid arrest. That’s typical scam procedure, but then the scam takes a dark turn.

    The scammers then try to isolate their victims by telling them they can’t tell anyone about this matter. Victims are told to refrain from using social media and to turn their phones off. Some victims are even being told to go to a hotel alone to further the isolation. This manipulation can go on for weeks.

    Once the student is isolated enough, the scammers reach out to the victim’s family, telling the family they’ve kidnapped the student. In essence, they really have kidnapped the student, just not physically. This can be horrifying for all victims involved.

    Anytime someone tries to isolate you from your friends and family over the phone, it’s almost a guarantee they’re trying to scam you. It’s recommended that if you receive a call like this to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI, or contact local or campus police.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on October 18, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    Strange new police impersonation scam emerges 

    Strange new police impersonation scam emerges

    By Greg Collier

    As we often state, the police impersonation scam that is the most common has to be the jury duty scam. Again, this is when scammers pose as the victim’s local police, even going as far as to spoof the police department’s phone number. The victim is told they missed jury duty and a warrant has been issued for the victim’s arrest. Then the scammers tell the victim they can avoid arrest if they make an immediate payment. This payment is usually made through unconventional means such as gift cards, cryptocurrency, or money transfers. A variation of this scam is when the victim is just told flat out there’s a warrant for their arrest.

    Now, a report out of Wisconsin says there is yet another version of the police impersonation scam. A sheriff’s department has issued a statement saying they’ve received an alarming number of phone calls about this scam. In the latest scam, the scammers are still posing as local police, including spoofed phone numbers, but the scammers’ demand is more than unusual. Residents have said that not only are the scammers demanding a $1000 payment in gift cards, but they’re also telling residents they need to undergo a court-ordered DNA test, or they’ll be arrested.

    We get why the scammers would ask for money in gift cards. That’s just what they do. However, a request for a victim’s DNA is a new one for us. We can’t imagine what the DNA would be used for, but the supposed DNA test may just be a ruse to get the victim to meet the scammer in person.

    Even with this new twist on the police impersonation scam, the ways to protect yourself remain the same. No legitimate law enforcement agency, office, or department will ever call you demanding payment. They won’t threaten you over the phone with arrest if you don’t pay them immediately. If there was a warrant out for your arrest, or a court-ordered DNA test was required, the investigating officers or agents would come to you without a phone call.

    If you receive one of these phone calls asking for money, or in this case your DNA, hang up and call your local police department at their non-emergency number. Not only can they advise you the call is a scam, but they can now inform the community of the scam as well.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on October 17, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    Check washing scam on the rise again 

    By Greg Collier

    We understand there is still a large segment of the population who pays their bills by check. It’s what they know and what’s been working for them most of their lives. Companies still accept checks, so they see no reason to change. Unfortunately, the US mail system is no longer seen as the hallowed system it once was. While at one time it was seen as sacrilege to steal someone’s mail, that is no longer the case. Paying your bills by check through the mail can now put you at an extreme financial risk.

    Check washing is a scam in which a criminal alters the details on a check to gain unauthorized access to someone else’s funds. This is usually done by soaking the check in chemicals, which removes the ink. The scammer will then write the check out to themselves in a much higher amount than was originally issued. Victims of check washing have lost thousands of dollars to this scam.

    Scammers will steal someone’s mail, typically a bill, to get their hands on a check. It doesn’t matter if the bill was mailed at an official USPS mailbox, or one of the drop-off mailboxes in front of your local post office. Check washing scammers have devices that allow them to retrieve the mail through the top slots of just about any mailbox. These scammers especially look for someone sending outgoing mail from the mailbox in front of their homes. Putting up the flag on a home mailbox can be a signal to scammers to come steal your mail.

    For example, take the city of Westerville, Ohio. This suburb of Columbus only has a population of 38,000. Yet, local police have received 50 complaints about check washing since March. Investigators say victims have lost upwards of $10,000. One detective even went as far to say that no one should mail checks anymore.

    To make matters worse, once a scammer steals a check. The information included in the check can be used to steal that victim’s identity. Stolen checks are even being sold to other scammers on the dark web.

    Instead of sending checks in the mail, consider setting up automatic payments with your providers. Typically, recurring bills such as utilities, rent/mortgage, and insurance premiums are good candidates for automation.

    However, if you’re dead set on still using checks, there are some steps you can take to help protect yourself. If you only use gel pens when writing checks, it makes it harder for scammers to remove the ink. When mailing checks, take them directly to the post office and drop them off inside the post office.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on October 16, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    Fake federal agents go to victim’s house to clean money 

    By Greg Collier

    When it comes to today’s scams, most scammers will try to take your funds electronically. Then there are those who want your cash and want it immediately. This has led some scammers to employ ‘couriers’ who will go to a victim’s home to pick up the cash. Sometimes the couriers are unwitting participants, such as rideshare drivers. Other times, they’re either working for the scammer or they’re the scammer themselves. Since scammers tend to target the elderly, it’s disturbing to think of scammers going to the home of an elderly loved one.

    In Western Pennsylvania, an elderly couple were in the process of falling victim to the pop-up scam. They received a message on their computer it had been hacked, and they called the number from the message. The couple was told their bank accounts were compromised, and they needed to withdraw their money from the bank. A federal agent would come by to pick up the money to have it ‘cleaned’, before they would get their money back.

    The federal agent was actually a 22-year-old student from Penn State. When he showed up at the couple’s home, they did not believe he was a federal agent and asked to see some ID. The student was unable to produce any identification, so the couple did not give him any of their money and called police. The student was arrested shortly after the encounter.

    While most victims of these scams are physically unharmed, there is a possibility of danger. Not every scammer or ‘courier’ is going to accept walking away empty-handed.

    For whatever reason scammers may claim, no legitimate law enforcement officer or agent will come to your home to protect your money. If that’s what they’re telling you, they are trying to scam you.

    If you receive a message on your computer telling you it’s been hacked, the odds are it hasn’t been hacked at all. If you can’t close out the message, try doing a hard rest on your device by holding down the power button until it shuts off. If the message continues to appear, run a malware scan on your device.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on October 13, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    New bank scam has scammers collecting your debit card 

    New bank scam has scammers collecting your debit card

    By Greg Collier

    Bank impersonation scams are nothing new. The typical banking scam starts off with a text message asking if you have made a large purchase or transfer. The text message asks you to reply with either a yes or a no. Once the victim replies ‘no’, they’ll receive a phone call from the scammers, posing as their bank’s fraud department. The victim will be told there is fraudulent activity in their bank account, and they need to ‘move’ their money to protect it. From here, the scammers walk the victim through moving their money to a supposed protected account. However, this account belongs to the scammers, who disappear with the victim’s money.

    In that version of the scam, the scammers have the victim move their money electronically. Now, a new scam has developed, where the scammers are physically collecting their bounty. This new scam starts out the same way with the text message and the phone call. Instead of being told to move their money, victims are now being told that a courier will be by to pick up their compromised debit card. Some victims were even told to leave their debit cards in their mailbox for the courier to pick up. From there, the scammers take the victim’s money from nearby ATMs.

    Thankfully, the ways to protect yourself are still the same. If you receive a text message claiming to be from your bank, do not respond to it. Instead, call the bank directly to see if there is an actual issue with your account. If someone calls you claiming to be from your bank, politely end the conversation, and again, call your bank directly to ask about any issues. Lastly, don’t give any personal information to a caller claiming to be from the bank. Your bank should have all the information they need and shouldn’t be requesting information like your PIN or account number.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on October 12, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    FBI warns of scam letters sent in their name 

    FBI warns of scam letters sent in their name

    By Greg Collier

    The El Paso, Texas office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), has issued an alert about scammers posing as their office. Letters are being sent to El Paso residents that are official looking and appear to be on FBI stationery.

    The letter claims it’s regarding an identity theft case that involves Bank of America. The letter goes on to state the recipient’s bank account with Bank of America has now been secured, but was suspected by US Customs and Border Patrol of being part of an identity theft scheme. The scam letter even contains warnings that it is sensitive material and should not be shared.

    The El Paso FBI Office states the scammers are trying to get victims to pay the scammers in cryptocurrency or other funds, but doesn’t explain how. If you take a look at a copy of the letter the FBI has released, it has the official contact information of the El Paso office on it, albeit signed by a fictitious special agent.

    Typically, when scammers send out letters impersonating an agency or business, false contact information will be included, so the recipient would call the scammer, and not the entity they’re impersonating. It could be that the FBI intentionally left that information off the letter, so people don’t call the scammers. Or, these letters could be followed up by a scammer’s phone campaign where they call the letter’s recipients, furthering their scam.

    Either way, it’s easy to spot that this letter is a fake, as the second time they print Bank of America, the bank’s name is not capitalized. Not to mention, many recipients probably don’t even bank with B of A.

    We’d be remiss if we didn’t say this reminds us of a popular phone scam. In that scam, the scammers will call a victim posing as either, the FBI, US Marshals, or Border Patrol. The scammers will tell their victims that a car rented in the victim’s name has been found along the southern border that contained drugs. The victim is typically threatened with arrest, but they can make the warrant go away if they just pay the fake officer or agent directly.

    Please keep in mind, no law enforcement agency will ever call you up or ask you for money, nor will they send letters. If you owe any kind of legal fine or court cost, that correspondence usually comes from the court and not the police.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on October 11, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    Beware this TikTok shopping scam 

    By Greg Collier

    There is an old saying that goes, “Don’t believe anything you hear and only half of what you see”. That saying could not apply more to social media. In a landscape filled with bots, con artists, and shady advertisements, it’s no wonder scammers have taken to the hottest social media platform to spread their newest scam.

    The Better Business Bureau has issued a warning about an online shopping scam taking place on TikTok. According to the BBB, scammers are posting videos to TikTok claiming they’re disgruntled employees of a high-end jewelry store. The scammers say they’re quitting from the store and to get back at their employers, they’re going to give viewers a secret code to get free merchandise.

    The trick here is that viewers are directed to a fake website that looks like a retailer’s website. While the ‘secret code’ gives the viewer 100% discounts for the merchandise, shipping fees will rack up. If someone were to complete their order, the scammers would have the victim’s financial information. If the victim receives any product at all, it’s usually a cheap knock-off. The BBB is also warning this scam could be duplicated using any kind of retailer.

    We say this a lot, but it really tends to be true. If an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Any outrageous offers like this should be thoroughly researched before committing to making a payment. IN actuality, you should really only shop with retailers who have already gained your trust. Lastly, if at all possible, always shop online with a credit card. If you get ripped off while using a credit card, you’re more than likely to get your money back than you would with a debit card, as credit cards provide more protection to consumers.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on October 10, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    Scammers employ new weapon in romance scams 

    By Greg Collier

    Whenever someone develops a new and useful tool, it’s only a matter of time before someone uses it for criminal purposes. The large language model ChatGPT was released to the public last year. Essentially, you can give ChatGPT any kind of prompt, and it will write it out for you. Want to write a professional sounding email to a prospective employer, it can do that for you. Want to have it write a script about Batman meeting Abraham Lincoln? It can do that too. Do you want to have ChatGPT craft the best romantic responses to keep a lonely victim believing they’re in a committed online relationship? Unfortunately, it can do that too.

    According to cybersecurity experts, scammers have developed their own chat AI that will produce authentic looking messages to romance scam victims. For the initiated, romance scammers typically prey on the single and widowed by pretending to be an online romantic interest. These scammers will cultivate a phony online relationship using fake names and pictures, along with a story about how they can’t meet in public. The scammers will cultivate these relationships for months before asking the victim for money. Victims have lost thousands of dollars and even up to millions of dollars each to these scammers.

    Now, armed with an AI chatbot of their own, romance scammers almost have a ‘set it and forget it’ setting for running their scams.

    However, while this may make the romance scam appear more like a legitimate relationship, the steps someone can take to protect themselves are still the same. Anytime a prospective partner sends you a picture of themselves, use Google’s reverse image search to make sure they didn’t steal it from someone else’s social media. If they claim to be working overseas or somewhere where they can’t travel from freely, there’s a good chance they’re a scammer. Lastly, if they ask for money without meeting first, it’s almost guaranteed that they’re a scammer.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on October 9, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    Rideshare drivers are being scammed out of their earnings again 

    By Greg Collier

    A new report has just come out that states rideshare drivers for services like Lyft and Uber are being targeted in scams, again. Anything connected to the internet is vulnerable to one scam or another, and that seems to be affecting rideshare drivers as well. Except this time, as the cliché goes, the calls seem to be coming from inside the house.

    The drivers are being locked out of their Uber or Lyft accounts by scammers. The scammers pose as Uber or Lyft themselves. The drivers typically receive a call from the scammers posing as whichever service they drive for. The scammers will tell the drivers there is something wrong with their account, or their account has been suspended after a customer complaint.

    After a moment, the scammers will tell the drivers that they need to verify the driver’s identification. A code will be sent to the driver through text message, and they’ll be asked to repeat that code to the caller. This code is actually the code to reset the driver’s password to their account. Once the scammer gets a hold of that code, they can change the password on the account, locking the driver out.

    From there, the scammers change where the driver’s payment is supposed to go to the scammers bank account. Then the driver’s account is drained of all the driver’s current earnings. This scam can cost a driver hundreds of dollars.

    The new report about this scam sheds some more light on it since the last time we posted about this. One driver from Portland who fell victim to this scam said the caller talked like they worked in the industry. He said they knew all the company jargon and completely fooled him into handing over his account.

    Lyft has told the media they will never call a driver asking for personal information unless the driver reaches out first.

    Again, you may not be a rideshare driver, but you could hold any another position in the gig economy, which is also vulnerable to this scam.

    If you happen to receive such a phone call, politely inform the caller that you will return their call and take the initiative to verify the situation directly through the platform. Nearly all gig economy applications should offer a feedback or contact option within the app or website, allowing you to reach out to the company for clarification.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on October 6, 2023 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , quishing,   

    New QR code scam could show up in your inbox 

    New QR code scam could show up in your inbox

    By Greg Collier

    First, there was phishing, the emails from scammers that tried to get you to click on malicious links. Then there was smishing where scammers tried to get you to click on malicious links in SMS/text messages. Now, there is a new scam called ‘quishing’, which involves QR codes.

    QR codes are similar to the bar codes that get scanned at the supermarket. Except, in the case of QR codes, they direct you to a website. They’re essentially fancy links. When you scan a QR code with your phone’s camera, a URL will pop up for you to click on. While QR codes are used in many industries, their most common use is for advertising. You might see an ad that contains a QR code that will direct you to a sale on a retail site, for example.

    Scammers are now said to be sending emails containing QR codes. The scam emails are made to look like they’re being sent from well-known brands and companies. The email will ask the recipient to scan the QR code to receive some kind of discount or special offer. What actually happens when the code is scanned, the victim is taken to a website that infects their device with malware. From there, the scammers can potentially access any app you may have on your phone. The QR code could also take you to a website that’s cloned from the brand the scammers are imitating, where a victim will be asked for personal or financial information.

    After scanning a QR code, take a close look at the URL or web address it leads to. Be cautious if it appears to be misspelled, overly complex, or has a suspicious domain.

    If you happen to scan a fraudulent QR code, it’s crucial to promptly update your passwords for any affected accounts to prevent unauthorized access by scammers. Additionally, take immediate measures to enhance the security of your financial accounts. Enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) on these accounts is another effective way to bolster their protection against unauthorized access.

     

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