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  • Geebo 9:00 am on February 9, 2023 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , California, , , ,   

    Scammers steal millions from California’s disadvantaged 

    By Greg Collier

    Usually, we post about scams that the typical consumer should be aware of. They should also be aware of this one, but for different reasons.

    As we always say, scammers don’t care who they’re taking advantage of. Their victims could be the elderly, or they could be inexperienced teens. There’s probably even a scam that takes advantage of orphans somehow. They love taking advantage of those who are financially secure. However, that doesn’t stop them from stealing from those who have very little to their own name.

    According to a report from the L.A. Times, scammers are stealing millions of dollars from those who receive economic assistance from the state. Typically, the scammers are targeting those who receive welfare and food stamps. The stamps themselves have been long gone for years. They’ve been replaced with an Electronic Benefit Transfer card, more commonly known as an EBT card. Benefits are deposited into the recipient’s account, and the recipient uses the card as they would a normal debit card. Therein lies the problem.

    Security experts believe that the scammers are obtaining card information by installing skimmers at various locations where EBT cards are used. Traditionally at convenience stores, ATMs, and gas stations. When a cardholder puts their card into a machine where a skimmer has been placed, scammers can copy the information from the card, including the PIN. Scammers will then go to an ATM and withdraw the cardholders benefit money.

    The Golden State isn’t helping their benefit recipients much. Once a recipient’s card has been skimmed, the only protection they’re given is that they’re told to withdraw all their money at midnight on the day of the month the benefits are issued.

    California’s EBT cards are still using the magnetic strip, which is where the scammers take the information from. Most commercial and consumer credit and debit cards use the more secure chip. The state says it would take at least 2 1/2 years to update the cards.

    Meanwhile, it takes recipients at least a month to have their benefits replaced by the state. That’s a month they have to worry about putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their family’s heads. And if they have their benefits stolen more than once, the recipient could be investigated for EBT card trafficking.

    Many have the belief that people who receive assistance from the state are somehow living the high life. Nothing could be further from the truth. These are people who struggle every day, and the scammers just make that struggle worse. Sadly, they seem to be receiving no help with that fight.

    We urge you to read the L.A. Times article that goes more in-depth about their plight.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on August 11, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: California, Orange County, , , , ,   

    Knock on the door saves family from rental scam 

    Knock on the door saves family from rental scam

    By Greg Collier

    We would say that it seems to be the week for rental scams, but unfortunately, they’re an everyday threat to prospective renters. It’s not just renters, either. Homeowners and current tenants are often left having to tell victims of rental scams that the property is not for rent. Meanwhile, the victims are left desperately scrambling to find a place to live after having lost thousands of dollars to scammers.

    The rental scam can take many forms, but at its simplest, scammers copy real estate listings then post a copy somewhere online that the home is for rent. Except, the scammers list themselves as the landlord and collect security or rental deposits before ghosting their victims.

    A couple from Orange County, California, almost feel victim to a rental scam, but decided to investigate when something didn’t feel right. The home they found was listed for rent on Facebook Marketplace. The supposed landlord only communicated by text. They were also asked to pay a $2000 deposit through personal payment app Zelle and were pressured to pay quickly since others were interested in the rental. The couple was also told not to go to the property because it was currently occupied, although the tenants would be out by the end of the week.

    The home was occupied alright, but not by renters, the family that was living there had bought the home, and it was not for rent. The couple interested in the home decided to go to the home anyway, sensing something was fishy. The couple knocked on the door and spoke with the family living there, who told them the home was not for rent. It turned out the scammers had copied the Zillow listing that the family saw when they bought the home.

    The couple was lucky enough to notice the red flags before losing any money. Unfortunately, not all families are this lucky and end up losing what little money they might have. If a landlord only communicates by text, it could mean they’re not in the area and are just interested in taking your money. If they ask for payment through personal payment apps like Zelle, Venmo, or Cash App, that’s another good indicator of a potential scam as scammers can block victims on these apps once they receive payment. And if a landlord tells you not to approach the property, there’s a good chance they’re trying to hide something from you.

    As always, due diligence should be done before putting money down on a rental property. A quick Google search of the address can reveal duplicate listings. If the listing you’re looking at has a lower rent price, that’s more than likely the scam listing. If a listing says the house is for sale or off the market, but your listing says it’s for rent, your listing is probably the scam listing.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on August 9, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: California, , , , ,   

    Rental scam listing stays on Zillow for a week 

    Rental scam listing stays on Zillow for a week

    By Greg Collier

    When looking for a rental property, we recommend using platforms like Zillow to help determine whether a rental listing is a scam or not. Platforms like Zillow can often give you a good idea of not only what market prices for rent are in a certain area, but they can also often tell you who is really renting the property. But what happens when the information on Zillow is wrong? One California landlady recently found out.

    The landlady from Sacramento listed her home for rent on Zillow. However, a rental scammer is said to have duplicated the ad on Zillow as well. The scam was discovered when a prospective renter showed up at the woman’s home looking to take a tour. Except, the landlady had never spoken to the person who showed up at her door.

    Not only had scammers copied the original listing, but they also listed the landlady’s name while asking for $1200 deposits.

    The fake listing stayed up on Zillow for a week after the landlady contacted them. It stayed up so long because the scammer kept arguing with Zillow that they were the legitimate landlord. That could mean that the scammer was collecting $1200 from victims all the while. The landlady is concerned that victims who may have been scammed may come after her, since the scammers used her name.

    While platforms like Zillow and Truila are good tools to use in a search for a rental property, they are not the final authority. They can have scammers like any other platform. Even if a landlord gives you a tour of the property or gives you a code to the property’s lockbox, that doesn’t necessarily make them the true landlord. The best way to find out who actually owns a property is to always check with the county’s tax office or website.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on January 26, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: California, , , , ,   

    Dangerous scam spoofs your family’s phone number 

    By Greg Collier

    Virtual kidnapping scams have been in the news more often than usual lately. This leads us to believe there has been an increase in these harrowing incidents. Typically, in a virtual kidnapping scam, the scammers will call you and claim to have a loved one of yours hostage. They’ll then tell you they will release their hostage if you pay a ransom. The ransom is usually asked for in untraceable means like cryptocurrency, money transfer, or gift cards. Since the advent of the virtual kidnapping scam, the scammers have gotten more aggressive when approaching their victims on the phone.

    For example, a woman from the San Francisco Bay Area recently received a virtual kidnapping call that appeared to come from her mother’s phone number. The caller said he was with the woman’s mother and would harm her if a ransom wasn’t paid. The caller demanded $500 to paid through the Zelle app. After she made the first payment, the scammer demanded another payment of $400, which she paid. The scammer ended the call and the woman called her mother, who had been fine the entire time.

    This story shows a couple of disturbing things. While it’s relatively easy to spoof a phone number, this scammer specifically targeted the woman by obtaining her mother’s phone number. That means the scammer had to at least stalked the family’s social media accounts. Secondly, the scammer used the Zelle banking app to collect the ransom. With stories like this, it seems like Zelle is quickly becoming the app of choice for scammers. Zelle has been used by scammers in several other scams as well.

    As we always like to remind our readers, kidnappings for ransom, while not unheard of, are actually rare in the United States. However, when someone receives one of these phone calls, the pressure of the situation may not allow them to think rationally. If you receive one of these phone calls, the first thing you should do is try to contact the person they’ve claimed to have kidnapped. Since the scammer will try to keep you on the phone, try using another method of contacting your loved one such as text or email if another phone line is not available. These scammers will often have an accomplice posing as the hostage. If they let you speak with the person, ask them a question that only they would know. You can also set up a specific code word between you and your loved ones to verify their identity. Lastly, even if your loved one is safe, contact your local police and let them know what happened, especially if you paid money to the scammer through Zelle.

    In the past, people who have been scammed through Zelle did not get their money back. However, experts recommend that filing a police report will help when dealing with your bank.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on October 20, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: California, , , , ,   

    Short-term renters threatened with violence 

    Short-term renters threatened with violence

    By Greg Collier

    If you use a short-term rental service like Airbnb or VRBO, as a renter, there are many pitfalls you have to be aware of. Usually, if a renter had to look out for anyone, it was usually the host they had to be wary of. Previously, we’ve seen instances where the accommodations weren’t exactly what the host had promised, with some resembling something closer to prison conditions than a vacation rental. There have also been instances of hosts renting out properties that they didn’t even own. These scammers would just take the renter’s money and leave them stranded after the renter’s traveled to what they thought was going to be a fun trip. Now, short-term renters have another danger to look out for.

    In Northern California, a group of vacationers from Kansas rented out a home off of VRBO for a trip to wine country. It appears that at least one of the neighbors wanted to let the vacationers know that they weren’t welcome there. One morning, they woke up to find the tires on their van had been slashed, and threatening graffiti was left on the rental home. Part of the message said, “Leave this place or else.”

    The residents of the neighborhood have had a problem with this particular rental for some time now. According to them, the rental has repeatedly been a party house where renters have not only disturbed the neighborhood with noise, but have also repeatedly strewn garbage around the neighborhood. It also turns out that the hosts did not allegedly have the proper permit from the county to use their home as a short-term rental, but we’re renting it out anyway. The permit had been denied after many in the community opposed it.

    The vacationers were just innocent bystanders caught up in a feud between neighbors. With more and more communities pushing back against short-term rentals, this could unfortunately become more common.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on June 14, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: California, , , , vaccine lottery, vax for the win   

    Scammers pose as state vaccine lotteries 

    By Greg Collier

    Several states have implemented what are being referred to as vaccine lotteries. Cash prizes are being given out to encourage more people to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Some states have even begun to issue payments to winners. However, with any act that’s designed to help the public there are inevitably those who try to use the system to their own advantage and the vaccine lotteries are no different.

    For example, California has just paid out prize to winners in their ‘Vax for the Win’ lottery. They’re expected to make another drawing this week. The Department of Health has recently said they’ve received dozens of calls about residents being told they’ve won the lottery by scammers. At least one resident received a message through social media. This shouldn’t come as a surprise since sweepstakes and lottery scams have been taking money from victims for decades.

    As with most modern scams, the goals in this scam are after one of two things. Either the scammers want your personal information, or they want you to pay them. In many lottery scams, the scammers will tell the victim they need to pay taxes or a processing fee before they can receive their winnings. Making lottery or sweepstakes winners pay for their prize is illegal in every state, so if someone asks for a payment, they’re a scammer.

    California says that their winners will receive a phone call with an official state caller and text ID, and they’ll also receive an email from the state with a form to fill out for their winnings. Residents are told to make sure the emails come from official state email addresses, in this case CA.gov.

    If your state is holding a vaccine lottery, it’s a good idea to check with your state to know how legitimate winners are being rewarded.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on June 2, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: California, , , , San Jose,   

    Scammers take advantage of another tragedy 

    Scammers take advantage of another tragedy

    By Greg Collier

    Last week there was yet another mass shooting in America. In San Jose, California, a 57-year-old man shot and killed eight people at a rail yard. The gunman was a rail yard employee who is said to have had a grudge against his workplace. Before police could apprehend the gunman, he took his own life. While the loss to the victims’ families can’t be measured in a dollar amount, many of them found themselves in immediate financial need. As has become common in these scenarios, many of the families set up GoFundMe pages as fundraisers for the families’ expenses. As has also become common, it didn’t take long for the scammers to move in.

    According to local news reports, the victims’ names had not even been made public yet before scammers started setting up phony GoFundMe pages. One scammer set up a GoFundMe using the name of someone who was not one of the victims while purporting to be for one of the victims. Another phony GoFundMe claiming to be for funeral services for one of the victims had already collected pledges before being shut down as a fraud.

    We’re not saying that you shouldn’t donate to a charity or fundraiser to help out victims of a tragedy like this. What we are saying is to take a step back before you click that donate button. While it’s commendable that your heart wants you to help those in need as soon as possible, it’s an unfortunate fact that scammers will try to take advantage of that generosity. We’re not even saying don’t use GoFundMe as they’ve worked with the victims families to verify their GoFundMe pages. A list of those pages can be found here. What we are saying is that you should do a little research before giving money to a fundraiser that could be taking money away from those who desperately need it.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on December 8, 2020 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: California, , ,   

    California getting hit the hardest by unemployment scams 

    California getting hit the hardest by unemployment scams

    For months now, we’ve been discussing the historic amount of unemployment benefit scams that have been affecting each and every state. If reports are to be believed, it seems that California has been hit the hardest of all when it comes to unemployment scams.

    As we’ve mentioned before, both domestic and foreign criminal rings have been assailing the states’ unemployment systems with fraudulent claims. Because of the record number of people out of work because of the pandemic, scammers have taken it upon themselves to take advantage of the situation by filing false unemployment claims. Often the scammers use stolen identities they’ve obtained through large data breaches that have been sold on the dark web. Fraudulent benefits have been filed in the names of people who are both employed and unemployed.

    Recently, California district attorneys have announced that over $1 billion in fraudulent benefits have been paid out by the state. However, the bank that handles the unemployment debit cards for California says that total is closer to the $2 billion range. Some reports say that 1 in 3 unemployment claims in California are fraudulent. The problem has gotten so bad that the bank handling unemployment benefits for California have even taken some benefits back from legitimate recipients in the name of fraud investigation. Many of these recipients have had little to no recourse in getting their benefits back.

    If you live in California, you’re probably already aware of the situation. So if you live in any of the other 49 states, why should you care what happens to California? Well, when it comes to the larger states, as goes California so goes the country. It could be only a matter of time before we start seeing other states being ravaged by unemployment scammers like California is. Pennsylvania, Washington, and Massachusetts have already encountered massive unemployment fraud just not on the level of California yet.

    While we’re not sure what the solution is to stop these scammers, if the states don’t get a handle on them soon, the nation could be headed to even larger economic problems.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on November 25, 2019 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: California, , , ,   

    Family with leukemia afflicted baby targeted in rental scam 

    Family with leukemia afflicted baby targeted in rental scam

    Further proving that scammers will stoop to any level, a family in Southern California is scrambling to find a new home after falling victim to an online rental scam. If you’ll recall, scammers will copy the online ads of homes for sale then post the ad in online marketplaces as a home for rent. The rent requested will often be well below market value. In most cases, the scammers will try to pressure you to make some kind of large payment without being able to see the property. In other cases, the scammers will also make you fill out a lengthy application they’ll use for identity theft.

    That’s what happened to the family from California. Their 14-month-old son has been diagnosed with leukemia and is currently undergoing chemotherapy. They are looking for a home closer to the hospital where the baby is being treated. In terms of Southern California travel, the hospital is too far away from their current residence. While looking for a new home, they found an online ad for the perfect place. They responded to the ad and filled out an application with all their personal information. It was after a friend looked into the property they found out that it wasn’t actually available for rent. Now, they’re busy trying to find a new home while worrying about not only their son but also having their personal information exposed like that.

    If you’re looking for a new home and you find one that’s too good to be true, it probably is. In order to avoid such scams always do a reverse image search on the photos in the ad to make sure the ad isn’t stolen from someplace else. You should also check with the county assessor’s website or office to verify who the true owner of the property is. And don’t be taken in by convoluted stories about why the property can’t be shown or why the supposed landlords can’t meet you. Lastly. never pay or wire money for any property sight unseen. If you would like to help the family mentioned in today’s story they have a GoFundMe page to help assist with the astronomical cost of childhood leukemia.

     

  • Geebo 8:02 am on July 26, 2019 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , California, , , , , ,   

    $4,000,000 stolen in romance scam by victim 

    $4,000,000 stolen in romance scam

    A woman in Northern Kentucky is accused of stealing in upwards of $4 million as part of a romance scam and has been arrested for the alleged theft. The thing is that even though she’s accused of stealing this large sum of money, she’s also the victim in this story. She was the one who was reportedly strung along by the scammers. Investigators say that she never kept any of her employer’s money and sent it all to someone she believed to be in a relationship with. This was after she had sent the scammers all of her own money. Now in most instances, you can’t find yourself in a position where you can embezzle large amounts of money like this without having some form of professional background meaning that even educated people can find themselves falling victim to a romance scam.

    In other scam news, residents of Southern California are being warned about a phony bond scam that has been plaguing the area. Some Sheriffs Offices have been receiving complaints about phony government agents calling residents and telling them that their Social Security numbers have been involved in various frauds. To avoid arrest the residents are being told to pay a bond. As can be expected in these type of scams, the residents are told that they can pay the ‘bond’ using gift cards such as Apple, Google Play, or WalMart gift cards. No government agency, whether it is local or federal, will ever ask you to pay any kind of fee using gift cards. If you are to receive one of these phone calls, it is recommended that you hang up immediately and contact your local police.

    Lastly for today, we have a reminder about the phony check scam. If you’re unfamiliar with this scam it’s one of the more prolific scams on the internet. Whether you’re trying to sell something online or applying for a job online, some unscrupulous scammer will send you a check and ask you to deposit the check in your bank account before sending them back the difference. The check is always a fake and once your bank discovers that, you’ll be on the hook for the money while the scammers make off with the funds. One of these phony checks recently targeted an online seller in North Dakota who was quick to notice the discrepancies in the scammer’s story. The texts they were receiving were from a California number while the check was mailed from New York and calls were coming from someone named Larry while the checks came from someone named Donna. If you ever feel like something is off when dealing with online sales and purchases it probably is.

     

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