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  • Geebo 9:00 am on February 3, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    The Digital Trap: How Technology leaves the Young Vulnerable to Scams 

    By Greg Collier

    When we discuss older Americans being susceptible to scams, it’s usually because of their unfamiliarity with some modern technology. However, being too familiar with tech can also make someone vulnerable to scams.

    For example, young people, who use payment apps like Cash App and Venmo regularly, could be convinced to use those apps to their own detriment.

    Recently, a college student from Louisiana fell victim to a phony check scam. She thought she was applying for a job as a nanny. The scammers sent the student checks for thousands of dollars, and told her to deposit them in her own bank account. She was then instructed to send out payments for things like appliances and cleaning supplies. These payments were sent out through the Zelle and Venmo apps.

    Afterward, the bank discovered that the checks were fraudulent, but the student had already sent out all the money. In these cases, the banks hold the account holder responsible for the lost money, even if it was lost through deceitful means.

    Statistically, younger people are just as vulnerable to scams as the elderly, if not more so. This is possibly because of their unfamiliarity with traditional banking transactions. This is not intended as a criticism of young people, but rather a reminder that not everything needs to be done digitally.

    As far as this scam goes, never deposit any checks intended for business into your personal account. Real employers will never ask you to do that. Anyone who asks you to deposit a check then asks you to make payments for them is just trying to scam you.

    Lastly, apps like Zelle, Venmo, and Cash App should only be used with friends and family. These apps make it too easy for scammers to cash out and disappear after taking your money. The companies behind the apps are typically helpless to do much after the transaction goes through, or so they say. So, if you do get scammed through these apps, a refund probably isn’t likely. Please keep in mind that while these apps may be popular in your social circles, most legitimate businesses do not accept payments through them.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on January 24, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    The fake check scam goes digital 

    By Greg Collier

    In recent years, digital banking has become increasingly popular, and for good reason. Gone are the days of waiting in long lines at the bank or struggling to find time to visit a physical branch. With the rise of digital banking, managing your finances has never been easier. From opening accounts and applying for loans to paying bills and monitoring your transactions, digital banking allows you to take control of your money from the comfort of your own home.

    However, that convenience comes with some security risks. We’ve often discussed the fake check scam, where victims get sent a fraudulent check and are asked to return a portion of it. It used to be most prevalent with online selling, but now we tend to see it more with job scams. In both instances of the scam, physical checks are typically sent to the victims for them to deposit into their bank accounts before sending a portion of the money elsewhere. Once the bank determines the check is fraudulent, the victim becomes responsible for paying the bank back the amount of the check and then some.

    Now, there is a fake check scam where the scammers aren’t even sending physical checks. According to police from a Cleveland suburb, Scammers are approaching victims on social media and asking their victims if they can buy the pictures they’ve posted on social media. The victim is then emailed a picture of a check, which they are told they can deposit by scanning it with their bank’s app. However, like in most check scams, the check is more than the amount the scammer promised. The victim is told to send the difference back through Zelle or Venmo once the check has cleared the victim’s account. The scammers then make off with the money from the victim, while the victim gets charged by their bank.

    If you ever receive a check, whether physical or digital, if it’s for more than the amount you were promised, do not deposit it. It’s almost guaranteed to be a fake. No legitimate professional or business would ask you to pay them the difference through Zelle or Venmo. These apps are meant to be used between friends and families and not random strangers promising you money.

    Banks and financial institutions have implemented several measures to protect their customers from these risks, but users also have a responsibility to protect their account and personal information. By staying informed and taking the necessary precautions, you can enjoy the benefits of digital banking while keeping your finances safe and secure.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on January 20, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    Sweepstakes scam has a new twist 

    By Greg Collier

    Outside of law enforcement, Publisher’s Clearing House has to be one of the most impersonated organizations. We’re certain that most of us are familiar with the actual PCH. Older generations might remember the TV commercials where Ed McMahon would show up to a winner’s house with a large novelty check. More modern commercials show PCH’s Prize Patrol van showing up to congratulate the winner.

    Scammers often imitate PCH while trying to dupe their victims. Typically, scammers will use the Publisher’s Clearing House name to commit an advance fee scam. This is when a victim is told they are a PCH winner, but they need to make a payment to cover things like taxes and processing fees. If a victim does make a payment, the scammers will string the victim along with excuses for why the victim hasn’t received their prize money yet. They’ll then tell the victim that more payments need to be made and will continue this grift until the victim finally catches on.

    More recently, scammers have tried a new tactic using the PCH name in an attempt to fleece their victims, and they’re using another scam to try and accomplish that. Residents of Kentucky have said they’ve received letters telling them that they’ve won second place in the PCH Sweepstakes. Instead of telling the residents they need to make a payment to claim their prize, these scammers are including a check that will cover the cost of insurance and attorney fees.

    Of course, the checks are fraudulent and while the news report doesn’t go into detail, we imagine the victims will be asked to deposit the check in their own bank account and then pay an attorney or insurance agent chosen by the scammers. And as always, once the bank determines the check is fake, the victim will be responsible for the amount of the check to their bank while the scammers get away with the money.

    It’s actually rather easy to protect yourself from this scam. Even if you did enter the sweepstakes, keep in mind the phrase ‘no purchase necessary’. This includes things like the phony fees that scammers keep trying to inflict on their victims. When it comes to sweepstakes like this, it’s actually illegal for the sweepstakes to charge the winner to get their prize.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on January 19, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    Scam Round Up: Fake check scam targets lower income families and more 

    Scam Round Up: Fake check scam targets lower income families and more

    By Greg Collier

    This week on the round up we’re bringing you two scams that take advantage of the disadvantaged and one that can affect any business and its customers.

    ***

    The business email compromise scam is one of the more insidious scams. While it targets businesses, it’s usually the customers who lose the most. This is when scammers hijack a business’ email client and use it to deceive customers into making payments to the scammers. Typically, we’ve seen this when scammers convince homebuyers to send their closing costs to the scammers.

    More recently, scammers hijacked the email client of a roofing company in Florida. If you’ll recall, many Florida residents are still recovering from Hurricane Ian. The scammers sent emails to customers asking them to send their payments through the Zelle payment app. One customer lost $1800 to the scammers.

    If a business that you’re dealing with that you’re expected to make a large payment to, be wary if you’re suddenly asked to pay in nontraditional means. These can be payment apps like Venmo and Zelle, wire transfers, or cryptocurrency just to name a few. If you receive one of these emails, call the business to verify the payment request.

    ***

    Our next scam is one of the oldest scams out there and predates the internet. Residents in Pennsylvania have reported receiving letters in the mail that are promising them an inheritance. This isn’t just a tired plot device from old TV shows, and victims have fallen for this scam.

    One of two things typically happen with the inheritance scam. The victim is either asked to make some kind of payment to secure the inheritance, or they’re asked for their banking information. Either way, it can be a devastating financial loss for the victims, especially if they’re in desperate financial need.

    If you receive one of these letters, toss it in the trash. The odds that the letter is legitimate are slim. If you still think there’s an outside chance it might be real, check your family lineage first before making any payments.

    ***

    Our last scam is quite an insidious one. Scammers are sending fake checks to families in traditionally low-income areas. Victims are being told that they’re receiving a payment from UNICEF because of their income status.

    As with any fake check scam, the victims are being instructed to deposit the check and are being asked to send a portion of the payment to a third party. Some of the checks have been as much as $9600.

    If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you’ll know that the banks will allow the victims to access that money as a courtesy before the bank discovers the check is fraudulent. Then the victim is responsible for paying the amount of the check back to the bank. Meanwhile, the scammers make off with the amount that the victim sent to the third party.

    If you receive a check in the mail you’re not expecting, dispose of it. Especially if you’re being asked to send a part of it somewhere else. That can only end up as a substantial financial loss.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on January 12, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    Scams prey on desperate jobseekers 

    By Greg Collier

    Pundits and naysayers will try to tell you that nobody wants to work anymore. What many claim the real problem to be is that many employers won’t pay a living wage. So, some jobseekers could be forgiven for ignoring red flags when being offered a job with good wages from someone who turns out to be a scammer.

    A woman in Arizona recently lost $5000 to a scammer who promised her a $72,000 a year job. The scammers claimed to be from a legitimate company that is headquartered in Australia, but has positions in the US. This would be a work from home position, and she was hired after an audio-only online interview. Then a scam familiar to our readers began to take hold.

    The Arizona woman was sent a check for $5000 by her supposed employer. She was instructed to deposit the check into her banking account, keep $300 for herself, and use the remaining $4700 to buy office equipment for her position. So, she deposited the check and after the check showed up in her account, she bought $4700 worth of money orders and sent them to the so-called office equipment vendor.

    But, as this story always goes, the check sent to the victim turned out to be a fraudulent check. Banks will make the funds available after a deposit out of courtesy within a few days. However, it takes longer than that for the banks to determine a check is fake. This leaves scam victims in the lurch, with them usually having to pay the amount of the check back to the bank.

    No real employer will ever ask you to deposit a check into your banking account, then ask you to use the money to pay someone else. Most big businesses have fleets of accountants and accounts payable people to make payments like that.

    If you’re hired very quickly after an online interview or hired on the spot, there’s a good chance the offer isn’t legitimate. If they’re representing themselves as being from an actual company, go to their website to see if the position they’re offering actually exists.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on November 14, 2022 Permalink | Reply
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    Work from home scammers have thought of everything 

    By Greg Collier

    We never like to give scammers any credit, but sometimes they’re pretty clever and their scams ingenious. A profitable scam requires a massive investment of time and has to be planned out meticulously. Plans have to be made for almost any situation, in case something with the scam goes off-script somewhere along the way. That’s part of what makes scams so frustrating. Scammers could probably be successful in legitimate fields if they put their minds to it. Instead, we get stories like this where victims lose thousands of dollars.

    A woman from the Kansas City area recently graduated from college. Since she didn’t own a vehicle, she wanted to find a job where she could work from home. She accepted a job offer that she thought was a legitimate company. What was actually going in is that the scammers were posing as this company. She even did her due diligence by researching the company.

    The problems started, as most work from home scams do, when she received a check from her phony employer. They asked her to deposit the check into her bank account, then use Zelle to send money to an office supply company for her work equipment. Surprisingly, Zelle blocked the transaction.

    The scammers didn’t even hesitate. They then instructed her to go to a local Bitcoin ATM to send $4500 to the office supply company, which she did.

    As you might expect, the check turned out to be a fake, and now the woman is responsible for the $5000 check she deposited into her account.

    No matter how legitimate the company may seem, no real employer is going to ask you to deposit a check into your bank account and then have you use it for business expenses. Real companies just don’t work that way. They also won’t have you pay vendors using apps like Zelle, nor Bitcoin ATMs. Real employers have vendors that they’ll pay themselves to furnish any equipment that may be needed for a legitimate work from home job.

    Anyone who says otherwise is just trying to rip you off.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on November 9, 2022 Permalink | Reply
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    Coffee table on Craigslist leads to con artist 

    Coffee table on Craigslist leads to con artist

    By Greg Collier

    One of the oldest scams when it comes to selling items online is the overpayment scam. Traditionally, a victim would advertise an item for sale on a platform like Craigslist. They would be approached by a prospective buyer who wanted to pay by check. When the seller received the check, it would be more than the amount they asked for. The buyer would say they made a mistake and would ask the seller to deposit the check and return the overage.

    This is also a version of the fake check scam. The check is always fake, and after the seller deposits it and sends money back to the buyer, the bank finds out the check is fraudulent. This leaves the seller on the hook to their bank for the full amount of the phony check.

    Since those times, many online sellers caught on to the fake check scam. That didn’t mean that the overpayment scam went away. It’s still around, but now has a more digital aspect to it.

    For example, a woman in Pennsylvania listed a coffee table for sale on Craigslist. The table was listed for $300. A man who claimed he wanted to buy the table sent a cashier’s check for $1550. She was told to deposit the check and keep $300 for herself and give the remaining $1250 to the movers when they come to pick it up.

    Just as an aside, there’s a similar scam where the ‘movers’ are in on the scam and just take the money. However, today’s scam does something different.

    After a few days, the buyer said that the movers couldn’t make it, and he changed his mind about buying the table. The buyer then asked for $1450 back from the seller, and wanted it sent to him through Zelle, which the seller did. The same day the seller sent the buyer the money, the seller’s bank discovered the check was a fake.

    For once, police were able to track down and arrest the scammer, although that’s the exception and not the rule. There was no report whether the seller got her money back or not. Since she used Zelle, there’s a good chance she didn’t, even with the scammer being arrested.

    If you sell items online, some of the old rules are still true. The first one is not to accept checks. Or, at least tell the buyer that there will be a delay in shipping until the check is verified as genuine. If you receive payment for more than the amount you’re asking for, it’s a scam. The buyer didn’t make a mistake, and there are no movers.

    While it may be convenient to accept payments through platforms like Zelle, Venmo and Cash App, they can also be manipulated.

    Your best bet is to only sell locally and only take cash.

    Lastly, we always recommend meeting the other person at a local police department. Many police departments now have areas designed for such exchanges. While it won’t guarantee you won’t be scammed, it goes a long way as a deterrent to scammers.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on October 19, 2022 Permalink | Reply
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    Check cashing scam targets the homeless 

    By Greg Collier

    We often don’t think about the homless as being scam victims, but they often are. What money they manage to save can often end up in the hands of scammers. We’ve seen multiple instances where rental scammers have taken the last penny from homeless victims who have done what they can to afford a place to stay. Only for the victims to start all over again. That’s only one of the scams that are frequently being perpetrated on the homeless. There are also scams that could land homeless victims in jail while the scammers get away.

    In Michigan, it’s being reported that scammers are using the homeless to try to cash fraudulent checks. The scammers are allegedly approaching homeless people, asking them if they’re looking for work. If they say yes, the scammers will promise them partial payment from a check the scammers have. The catch is, the homeless person needs to cash it for them.

    So, there are two likely outcomes with this scam. The first is, the check gets cashed. Whether the homeless victim gets paid is mostly unknown because the second scenario is more likely. In the more likely scenario, the check is discovered as being fraudulent and the homeless victim trying to cash it gets arrested.

    This happened to a homeless Michigan man who is currently in jail for allegedly trying to cash a fraudulent check. He was promised $900 out of a $6000 check for some construction work but was arrested at a national bank branch.

    This is far from an isolated case as this scam has been reported in the South, New England, parts of the Midwest and Southern California.

    If you’re homeless, anyone who asks you to cash a check for them is essentially using you as a shield from the police. Nothing good can ever come from it. If you know someone who is homeless, please consider asking them if they’re aware of this scam.

    Most homeless people are not homeless by choice and are still human beings. We should be taking more steps to protect them rather than allowing them to be taken advantage of.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on October 13, 2022 Permalink | Reply
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    Scam Round Up: Phony Law Firm Scam and more 

    Scam Round Up: Phony Law Firm Scam and more

    By Greg Collier

    This week, in the Scam Round Up, we’ll be reminding our readers of an old scam, a new twist on a familiar scam, and a new and potentially terrifying scam.

    ***

    Lots of scams are designed to swindle people who are looking to make a supplemental income. One of those scams is the car wrap scam. This is where scammers promise to pay you for putting advertising decals on your car and just driving around town. While there are legitimate opportunities to do this, they aren’t as frequent as the scammers would have you believe. They’ll also go to great lengths to try to convince you that they’re the legitimate offer.

    For example, an Arkansas man received what appeared to be a legitimate car wrap offer in the mail. The offer appeared professional in nature, but the closer the man looked, the more he realized it was a scam.

    The offer included a check for $3700. $100 of it was for gas, $600 was supposed to be the man’s payment, and the remaining $3000 was supposed to go to the company that would wrap his car. Except, he was supposed to deposit the check and then pay the company through Venmo or Cash App.

    Thankfully, the man waited before sending any of the money. He waited for his bank to let him know whether the check was legitimate or not, and it turned out to be fraudulent. Just by waiting, he saved himself from being thousands of dollars in debt to his bank.

    ***

    Speaking of fake check scams, one seems to be hitting the real estate market hard. Scammers are sending fraudulent cashier’s checks to realtors and title companies, posing as someone who is interested in buying a house. Once the check is deposited, the scammers claim they’ve changed their mind about the home and want their money back. Now, most knowledgeable realtors won’t move forward with any transaction until the check clears.

    While most realtors wouldn’t fall for this scam, it’s still tying up properties while realtors wait to see if the check is real. Taking a property off the market and putting it back on can not only hurt the home’s value, but it also keeps it out of the hands of people needing to find a home.

    ***

    Lastly, we have a story about a man who received a cal from a law firm trying to collect a debt. The law firm said that he had defaulted on a loan from 2016. The caller said they needed to send someone to his home to receive his signature. The scammers even knew a lot of information about their target, including his Social Security number, and the names of his family members.

    They said he owed $9000 but would be willing to take an immediate payment of $4000. The man was taken aback at first, but once he gathered his composure, he realized this was a scam. After the man hung up on the scammers, the scammers called the man’s adult son to try to intimidate the man further.

    If you receive a call from someone trying to collect a debt, ask them to mail you a debt verification letter that will detail where the debt supposedly came from. If they know way too much information about you than they should, consider putting fraud alerts on all your financial accounts.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on October 6, 2022 Permalink | Reply
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    Romance scammer defrauds victim of $82,000 

    Romance scammer defrauds victim of $82,000

    By Greg Collier

    Romance scammers are some of the cruelest scammers out there. They take advantage of someone’s loneliness while stringing them along for weeks or months before leaving them with an empty bank account or worse.

    This is what happened to a woman from the Chicago area after meeting a man online. The 37-year-old woman met her scammer on the dating app Hinge. The scammer claimed to be an architectural engineer from Greece, who was currently working in America. The scammer also claimed that he had a five-year-old daughter who was living with his sister in Utah.

    The conversations moved off the Hinge platform and on to various other methods, including phone calls. The scammer acted like a man in love, while the victim thought she was in an authentic relationship.

    Six weeks into the phony relationship, the scammer started sowing the seeds of their master plan. He claimed he needed to get $500 to his sister to help pay for his daughter’s care. The victim sent the $500 to the sister through PayPal. To lull the victim into a false sense of security, the scammer actually paid back $500 to the victim. As we’ll see, $500 was a small price for the scammer to pay to get their ultimate payoff.

    The scammer sent the victim a check for $85,000. He claimed the money needed to go to his daughter, but he couldn’t get to his own bank. He asked her to deposit the check in her account before wiring $82,000 to the supposed man’s sister. The scammer even advised her to deposit the check through an ATM, probably so it wouldn’t draw any attention from bank employee’s. The check turned out to be fraudulent, leaving the victim with a negative balance of $82,000.

    When the victim messaged the scammer about the check, the scammer went dark. However, she did receive a Facebook message claiming to be from the FBI telling her that she had been scammed. This message was more than likely from the scammer as well.

    Anybody who asks you to deposit a check into your account to pay someone else is almost assuredly trying to scam you. Banks do not wait for the check to clear before making the funds available. There is a several day window where the scammers can strike. If the money is taken out of the victim’s bank account before the check clears, then the victim will be responsible for paying that money back to the bank.

    Dating apps typically do not do any kind of background check on their users. If you meet someone online, the first thing you should do is a reverse image search to make sure they’re not using pictures stolen from elsewhere on the internet.

    Lastly, if the person you meet claims to have a job that makes it difficult to meet in person, this is a good indicator of a potential scam. These jobs can include a military member stationed overseas, oil rig workers, and international business workers.

     

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