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  • Geebo 8:00 am on October 8, 2024 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: extortion, ICAC, , ,   

    ICAC Task Force Impersonation Scam 

    ICAC Task Force Impersonation Scam

    By Greg Collier

    The Attorney General’s Office in South Dakota is issuing another warning about a scam, this time involving impersonators claiming to be from the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. The scammer calls individuals, accusing them of inappropriate online behavior with a minor and, in a disturbing twist, claims the child has attempted suicide. The victim is then told they face arrest unless they agree to pay the supposed medical expenses of the child. The demands for payment typically range from $1,000 to $8,000 and come with the added pressure of requiring immediate action.

    In some cases, scammers make their story seem even more credible by sending text messages with photos of the victim’s property. These images make it appear as though the victim has been under investigation by the ICAC Task Force, heightening fear and urgency. However, authorities have made it clear that the ICAC Task Force does not operate by contacting citizens to demand money. The inclusion of property photos is also a known scare tactic, often pulled from readily available sources like Google Street View. This method of intimidation has been used in other extortion schemes, where scammers manipulate publicly accessible data to make their threats appear more real.

    It’s important to recognize that this kind of scam can happen anywhere. Scammers exploit technology and public information to create a sense of danger and immediacy. They rely on fear to push individuals into paying quickly, hoping the urgency will prevent victims from questioning the situation. These extortion attempts can happen to anyone, using familiar tactics designed to make the victim feel isolated and vulnerable.

    If a call or message seems suspicious, it’s essential to step back and avoid acting out of fear. Taking time to verify the claims, consulting trusted sources, and reaching out to law enforcement can prevent falling into a scammer’s trap. Avoid providing financial or personal information over the phone or online without careful consideration.

    For those who think they may have been targeted, contacting the proper authorities is critical. Staying informed and cautious is the best defense against these types of fraudulent schemes that prey on fear and manipulation.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on September 10, 2024 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , extortion, ,   

    The Cheating Spouse Scam Has Returned 

    The Cheating Spouse Scam Has Returned

    By Greg Collier

    Following recent reports of a nationwide sextortion scam, a new variation of the scheme is now emerging. This time, the scammers are targeting married couples, falsely accusing one spouse of infidelity. These threatening messages claim that the recipient’s spouse has been hacked and that sensitive data, including personal files, social media activity, and even dating app histories, has been stolen from their devices. The email suggests that this information proves the spouse is cheating and offers the recipient full access to it via a website link.

    What makes these emails particularly concerning is their use of personal names that aren’t commonly associated with individuals online. In several cases, recipients reported seeing maiden names, second last names, or even pet names in the messages—details they had not shared widely. Despite the humor, the source of the data remains a mystery. The exact origins of the information are unclear, but it appears likely that scammers have been mining personal details from publicly available sources or past data leaks.

    Those who tried to investigate the links in the emails reported suspicious activity. Some were prompted to log in, raising concerns about phishing attempts, while others suspected the links were designed to distribute malware. Regardless of the intent, it is essential to recognize these emails as scams.

    Sextortion schemes have become increasingly common over the past few years, and most people now recognize these threats for what they are. Even so, they can still cause distress to recipients, particularly when personal details are involved.

    If you receive an email like this, remember that it is a scam designed to exploit your emotions. The information presented is false, and you should not click on any links or respond. Simply delete the email and, if concerned, monitor your accounts for any unusual activity.

    Protect your data, and always be cautious when unsolicited emails claim to have sensitive information.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on September 9, 2024 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: extortion, Google Maps, ,   

    Extortion Scams Now Include Home Photos 

    By Greg Collier

    A long-standing and troubling scam has taken a disturbing turn, with sextortion fraudsters now leveraging personal details, including photos of victims’ homes, to increase their intimidation. Traditionally, these scams revolved around false claims that hackers had accessed victims’ webcams to capture compromising footage. Today, scammers are incorporating even more personal information, such as the victim’s full name, address, and an image of their home, often sourced from online mapping tools like Google Maps. These new tactics are designed to make the threats feel more real and urgent.

    Victims typically receive emails that address them by name, with threatening messages that include an image of their home or street. The fraudsters claim to have hacked into the victim’s computer and recorded sensitive videos through the webcam, threatening to release these to the victim’s contacts unless a ransom, usually around $2000, is paid via Bitcoin. To push victims into immediate action, the scammers often provide a QR code for easy payment and set a strict deadline, usually 24 hours. The email’s tone is aggressive, warning the recipient not to discuss the situation with anyone or risk the immediate release of the supposed video footage.

    What sets this new wave of sextortion apart is the personalized nature of the threats. The inclusion of a home address and a street photo heightens the anxiety for many victims, making the scam feel more credible. In reality, much of this information is publicly available, but its use in these emails serves as a calculated move to enhance the psychological pressure. The message, often accompanied by intimidating language, leads recipients to believe they are under constant surveillance, even though the threats are entirely fabricated.

    The scam has been reported in several parts of the country, with police departments from various cities warning residents about this evolving threat. Recent cases have emerged in both large cities and smaller communities, from Massachusetts to Connecticut and beyond. Local law enforcement agencies are issuing alerts to inform residents of the scam’s tactics, urging them not to panic or fall victim to the intimidation. The widespread reports suggest that scammers are targeting people indiscriminately, using the same scare tactics across different regions, relying on fear and urgency to elicit payments. These reports have prompted cybersecurity experts and authorities, including the FBI, to remind the public of the importance of staying vigilant and avoiding interactions with such emails.

    To counter these threats, it’s important to recognize that scammers rely on creating a sense of urgency and fear. Keeping calm and refraining from engaging with these emails is crucial. If you receive such an email, avoid opening any attachments or clicking on suspicious links. Covering or disabling webcams when not in use can provide additional peace of mind, as scammers frequently claim to have accessed these devices. Reporting the scam to authorities, including the FBI, is an important step in addressing the issue.

    Ultimately, sextortion scams continue to adapt and evolve, but they remain rooted in the same tactics of intimidation and fear. Public awareness of these schemes and proactive cybersecurity practices can help reduce the impact of these scams. Although the threats may feel personal and frightening, understanding the nature of these scams is key to defusing their power. If you encounter such an email, remaining calm, protecting your privacy, and reporting the incident can make a critical difference in preventing these scams from succeeding.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on August 22, 2024 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , extortion, ,   

    Fraudulent Tutors Become Blackmailers 

    Fraudulent Tutors Become Blackmailers

    By Greg Collier

    If you’re a college or high school student seeking help with homework or test preparation, be cautious. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is sounding the alarm about a rising number of scams involving fraudulent tutors. Instead of providing academic assistance, these scammers exploit students who hire them to complete assignments, using the situation to engage in extortion.

    The scam begins when a student enlists a tutor to handle their assignments or help them cheat on tests. Rather than delivering the promised services, the scammer demands payment upfront, only to later threaten the student with exposure unless additional money is paid. After the initial payment, the scammer often continues to demand more, citing bogus reasons like extra research needs. As a result, students can end up losing thousands of dollars, while receiving no academic help whatsoever.

    The BBB stresses that hiring someone to complete your schoolwork constitutes cheating. For students who need legitimate tutoring to understand their class material, there are ways to avoid falling prey to these cons. First, consider asking friends, family, or teachers for recommendations. Schools often have resources, including other students, who offer tutoring at little to no cost, making them a reliable place to start.

    Additionally, it’s wise to verify the credentials of any potential tutor by asking for references. Contacting those references provides insight into their experiences and the results they’ve seen, helping you make an informed decision. Before starting any tutoring sessions, it’s also essential to agree on availability and rates upfront. While fees might increase for extra sessions ahead of a big test, these should be discussed in advance to avoid unexpected demands, which are often signs of a scam.

    In your quest for academic support, it’s important to be cautious. Taking the time to find a trustworthy tutor helps you learn and ensures that you won’t be taken advantage of by scammers looking to profit from your education.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on July 25, 2024 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , dating apps, extortion, , ,   

    Dating site scam blackmails victims 

    Dating site scam blackmails victims

    By Greg Collier

    Connecting with others has become easier than ever. However, this convenience comes with its own set of risks. Recently, there has been an alarming increase in scams involving imposters pretending to be law enforcement officials. These scammers target unsuspecting victims, often through dating apps, coercing them into parting with their money.

    Recently, in South Carolina, a warning was issued about scammers posing as members of an internet crimes task force or local police. These fraudsters start by luring victims on dating apps, where men believe they are chatting with a woman. Once the conversation progresses, the scam takes a sinister turn. Victims are accused of interacting with a minor and are then approached by scammers posing as a “parent” or “investigator.” They demand money in exchange for dropping the supposed charges. Alarmingly, the scammers have gone as far as using a real investigator’s information to seem more legitimate.

    Legitimate law enforcement officials never request money in exchange for dropping charges. Anyone receiving such calls should report them to local law enforcement agencies.

    A similar scam recently unfolded in Nebraska, where a man lost over $2,000 after befriending a woman on a dating app. After receiving unsolicited photos, he was contacted by someone claiming to work with the police, stating that the girl’s father would not press charges if he paid a sum of money. Trusting the caller, the victim wired the money to an online account.

    These incidents underscore the need for caution in our digital interactions. It is essential to verify the identity of individuals you interact with online, especially if they ask for money. Be wary of unexpected messages or calls, particularly those involving threats or requests for money. Avoid sharing personal or financial information with people you meet online, even if they seem trustworthy. If you receive a suspicious request, contact local authorities directly to verify its legitimacy. Staying informed about common scams and how they operate is your best defense against fraudsters.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on March 27, 2023 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: extortion, ,   

    Recent news has increased this one scam 

    Recent news has increased this scam

    By Greg Collier

    We have no doubt that you know about the recent story of the four Americans who were mistakenly kidnapped in Mexico, with two of the victims dying in the attack. Since scammers always seem to have their fingers on the pulse of the news, this story has led to a resurgence in the virtual kidnapping scam.

    Virtual kidnapping is a phone scam where scammers pretend to have kidnapped a loved one and demand a ransom. They use high-pressure tactics and psychological manipulation to make the victim believe their loved one is in danger.

    One of the more common versions of the virtual kidnapping scam is when the scammers claim to be from a drug cartel. The scammers will say that the victim’s loved one came across something they weren’t supposed to see, and now they’re being held for ransom.

    Typically, the scammers will demand that the victim wires money or pays via cryptocurrency to secure the safe release of their loved one.

    Kidnapping scammers employ a number of tricks to make their claims seem more legitimate. They often spoof the phone number of the victim’s loved one to make the call look like it’s coming from the loved one’s phone. They may use background noise or even play pre-recorded sounds of someone screaming or crying to make the victim believe that their loved one is in danger. More recently, some scammers have even used AI-generated clones of the loved one’s voice.

    It’s important to note that in most cases, the victim’s loved one is not actually in danger and is not being held captive. However, the scammers can use psychological manipulation to convince the victim otherwise and extort money from them.

    If you receive a call from someone claiming to have kidnapped a loved one, it’s important to remain calm and verify the situation before taking any action. Try to get in touch with the supposed victim directly, or reach out to other family members to confirm their safety. You should also report the incident to the police immediately.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on March 16, 2023 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , extortion, , ,   

    AI voice used in kidnapping scam 

    By Greg Collier

    Just over a week ago, we posted about scammers using AI technology to clone a victim’s loved one’s voice for a grandparent scam. It seems that this technique of scammers cloning voices isn’t going away anytime soon. Just recently, AI voice cloning was used in a virtual kidnapping scam in Oklahoma, where the victim lost $3000 to a scammer.

    Virtual kidnapping is a type of scam where a person receives a call or message claiming that their loved one has been kidnapped and demanding a ransom payment for their release. However, in most cases, the supposed victim is actually safe and not in any danger.

    Previously, in most virtual kidnapping scams, the scammers would do almost all of the talking, but they would have someone else in the background crying and screaming, who they claimed was the kidnap victim.

    In this most recent scam, the scam victim thought she was talking to her son and even said that the person on the phone sounded just like her son.

    It started like most virtual kidnapping scams do. The victim received a phone call from an unknown caller who told the woman they had kidnapped her adult son. The caller insinuated that the woman’s son interrupted a drug deal that cost the caller a lot of money. So, if the woman didn’t pay the money that was supposedly lost, they were going to harm her son. Typically, when the victim asks to speak to their loved one, the scammers will make excuses. However, this time, the victim spoke with someone who sounded just like her son.

    Panicked, the woman went to Walmart to wire $3000 to someone in Mexico. The scammer kept her on the phone the entire time. After making the payment, the impostor got back on the phone to say that the kidnappers were letting him go. The scammer’s told her they would drop her son off at that Walmart, but he never appeared. Finally, she was able to get a hold of her son on the phone, who had been at work the entire time.

    The virtual kidnapping scam has been using fear to get victims to pay a phony ransom for years. But now, with the voice cloning technology, the scammers have stepped up the fear to another level. The scammers only need about a minute of your loved one’s voice to be able to clone it. They usually take the voice from recordings that can be found on social media.

    But even if it sounds like a loved one on the phone, the same old precautions should be used. If you receive a call like this, try to have someone contact the person who’s supposedly been kidnapped. When they put your loved one on the phone, ask them a question that only they would know the answer to. Or have a family code word set up in advance that’s only to be used if the loved one is in danger.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on November 24, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: extortion, , , ,   

    When pets go missing, scammers follow 

    By Greg Collier

    It only takes a moment. Maybe you left the front door open just a second too long. Or maybe the leash gets yanked out of your hand while on a walk. Before you know it, your pet is long gone, run off to who knows where in the neighborhood. You hope your neighbors are kind enough to let you know if they spot your pet, so you put up notices on platforms like Facebook, Craigslist, and Nextdoor. You even post fliers on telephone poles in the area. However, you’re teased with brief glimpses of hope as people claim that they’ve found your pet, only to find out that they’re scammers.

    This is what happened to a woman in Texas when her 17-year-old dog with special needs got out of the family’s home in the blink of an eye. The dog’s owner posted about her lost dog on social media and put out physical fliers that included her phone number. It wasn’t long before people started calling her, claiming to have her dog. One caller asked the woman to enter a verification code to prove she was the dog’s owner. While the report doesn’t state it, this sounds a lot like the Google Voice scam. This is where scammers can get a Google Voice number linked to your phone number and use the Google number to commit future scams.

    Another caller said that they were going to harm the dog and sent the woman a picture of a gun. Again, while the report doesn’t mention it, this scammer was probably trying to extort some kind of payment out of the dog’s owner even though they didn’t have the dog.

    Unfortunately, the woman has yet to find her lost dog.

    So what can you do to prevent this from happening to you and your pet? The first thing you should do before a pet can run off is take them to the vet and get them microchipped. Chipped pets have a much better chance of being returned home. If you need to post fliers or social media posts, use your email address instead of your phone number. Scammers can find a lot of personal information about you if they know your phone number. If someone claims to have your pet, ask them to send a picture of your pet. And if someone claims to have your pet and asks you to wire money or send them gift cards, they do not have your pet and are just trying to scam you.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on November 18, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: extortion, , , ,   

    Florida father falls victim to kidnapping scam 

    By Greg Collier

    Even after all this time, we still get comments from readers who claim that they would never fall for any of the scams we’ve discussed. While that may be true, we still maintain that anyone can fall victim to a scam if the circumstances are right. For every victim that falls for a scam, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of attempts by scammers that fail. While the odds may be in your favor that you won’t fall for a scam, they’re never at zero, as one man from Florida recently found out.

    The man from the Tampa Bay area was busy working as a DJ at a local wedding when he received two phone calls. One was from his 17-year-old daughter and the other was from Mexico. He couldn’t answer the calls at the time since he was working. However, he received a second call from Mexico and answered it since he had family that were vacationing there.

    The caller claimed that he got into a fender bender with the man’s daughter and took her hostage, since the caller claimed to be carrying a substantial amount of drugs. The caller even put what sounded like a young woman crying on the phone. Then the caller demanded the man leave the wedding and wire him $1500 to get his daughter back. The man went to a local supermarket, where he wired money to the scammer. At that point, the call ended. The man called his wife, and she was able to verify that their daughter was safe and had not been kidnapped. The man even stated to local media that this was a perfect storm of circumstances that allowed him to fall victim to the scam.

    This scam is known as the virtual kidnapping scam and according to local police, this scam finds victims around 5-10 times a week in the Tampa area. The FBI has even said that the virtual kidnapping scam is the scam with the third-highest number of victims nationwide.

    As we often tell our readers, actual kidnappings for ransom in the United States are actually quite rare. If you are ever unfortunate enough to receive a one of these calls, try to keep calm. We know that’s easier said than done. Even if the caller is keeping you on the call, find a way to contact the person that the callers are claiming to have kidnapped, or someone who can verify their whereabouts. You should also contact your local police department.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on April 23, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: extortion, , ,   

    Scammers make fake GoFundMe for teen who died from scam 

    Scammers make fake GoFundMe for teen who died from scam

    By Greg Collier

    Tragedy recently struck a town in Upstate New York. A teenage boy fell victim to an extortion scam on social media. He had thought he met a girl who was interested in him on social media. The supposed girl convinced the boy to send compromising photos of himself. Instead, the girl was a blackmailer who threatened to make the pictures public if the boy didn’t pay the scammer $3500. When the teen refused to pay, the scammer kept sending threats. Under the pressure of the photos possibly being made public, the teen tragically took his own life.

    The teen’s parents started a GoFundMe after the teen’s passing. The money from the GoFundMe will be going to fund a scholarship to help kids with practical skills they can use later in life. However, it wasn’t bad enough that scammers essentially talked the teen into taking his own life. On top of that, there were scammers who started another GoFundMe using the teen’s name. Odds are it’s not the same scammer, but a family being victimized twice by scammers in such a matter is infuriating.

    If you have children who are avid social media users, you may want to warn them about this extortion scam. No family should ever have to lose a child to online scammers. You should also be careful what GoFundMe you donate to. While GoFundMe has good intentions, it can be a con artist’s playground. You should only donate to a GoFundMe if it comes from a reliable source like your local news or a trusted friend.

    And while we might sound like a broken record about this, it does show that are no depths that scammers won’t sink to. They only see tragedy as an opportunity to steal money.

     

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