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  • Geebo 8:00 am on August 4, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    Rideshare driver gets scammed out of account 

    Rideshare driver gets scammed out of account

    By Greg Collier

    Rideshare services like Lyft and Uber have been used in countless scams before. For example, many grandparent scammers use them as a sort of courier service to pick up the money from their victims. We’ve even seen some rideshare drivers using shady tactics to get more money out of their passengers, even though we understand that is not representative of all drivers. However, the drivers themselves are also vulnerable to scams, and we’re not talking about passengers trying to cheap out on a fare.

    A Lyft driver in Denver, Colorado, was on duty when she received a text message that appeared to come from Lyft. The text listed a phone number the sender wanted the driver to call. When the driver called the number, she was greeted by someone claiming to be a Lyft representative.

    The supposed representative told the driver a passenger had accused her of smelling like alcohol while working, and they were going to disable her app while they verified her account information. The caller took the driver’s phone number, date of birth, and driver’s license number for verification purposes.

    When the caller told the driver, they cleared her of the accusation, they sent her an authorization code that was supposed to get the driver back on the Lyft app. What the authorization code was really for was so the scammers could put their debit card on the driver’s Lyft account. This allowed them to cash out the driver’s account, which cost the driver close to $500.

    Now, you might be asking, how does this affect you, since you’re probably not a rideshare driver. Well, this could happen to anyone who works what is called a ‘gig economy’ job. You could receive a phone call claiming to be from the host platform saying there is something wrong with your account that could delay your payment. If you receive a phone call like that, tell them you’ll call them back, and check directly with the platform, itself. Most if not all gig economy apps should have a feedback link where you can contact the company.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on August 2, 2023 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: impersonation scam, , ,   

    Record heatwave brings out shut off scams 

    By Greg Collier

    With most of the country experiencing record-breaking heatwaves, we probably don’t have to tell you that 2023 is on its way to being the hottest year in recorded history. So, leave it to the scammers to use the sweltering heat to intimidate their victims into giving them money. While shut-off scams are common during this time of year, scammers are now packing a one-two punch of shut-off scams.

    Shut off scams typically depend on weather extremes. They tend to hit during blizzards and cold snaps, or punishing heatwaves. In the shut-off scam, scammers will pose as the power company when calling their victims. The scammers threaten their victims with having their electric service terminated for a past due balance. Victims are then told their service will be turned off in 15-30 minutes if a payment isn’t made immediately. Scammers will ask for payment in unusual means such as gift cards, but we’ve seen instances where victims are directed to make payment at Bitcoin ATMs.

    However, this summer we’re seeing another shut-off scam in addition to the power shut-off scam. Scammers are also posing as the local water company while threatening to shut off service. Being threatened with having your water turned off may even be more intimidating than having your electricity turned off. Then again, some homes can’t even have their water function without electricity. So, either way, this scam could be a nightmare for any consumer.

    It’s easy to protect yourself from this scam if you know about it. Utility companies, such as power and water, never call their customers and only give them a 15-minute warning before service is terminated. That should be the first red flag. Typically, utility companies will send several warnings in the mail before terminating service. Secondly, utility companies will never have you make payments to them in gift cards, cryptocurrency, or payment apps like Zelle and Venmo.

    If you receive a phone call like this, hang up. Don’t give the caller any personal information, even if they seem to know who you are. Then call your local utility to verify your account is in good standing.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on July 31, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    Do banks only help scam victims when the news gets involved? 

    Do banks only help scam victims when the news gets involved?

    By Greg Collier

    When we started posting about Zelle scams is when we first discovered how unhelpful banks can be when it comes to those who fell victim to these scams. Scammers will walk the victim through the Zelle app to have them transfer money to the scammers under false pretenses. Since the victim made the actual transaction, many banks will tell the victim they can’t get their money back. To the bank, or so they claim, the transaction looks authentic to them, so they can’t issue a refund to the victim.

    However, occasionally, victims will have their money returned to them after they tell their story to their local media. This typically involves the victim going to their local TV news consumer reporter. In turn, the reporter asks the bank for comment, which more often than not results in the bank issuing a refund.

    For example, a Massachusetts woman recently fell for a scam which resulted in her bank account being emptied by scammers. She received a call from scammers who were posing as PayPal to tell her there was in issue with her account. The scammers sent her a link to click on, and when she did, scammers took control of her phone. Before she knew it, $3500 was gone from her bank account.

    Her bank allegedly denied her claim until her local news station got involved. The bank reportedly claimed they reversed their decision after their decision after the victim provided additional information.

    But are these bank refunds a result of the plane crash principle? The principle says that we only hear about the planes that crash, but we don’t hear about the vast majority of planes that continually land safely.

    Are banks issuing refunds to scam victims without the media getting involved? We’d like to think they are, but somehow, we doubt it. As someone once told us, banks are in the business of making money, not issuing refunds. Not to mention, if banks started issuing refunds on demand to scam victims, it won’t be long before scammers start claiming they’ve been the victims of scams.

    The banks need to implement better initiatives to protect their customers from scammers. Education has not been enough, as scammers often intimidate their victims into ignoring the education. If just one major bank came forward with a new program to protect their customers from scammers, we’re sure it would not only be great PR for them, but they would probably attract many new customers.

    However, it will most likely be a long time before that happens. In the meantime, we need to look out for ourselves. If you receive a phone call from any company related to money, like PayPal, Zelle, Venmo, or even your own bank, hang up, and call them back at the company’s official customer service number. You can find these numbers, if the company has one, on their website under the contact section.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on July 28, 2023 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , impersonation scam, , , , ,   

    Scam Round Up: Weird AI scam and more 

    Scam Round Up: Weird AI scam and more

    By Greg Collier

    Our first scam comes to us from Athens, Texas, where residents have been experiencing a twist in the arrest warrant scam, also known as a police impersonation scam. Typically, when scammers pose as police, they’ll call their intended victims and tell them they have a warrant out for their arrest, The scammers usually claim this for missed jury duty, but they can also claim a number of other infractions.

    For example, residents of Athens have complained the scammers are accusing their victims of using their phone to transmit a photo that traumatized a child. Essentially, the scammers accused their victims of sending explicit material to a child. The victim is then asked to pay several hundred dollars over the phone to resolve the complaint.

    That’s not how arrest warrants work. If there is a warrant for your arrest, especially one that’s supposedly this serious, the police are not going to call you over the phone. Also, no law enforcement agency will ask for money over the phone, and then ask for it in unusual ways, like gift cards or cryptocurrency, just to name a few.

    If you receive a call like this, hang up and call your local police at their emergency number. Not only can you verify there is no warrant for your arrest, you can let the police know scammers are working in your area.

    ***

    Police in Connecticut are warning residents there has been an uptick in check washing. Check washing typically involves stealing checks that are in outgoing mail. Thieves often steal the mail from residential mailboxes, along with the outdoor drop-off boxes used by the US Postal Service. They then dip the written checks in a chemical solution that removes the ink from the check, so the thieves can write the checks to themselves.

    The police in Connecticut are also warning residents the thieves can steal checks out of your trash. If you use your bank’s mobile app to deposit checks, and then throw the checks out, make sure they’re properly shredded before throwing them out, as check washing can still be performed on voided checks.

    If you have to write a check, which is going in the mail, use a gel-based ink pen. The ink in gel pens is said to be more resistant to check washing. Also, don’t put the envelope that holds the check in your mailbox and the put the mailbox flag up. This is a signal to thieves there may be a check in there.

    ***

    Lastly, we’ve read about another AI voice-spoofing scam. There has been a rash of these scams nationwide over the past year or so. In this scam, the victim gets a phone call where the voice sounds like exactly like one of the victim’s loved ones. The scammers manipulate the loved one’s voice in such a way where it sounds like the actual loved one is in some kind of trouble and needs money to resolve the issue. Typically, the scammers ask for bail money, or in some cases a ransom. However, the loved one is usually unaware their voice is being used in a scam.

    However, the recent news article we read out of Alabama, suggests scammers are using the voice-spoofing technique in identity theft. An Alabama woman received a call she thought was from her brother, but was actually from scammers. Instead of asking for money, they asked the woman for personal information. They then used this information to hijack her Facebook account and use that for additional scams. Police there have said the scammers used the videos the brother posted on social media to mimic his voice with AI.

    We can’t say for sure, but this sounds like the scammers may have been asking for the woman’s security questions in case she lost her Facebook password. Considering the answers to these questions are something like “What was your first pet’s name?” or “What city were you born?” these may seem like innocuous questions coming from a close family member.

    In cases like this, it’s best to ask the family member calling a question only they would know to verify their identity.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on July 21, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    Scammers hope you miss your flight 

    Scammers hope you miss your flight

    By Greg Collier

    If you’ve ever had to travel by air, then you’re probably familiar with flight delays and cancellations. Unfortunately, they’re an inevitable part of flying. Or maybe you got stuck in traffic and missed your flight. When this happens, what’s the first thing you do. For some, it’s to get on the phone with their airline to see if they can reschedule a new flight to get to their destination. But very few people have the customer service number memorized or saved to their phone. So, they’ll Google the airline’s number, and the next thing they know, they’ve paid five times the original ticket price and are still stuck at the airport without an updated flight.

    So, how does something like this happen? A couple of ways, actually. Typically, scammers will buy sponsored listings on search engines to have their fake phone number promoted over the official number. Or they pose as the airline and tell the search engine company that their phony number is the new customer service number.

    When a weary and frustrated traveler calls a scam call center, a scammer, posing as a customer service agent, will tell the traveler they can book them a new flight with no problem. Except, the new ticket costs multiple times more than the original ticket price. Then the scammers will either ask for your payment information, or they’ll ask for an unusual payment method like gift cards or cryptocurrency. As you can probably imagine, they’re not booking anyone a new flight, either.

    If you find yourself in this situation, don’t rely on search engines for phone numbers. Instead, go to the airline’s website and find their customer service number there. If you do call an unauthorized customer service number and the customer service rep doesn’t mention the airline’s name when answering your call, that could be a good indicator you’re talking to a scammer. Lastly, when flying, use a credit card whenever possible. Credit cards offer much more protection than a debit card.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on June 29, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    New scam becomes disturbing trend 

    By Greg Collier

    Let’s just come right out and say it. Funeral scammers are ghouls. Most people are at their lowest emotional point when they’re confronted with having to inter a loved one. Since scammers use emotional manipulation as one of their tools, they’ve decided that when families are grieving is the best time to target them in a scam. But not just any scam, mind you. Scammers are specifically targeting the funeral home process to try to extort money from their victims. And unfortunately, this scam is starting to become even more prevalent.

    Funeral scammers will comb the obituaries of the recently deceased. Traditionally, obituaries will contain the name of the funeral home that’s taking care of the deceased’s funeral proceedings. While spoofing the funeral home’s phone number, scammers will call the deceased’s family claiming to be from the funeral home. Typically, the scammers will say an item was left off the billing or that the family needs to pay some form of additional insurance before asking for an immediate payment over the phone. In some instances, the scammers will even act like they’ll hold the deceased’s remains hostage until a payment is made.

    Recently, funeral scammers targeted a family from the Philadelphia area. Just hours after the deceased’s obituary had been published, scammers were calling the family looking for money. The scammers used a funeral home employee’s name they had gotten from the funeral home’s website. They told the family urn/casket insurance had not been purchased and would need to be done so immediately. Thankfully, the family recognized this for what it was, and hung up the call. They called the funeral home themselves just to verify they had spoken to a scammer.

    In the unfortunate event you have to plan a funeral for a loved one, it’s recommended to get an itemized statement from the funeral home. This will go a long way in helping to protect you and your family from these scammers.

    It’s a shame the grieving have to be warned about funeral scams, but unfortunately, that is the world we live in today.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on June 23, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    Like we need another bank scam 

    By Greg Collier

    We’re pretty sure it goes without saying that bank customers are one of the largest targets of scammers. If we’re not being assailed by text messages telling us to protect hacked accounts through Zelle, our debit card information is being stolen through skimmers, or people are trying to get us to deposit phony checks. Now, bank scammers are pulling an old scheme which seems almost antiquated by today’s standards.

    According to a report out of Florida, several residents have received robocalls from scammers posing as banks. And we say banks, we mean a few different banks. At one point, a potential victim could receive a robocall that says it’s from Bank of America, while getting one shortly later that says they’re from Wells Fargo. However, both robocalls say the same thing.

    The robocalls will tell you a purchase you made with your debit card has been declined, and your card has been blocked. The message also provides a customer service number for the recipient to call. The customer service number leads to a scam call center, where the scammers will attempt to obtain not only your financial information but, possibly, your money as well.

    If you were to get one of these robocalls, and it says it’s from Bank of America, and you actually bank at Bank of America, that’s a coincidence. That also goes for most of the major banks. Scammers will set out the widest net possible in order to catch as many potential victims as they can.

    If you receive one of these robocalls, do not call the number they leave. Instead, call your bank’s customer service number from the back of your debit card. If you were to call the scammers’ number, they would only need a little bit of information or a touch of misdirection before they could empty your account and disappear into the wind.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on June 9, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    No change in Zelle scam with scammers or banks 

    No change in Zelle scam with scammers or banks

    By Greg Collier

    In a few months, it will be two years since we first started posting stories about the Zelle scam. Since it’s been a while since we’ve posted about it last, let’s have a quick refresher.

    Zelle is a personal payment app whose parent company is co-owned by several of the nation’s biggest banks. Some of these banks include, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and US Bank, just to name a few. Often, these big banks will have the Zelle service baked in to that bank’s phone app. Many customers of these banks don’t even realize they have Zelle on their devices.

    Zelle is designed to be used between friends and family, much like Venmo and Cash App. However, also like Venmo and Cash App, Zelle also has its fair share of scammers.

    Another problem with the Zelle scam is the banks that use Zelle are very hesitant to offer refunds to the victims of scams. The banks state since the customer authorized the transaction, even under false pretenses, the transaction is considered legitimate. Some banks have only offered refunds after the victim has taken their story to their local media.

    Here is an example of how the scam works. Recently, a man from North Carolina received a text message asking him if he made a $7500 Zelle transfer to a person he didn’t know. The text appeared to come from his bank, Bank of America. The text message said to reply yes or no to the text message. The man sent a text reply of ‘no’, but it wouldn’t have mattered how he replied, since he was actually texting with scammers.

    After he sent his reply, he received a phone call that looked like it was coming from B of A, complete with the caller ID showing the B of A customer service number. The number was spoofed by the scammers, which is an easy thing for them to do. The scammers were posing as customer service agents from B of A. They gave the man instructions on how to protect his money from the fraudulent transaction, but what they were really doing was walking him through the steps to send money to the scammers. In his case, it was $1500. The man claims when he inquired with B of A, they allegedly told him it was his responsibility.

    Anytime you receive a notification that looks like it came from your bank asking you about a transaction or telling you your account is at risk, do not reply. Instead, call your bank’s customer service department directly to verify if there is an actual problem with your account.

    If you’ve fallen victim to this scam, contact police immediately. While it’s not a guarantee of getting your money back, it does go a long way in helping. Lastly, if your bank is refusing a refund, think about going to your local media with your story, as we have seen some successes after victims have done that.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on June 8, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    Scam Round Up: Money recovered in Social Security scam and more 

    By Greg Collier

    We’re starting off with a pretty grim scam today. We’ve posted about it before, but it seems to be becoming more common, so we thought we’d remind our readers about it. We’re talking about the funeral home scam. Scammers have been going through obituaries and targeting the families of the recently deceased. As a family is in the process of grieving, scammers will call them, posing as whatever funeral home the family is using. The scammers will claim the family needs to make an additional payment before their loved one could be interred.

    Scammers are constantly looking for victims who may be emotionally vulnerable, and what’s more emotional than the passing of a loved one. If you receive a phone call like this, please keep in mind that in most instances, financial arrangements are always handled at the funeral home itself. Hang up on the call, and call the funeral home directly to verify if there are any issues.

    In our second scam story, the summer months can bring about their own scams. One of those is the car wrapping scam. This is when scammers will offer to pay you for wrapping your car with advertisements. In the majority of cases, this is just an avenue for scammers to send their victims a fake check. The victim will be sent a check and told to deposit in their bank account. Then they’re told to use that money to pay the car wrap vendor through apps like Venmo or Cash App before the victim’s bank discovers the check is fraudulent. This leaves the victim on the hook to their bank for the full amount of the check and any associated fees.

    Lastly, a woman from Louisiana was one of the lucky ones recently as authorities were able to recover over $100,000 from a Social Security scam. The woman received a call from who she thought was the Social Security Administration. The news report didn’t say what the scammers were asking payment for, but typically in this scam, the scammers threaten the victim by claiming the victim’s benefits will be cut off if they don’t make the payment.

    The victim wired $146,000 to the scammers’ bank account, but police were able to work with the bank to recover $122,000 of the woman’s money. However, this is the exception and not the rule. In many scams that involve banks, the banks see the transactions as legitimate since they were made by the customer, even if it was done under duress.

    If you receive a call from the SSA, the odds are that caller is a scammer. Hang up the phone, then call the SSA directly at 1-800-772-1213 and let them know what the caller said. If there really is an issue, the SSA will contact you by mail first.

     

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