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  • Geebo 9:00 am on March 8, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Indiana, music student, musician, ,   

    Even musicians fall victim to the fake check scam 

    By Greg Collier

    More so than most people, musicians have a keen eye for scammers when it comes to getting paid. If you’ve ever known a professional or semi-professional musician, you’ve probably heard stories about how they’ve been ripped off by promoters and venue owners, just to name a few. Musicians are often either not paid the amount they were promised, or they have to constantly follow up with whoever owes them money. This is where the term ‘starving musician’ typically comes from. Now, they have yet another payment scam to worry about, and it’s one of the most common scams around today.

    The United States Postal Inspection Service is issuing a warning about the fake check scam, or the overpayment scam, as it’s also known. They’ve highlighted the story of a music student who’s also a gig musician from a university in Indiana. The pianist received an email from her professor that said someone had requested the pianist to play their wedding.

    The pianist contacted the woman who had requested her services, and they agreed on a $200 fee. The pianist received a check for $1900. When the pianist brought this to the attention of the supposed bride, the bride made the excuse of she had accidentally combined the payment of the florist along with that of the pianist. The pianist was then told to deposit the check and send the overage back to the bride at a PayPal address. A few days later, the pianist’s bank discovered the check was fraudulent, and now the musician was out $1700.

    As always, if someone sends you a check for more than the amount you’re asking for, the odds are they’re attempting to scam you. If you deposit the check and then return the overage, you will be held responsible by your bank for the full amount of the check and any associated penalties. However, this story is a great example of how scammers will set out to steal money from just about anyone.

     

  • Geebo 9:02 am on December 29, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: campsite, , , Indiana, , , , , ,   

    You can be scammed at any vacation lodging 

    You can be scammed at any vacation lodging

    By Greg Collier

    Currently, we’re still in the middle of the Christmas vacation season. We hope our readers’ vacation plans went off without a hitch. Hopefully, you didn’t have to experience the massive flight cancellations that took place over the holiday weekend. We also hope your vacation lodging was also to your liking.

    The reason we brought up lodging specifically it that there have been a coupe of stories in the news about people being scammed out of their lodging choices. For example, vacationers to Marco Island, Florida, showed up to what they thought were vacation homes that they rented, only to find out they were rented to someone else. It seems that the victim in these cases paid money to scammers who listed the vacation rentals online but didn’t actually own the properties they claimed to rent. This is just a variation of the rental scam where people think they’re renting a home they found on craigslist when the home is either actually for sale or being rented by a real estate agency instead of some guy from craigslist.

    So instead of getting a rental home, you decide to go camping. There’s no way you can be scammed camping, right? It turns out you can, The state of Indiana is warning campers about third-parties who are claiming to rent out campsites at state parks and forests. The scammers collect the money, but when the campers get to the site they thought they paid for, the site has actually been rented to someone else. In the Hoosier State, campers can only reserve campsites in the state parks through the state itself. Check to see if the state you’re going camping in has the same rules.

    Hotels and short-term rental platforms like Airbnb have their own set of scams to worry about. You can read more about those here and here.

    If you chose to stay home for the holidays this year, you may have made the safest choice of all.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on March 30, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Indiana,   

    Nationwide grandparent scam foiled 

    Nationwide grandparent scam foiled

    By Greg Collier

    Whenever we talk about scams, we usually talk about two things, the scam itself, and how to protect yourself from the scam. However, every so often we talk about the inner workings of a particular scam. For example, we discussed how gift card scammers used runners to drain the cards quickly. Today, we have an insight to another popular scam that’s seen a sharp rise in the past year. That would be the grandparent scam.

    Again, for those who may be new readers, the grandparent scam is when scammers will pose as an elderly victim’s grandchild. They’ll say that they’ve gotten into some kind of legal trouble and need money to rectify the situation. Requests for bail money are usually the more popular versions of the scam, although requests for emergency medical expenses are a close second. The scammers will often ask for payment in some kind of untraceable form like gift cards or money transfers, but one scam ring got very creative in getting their stolen money.

    One scam ring based out of Georgia that consisted of several people were arrested after allegedly trying to collect money they scammed out of some unwitting victim. They’re accused of traveling from city to city finding victims only to have them send cash to unoccupied homes. The scammers would then drive buy the homes and grab the packages off the porches. This particular ring was said to have traveled to Indiana, Illinois, South Carolina, Virginia, Mississippi and Ohio. They were caught trying to get one of the packages from an Indiana porch where police were waiting for them.

    If the scammers had put this much effort into something beneficial instead of a nationwide scam, they’d probably be just as successful and not have to worry about a potential jail sentence.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on January 15, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Indiana,   

    New brushing scam sends you white powder 

    New brushing scam sends you white powder

    Brushing scams are unfortunately, nothing new. This is when you get sent packages to your home of things you didn’t order. Usually, they come from Amazon or some other large online retailer. This is done so third-party vendors with these retailers can give themselves good online reviews in your name. This makes it look like their product was favorably reviewed by verified purchasers. The most infamous brushing scam took place over this past summer when thousands of consumers received unsolicited packages of seeds in the mail.

    We may be facing yet another one of these massive brushing scam incidents. Police in the Indianapolis metro are reporting that residents there have been receiving quite an ominous delivery that they didn’t order. These packages have been said to contain a blue and white powdery substance. Local police say the substance isn’t harmful, but residents should still avoid contact with it. They are also recommending that if you receive one of these packages to contact your local police. The US Postal Inspection Service says that they’ve received reports of consumers from across the country receiving these packages.

    While police in Indiana are stating that the scammers are getting consumers’ personal information from public sources like social media, often these brushing scams can mean one of your online accounts has been compromised. For example, if you received one of these brushing packages from Amazon, your Amazon account may have been compromised. It’s recommended that you change your password if this happens to you. If you were to leave your password the way it is, that could lead to items being purchased with your money. There is also the potential that it could lead to identity theft.

    While the brushing scam may seem relatively harmless at first, it could lead to a world of trouble if the consumer isn’t careful.

     

  • Geebo 9:01 am on May 14, 2018 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Indiana, , ,   

    Smart rental service allows scammers to rent houses they don’t own 

    Smart rental service allows scammers to rent houses they don't own

    We’ve discussed rental service Rently before on this blog. Basically, they are a service that allows rental properties to be seen by prospective renters without anyone having to be there. While it sounds like an idea of great convenience on paper, it’s allowed scammers to take advantage of renters.

    For example, in Indiana, a family found themselves out of $1700 after they thought they had legitimately rented a home that they found on craigslist. That’s not to say there weren’t warning signs. The fake renter claimed he was out-of-town for a wedding but gave the family the access code to the lockbox which contained the keys to the property. Due to the fact that the family had access to the keys, they felt like this transaction was on the level. They then wired the money to the phony seller. As it turns out, it’s not exactly difficult to get the keys from a Rently lockbox. According to a local news report, all you need to do is answer a few questions in order to gain access to the lockbox. What you can do with the keys after that is up to your imagination. Their introduction video from their website even mentions that their service could be vulnerable to scammers.

    The video also notes that anyone wishing to gain access to a property needs to have a valid credit or debit card, however, that can be easily circumvented.

    While the idea of Rently sounds great in theory, there are too many ways to exploit the service to make it a viable alternative to having a real estate agent or property manager show someone around the home. When security is sacrificed in the name of convenience, you don’t really have either.

     

  • Greg Collier 6:01 pm on February 5, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Indiana, ,   

    Super Bowl in Indiana brings tough new human trafficking laws; Other states should take note 

    Millions of eyes have been focused on Indiana for the events leading up to Super Bowl Sunday. It’s a major event for any region, with hundreds of thousands of people coming in for the big game and all of the festivities that go with it. Unfortunately, victims of sex trafficking rings are among those who arrive in cities where big events like the Super Bowl are hosted.

    But here’s a tip of my hat to the state of Indiana for really stepping up its game to send a message to pimps and johns who might be looking to solicit sex-trafficking victims, notably the underage girls who are forced into this world of modern day slavery.

    Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, just days before the big game, signed tough human trafficking legislation into law as a way of giving law enforcement officials and prosecutors the firing power to send a message that says, quite frankly, don’t even think about it. The new law closes previous loopholes and makes it easier to prosecute those who sell children into sex slavery rings. It also reduces the burden for prosecutors to prove coercion, which previously prevented traffickers from being prosecuted if the victim wasn’t being held against her will.

    More importantly, though, is the training efforts for non-law enforcement types, such as hotel employees and cab drivers, have received. These folks now know what to look for in a possible victim – young girls dressed inappropriately for their ages who appear to be quiet and insecure and who avoid eye contact. Likewise, they were warned about girls who fit this profile checking into hotels with no luggage. And they’re taught to understand that the victims are just that: victims, not criminals. These girls need to be rescued, not arrested.

    The Washington Post last week profiled the efforts of the religious congregations that bought shares of stock in major hotel chains so that they could be heard at the hotel executive levels about the responsibilities of the hotels in this fight. Many of the training programs were the direct result of this pressure campaign.

    For some time now, I have been sounding off to anyone who will listen about the responsibilities of online sites – including classifieds sites like Geebo – in preventing these sorts of encounters. Geebo doesn’t accept or post personals ads where these young girls are often advertised for sale. And I have personally called on my industry counterparts – notably Craigslist and Backpage – to do a better job of policing their site for possible human rights crimes.

    For the most part, my pleas have fallen on the deaf ears of my competitors. I guess there’s too much money to be made by selling those ads to be worried about the safety of innocent children being traded in sex slave rings. I can only control what happens on my site – but I’m proud to be a part of a growing effort to educate and inform folks about what’s really happening on these sites and how it can be prevented.

    This law in Indiana is a big positive push forward for our efforts – and I’m hoping that other states follow Indiana’s lead and get serious about laws that send “You’re not welcome here” messages to sex-trafficking criminals.

    Los Angeles Times: Super Bowl: Backed by tougher Indiana Law, nuns target sex trade

     

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