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  • Geebo 9:00 am on March 11, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , identity protection PIN, , money mules, , , , ,   

    Scam Round Up: Protect yourself from tax scammers and more 

    By Greg Collier

    This week on the Scam Round Up, we’re bringing our readers a great tip, a new scam, and a reminder of an old scam.

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    One of the more prevalent tax related scams over the past few years has been scammers filing a tax return in your name, so they can claim your refund check. Previously, we’ve recommended filing your tax return as early as possible to beat the scammers, but that isn’t always possible. However, there is another way to prevent fraudulent returns being filed in your name. The IRS has an option where you can get an identity protection PIN. This is a six-digit number that only you and the IRS know. If this number is not included on your tax return, it will not be processed by the IRS. If you’d like to know more about the identity protection PIN or apply for one, you can find more information at the IRS website.

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    A Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina has recently uncovered a scam that could be affecting people nationwide. According to the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office, scammers are stealing money from bank accounts where the account holder may not notice the missing money. They give estate accounts as an example. The scammers will then send a check to an unsuspecting victim asking them to deposit the check, keep a portion of it, and wire the rest overseas. The Sheriff’s Office found a man who was just getting ready to wire close to $200,000 overseas. If you have an account like an estate account, you may want to check on it periodically to make sure there are no fraudulent transactions. Also, no matter how good the promise of money may be, never deposit a check from a stranger then wire the money somewhere else. Not only could this be a fraudulent check, but you could also potentially get in legal trouble for helping to facilitate the scam.

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    Lastly for today, the Border Patrol scam is making headlines again. This is where scammers will pose as agents of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Victims will receive a phone call that says Border Agents intercepted a box full of drugs and money that was supposedly being shipped to the victim. Other times, the scammers will say that a car rented in the victim’s name was found with drugs in it near the Southern Border. In either case, the scammers will threaten the victim with arrest if they don’t pay a fine. As with most modern scams, the scammers will ask for payment in non-traditional means like cryptocurrency or gift cards. Always keep in mind, no law enforcement agency will ever ask for money over the phone or threaten someone with arrest over the phone.

    ***

    We hope you found this post informative, as nobody should ever have to endure the damaging schemes of scammers.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on December 7, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , money mules, , , ,   

    Can you be tricked into being a money mule? 

    By Greg Collier

    The Federal Government has recently issued multiple warnings about the dangers of becoming a money mule. The phrase is reminiscent of someone who is a drug mule. However, it’s much easier to be a money mule since money mules don’t have to leave the country or there on home for that matter since money can be moved around in several virtual ways. The main problem with money mules is that many of them don’t even know they’re being used to move dirty money around the globe.

    Both the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission have issued warnings about unwittingly becoming a money mule. Most of the ways people become unwitting money mules is through many of the scams that we should already be familiar with. The major ones are the fake check scam and the romance scam. The fake check scam is when the scammer sends you a fake check for any number of reasons. They then ask you to deposit the check into your bank account, keep a little bit of the money for yourself before sending the remainder to a third party. By the time the victim’s bank finds out the check is fake, the scammers have made off with the money, while the victim is responsible for the amount of the check to their bank.

    Meanwhile, the FBI is warning citizens about romance scams and how even victims of a romance scam can find themselves on the wrong side of the law. They’ve released a video about an 81-year-old woman who fell for a romance scam and allegedly helped her ‘boyfriend’ defraud other people.

    The reshipping scam is another avenue where scammers use unwitting participants as money mules. This is when people think they have a legitimate job as a package inspector. The victims receive packages, inspect them, then send them to a third part. The items they inspect are usually bought with stolen credit card information. By the time the credit card company catches on, the merchandise is in another country. If a reshipper does anything to skirt US Custom laws, even if instructed by the scammer, they could face arrest.

    This also includes any scam that involves gift cards or money transfers.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on September 16, 2020 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , money mules, , ,   

    You could be a money mule without realizing it 

    You could be a money mule without realizing it

    If you were to hear the term money mule, you might correlate it with something along the lines of a drug mule. Drug mules are people who are knowingly taking illegal drugs across international borders. So no one would fault you if you thought money mules performed a similar task. The truth is that money mules do perform a similar task but not in the way you might think and often they have no idea they’re doing it.

    Money mules are usually unwitting pawns in international money laundering schemes. Their role is to take in stolen money or goods and send them to a new location. That location could be physical or virtual. Another problem with money mules is that they can be roped into becoming one in a multitude of ways, many of which we have discussed before.

    For example, we’ve discussed reshipping or repacking scams before. This is where you get a work from home job as a ‘shipping coordinator’, ‘warehouse distribution coordinator, or ‘local hub inspector’. You’ll be sent items and told to inspect them for damage before sending the items to a third party. These items are often either stolen or purchased with stolen information. This is one of the most dangerous forms of being a money mule because even if you didn’t know the goods were stolen, you could still go to jail. If you knowingly falsify shipping documents that violate US Customs you are breaking the law.

    Another common way scammers recruit money mules is with other phony job offers. The job itself may not matter but the scammers will send you a fake or stolen check and tell you to deposit it into your bank account. You’ll then be instructed to buy supplies from their ‘preferred vendor’. This is money that will be coming out of your own bank account. Once the bank discovers the check is fraudulent, you’ll be responsible for paying that money back to your bank. This could result in having your bank account closed and you could find it difficult to open a bank account somewhere else.

    Thanks to the current pandemic and the unemployment that’s resulted from it, money mule scams have risen to unprecedented levels. These money mule schemes have increased by 609 percent according to a leading security firm. With so many people desperate for a steady income, many are falling into the traps of these scammers.

    Legitimate employers will never ask you to pay for anything from your own bank account. If one asks you to they’re probably using you as a mule.

     

  • Geebo 8:30 am on April 8, 2020 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , money mules, , stay at home order   

    More ways to identify a coronavirus relief payment scam 

    More ways to identify a coronavirus relief payment scam

    Before we get to the heart of the matter today, The Washington Post has provided its readers with a list of what the stay at home orders mean for each state. Please keep in mind that these are orders are not only in place for your protection but the protection of those who may be at risk.

    Now, we have talked about the coronavirus relief payments before. It seems that everybody is concerned about when and where they are receiving theirs. Again, we’d like to remind you that if you received your 2018 or 2019 tax refund through direct deposit, that is where you will receive your relief payment. As we have also mentioned before, these payments have become the biggest target for scammers lately even though they have yet to be issued. For the majority of people, you will not have to do anything to receive your payment. So anyone emailing, texting, or calling you about your stimulus payment is trying to scam you. Another way to tell that you’re being scammed is how the person approaching you refers to the payment. If they refer to it as anything but an economic impact payment they are more than likely trying to scam you.

    For example, a Florida man received what looked like an official check in the mail that claimed to be from an ‘economic automotive stimulus program’. he only had to go to a ‘stimulus relief site’ to receive his funds. The so-called stimulus relief site was a used car lot that was using the guise of relief payments to get customers.

    The FBI has even put out a warning to consumers to try to stop them from becoming money mules during the pandemic. This is when scammers will have their victims place funds in the victim’s bank account then have the victim remove it and send it to a third party. Sometimes the funds are real and are using the victims to launder the money, other times the money may not even exist while the victim deposits a fake check in their bank account before sending the funds to someone else. These schemes could take the form of work at home scams and charity scams.

    Lastly, the Better Business Bureau is warning about a new twist on an old scam taking place on Facebook Messenger. The BBB is saying that Facebook accounts are being hijacked by scammers who use them to tell victims about grants they may qualify for during the pandemic. The victim believes they’re talking to a close friend when in fact they’re talking to a scammer. The hook with these scams is that they want you to pay a fee in order to receive the grant. However, once payment is made there is no grant money coming.

    Money is tight during the current crisis. Once again, we ask that you don’t let the fear surrounding the pandemic sway you into making choices that may cost you in the long run. Please stay safe and healthy.

     

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