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  • Geebo 8:00 am on July 22, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , money transfer, , , , , t-shirt scam,   

    Scam Round Up: New Social Security scam and more 

    Scam Round Up: New Social Security scam and more

    By Greg Collier

    This week in the Scam Round Up, we’re bringing you a story with a happy ending, for once, and a whole bunch of scams.

    ***

    Our happy ending story is one that starts out with a Philadelphia-area man who fell for the grandparent scam. He was led to believe his son was in jail on a DUI and needed $25,000 for bail. The scammers enlisted the service of a Lyft driver who was supposed to take the $25,000 to the scammers. The driver felt like something was up and tried to confirm the identity of the so-called attorney who was supposed to get the money. When the attorney wouldn’t provide identification to the Lyft driver, the driver took the money to police, who were able to return the money to the victim.

    Please keep in mind, if someone says they’re sending a rideshare or courier to your home to pick up money for some kind of emergency, the odds are pretty good they’re trying to scam you. If a relative or loved one claims to be in jail, attempt to contact them first before sending any money. More than likely, you’ll find out they’re ok.

    ***

    Just because Amazon’s Prime Day is over, that doesn’t mean Amazon scams will stop. A sheriff’s office just outside of Richmond, Virginia, is warning residents about an Amazon phone scam taking place there. In this scam, the victims receive a call from someone claiming to be with Amazon. The caller will say there are suspicious charges on the victim’s account. They’ll then say they’re connecting you with police. Except, everyone on the call is a scammer trying to get your financial information.

    Amazon rarely calls their customers, even if there are fraudulent charges. If you receive a phone call like this, hang up, then check your Amazon account to make sure there are no fraudulent charges on the account.

    ***

    An old used car scam is making a reappearance, or maybe it never went away. The Better Business Bureau is warning consumers about used cars for sale that the seller claims is being stored out of state. The scammers will claim that you need to pay a transport company with either gift cards or a money transfer. Often, the scammers will claim that eBay is shipping the vehicle. While eBay does have a used car marketplace, they do not do any shipping of vehicles. And as usual, gift cards should only be used as gifts, and money transfers should never be sent to people you don’t know personally.

    ***

    One scam that has been popping up all over the country is the police T-shirt scam. From coast to coast, residents have been receiving text messages that claim to be selling T-shirts for their local police department. The text message contains a link that is supposed to be a shop for the T-shirts, but is actually a fake website designed to take your financial information. If you receive one of these texts, block the number and delete the text.

    ***

    Lastly, there seems to be a new Social Security scam going around the country. According to reports, there’s an ad circulating on social media that claims Social Security will provide a spending card for adults over the age of 51. This is not true, as Social Security offers no such service. More than likely, if someone tries to apply for one of these fictitious cards, the scammers will either ask for financial information, or they’ll ask for a payment first before the card can be issued.

    If you see an ad that promises you amazing Social Security or Medicare benefits, be very skeptical of them. Too often, these services are either misleading or downright fraudulent.

    If you have any questions about these advertised services, it is recommended you contact the Social Security Administration first at 1 (800) 772-1213.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on June 30, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , money transfer, , , ,   

    Walmart sued over money transfer scams 

    By Greg Collier

    Before Zelle and cryptocurrency became all the rage among scammers, money transfer services were in vogue. In many of the scams we’ve detailed over the years, money transfer services like Western Union and MoneyGram were used to extort money out of scam victims. This was done because once a scammer collects the money from a money transfer location, they can disappear into the wind. This meant that once a scam victim sent their money to a scammer through one of these services, the money was gone and could not be recouped.

    This did not go unnoticed by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC sued both MoneyGram and Western Union for failure to protect their customers from scams and frauds. Both services were ordered to pay restitution to scam victims. As expected, the losses of both companies ended up being in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

    Now, the FTC has gone after the one company that has a MoneyGram or Western Union in each of its locations. That would be the retail giant Walmart. The FTC is suing Walmart, claiming the retail chain also did not do enough to protect their customers from money transfer scams. Walmart is accused of turning a blind eye to scams while collecting money for the transfer fees. In its complaint, the FTC claims Walmart did not properly train its employees and failed to adequately warn consumers of the dangers of using money transfers. The FTC is looking to have Walmart also pay restitution to scam victims.

    To be fair, when we do post about scams that involve money transfers, the victim is almost always instructed to use one of the services at a Walmart.

    In its defense, Walmart claims that the FTC has overreached its boundaries, considering they’ve already won lawsuits against both MoneyGram and Western Union for their failure to prevent fraud.

    What do you think? Is Walmart responsible for allowing scams to happen, or has the FTC done enough already? Please let us know in the comments.

     

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

    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 9:00 am on November 19, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , money transfer, , ,   

    This mortgage scam is more common that you think 

    This mortgage scam is more common that you think

    By Greg Collier

    The mortgage scam we’re about to discuss we’ve posted about before. While it’s not a new scam, what surprised us is how often this scam supposedly happens.

    The scam is known as the business email compromise scam, but that phrase encompasses a number of scams where scammers cam imitate business emails that they’ve hijacked. Often these hijacked accounts are used to target someone else that’s in that business, such as someone in payroll or accounting who can issue checks. However, the BEC scam can also target outside customers as well. In this case, people who are getting ready to close on a home.

    In the mortgage version of this scam, scammers are monitoring the email accounts of title companies. The scammers have gained access to these email accounts through malware attacks. When the process is almost complete, the scammers will send an email to the home buyer that appears to have come from the title company asking for the final closing cost to be wired. In one recent case in North Carolina, that amount came to almost $50,000 that the home buyer lost to scammers. By the time the home buyer realized he’d been scammed, the money he wired had already been wired again to multiple locations.

    What really surprised us about this recent scam was that the FBI has said that this mortgage scam is more common than ransomware attacks. Since we hear about ransomware attacks against companies and hospitals on an almost weekly basis, this scam must happen quite often.

    The best way to protect yourself against this scam is to confirm any transactions with your title company over the phone before sending any money. Other tips include if the money wiring instructions are different from before or if there are grammatical errors in the email.

     

  • Geebo 8:06 am on July 29, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , money transfer, ,   

    Secret Shopper scam tries to streamline 

    By Greg Collier

    Secret Shopper scams are back again. To be honest, they never really go away, but if the scammers were to be believed there would be more secret shoppers than actual shoppers.

    Being a secret shopper is an actual job. Many retailers hire secret shoppers to go to their various stores and review the shopping and customer service experience. It’s a job that’s been around for decades, too. When I was in my late teens, I was working a retail job and was admonished by my manager because a secret shopper caught me not wearing my name tag. You better believe I wore my name tag from then on.

    The secret shopper position has long been a favorite tool of scammers. In this latest case reported by the Better Business Bureau of Tulsa, scammers are emailing victims telling them that they’ve already been approved to be a secret shopper. If a victim responds to the email, they’re then told that they need to review a money wire transfer service like MoneyGram or Western Union. The victims are then sent a phony check. They’re instructed to deposit the check in their bank account. Then the victim is told to use the wire transfer service to transfer most of the money back to their boss and are told to keep part of the check as payment. Since the check is fraudulent, the victim who deposited it in their bank account is responsible for the check’s amount and any fees to their bank. Yet, the scammers have made off with the majority of the value of the check.

    This is the most streamlined version of this scam we’ve seen in quite some time. Typically, scammers will send you the fake check, have you deposit it, have you buy some items at whatever store they’re imitating, then have you send back the difference. This version of the scam goes right to the heart of the matter and has victims just essentially send the scammers money.

    As we have stated, secret shopper is an actual paying job. However, no company is going to email you out of the blue to tell you that you’ve been chosen. The position is actually a lot more rare than the scammers make it out to be. That’s not even taking into consideration that no real employer will ask you to deposit a check in your own bank account before spending it. And any time money transfer services or gift cards are involved, you can assume that everything about the job is a scam.

    If you want to actually become a secret shopper, you can check with the Mystery Shopping Providers Association at their website.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on June 4, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , money transfer, , , settlement   

    MoneyGram scam victims can get money back 

    MoneyGram scam victims can get money back

    By Greg Collier

    It’s not often that we have good news for readers, but today we have some good news.

    Often, we like to remind our readers that gift cards are the currency of scammers due to the ease in which scammers can empty the funds from gift cards. Prior to the rise in popularity of gift cards, money transfer services like Western Union and MoneyGram were the tool of choice for scammers to take money from their victims. These services are still used by scammers because a scammer can just walk up to a money transfer county, get their money, and disappear. That and the fact money can be transferred just about anywhere in the world.

    Late last year, we discussed how Western Union settled with the Department of Justice for $153 million after Western Union was accused of turning a blind eye to scammers. In that post, we also discussed how victims of Western Union scams could try to claim part of that settlement. Now, it’s MoneyGram’s time to do the same.

    On June 1st, the Federal Trade Commission announced that victims of MoneyGram scams can claim their portion of a $125 million settlement MoneyGram made with the DOJ. However, there are some requirements before you can file for your claim. You have had to have been a victim of a scam that used MoneyGram between Jan. 1, 2013 and Dec. 31, 2017. Then you can go to the MoneyGram Remission Website and start your claim. However, you don’t have too long to file a claim as the deadline for filing a claim is Aug. 31, 2021.

    Money transfer services should only be used if you need to send cash to someone you know personally, and you’re 100% sure that they’ll be receiving the money. If not, then there is a good chance you’re sending money to a scammer.

     

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