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  Geebo 8:00 am on April 14, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: AT&T ( 5 ), Cash App ( 42 ), identity theft ( 108 ), paypal, phone takeover, Scams ( 1,406 ), venmo ( 28 )   

  Scammers stopping cell service can steal your money 

  

  By Greg Collier

  We’ve mentioned this before, but it’s still hard to imagine life these days without your smartphone. It’s been one of those necessities that you don’t leave the house without. If you’re anything like us, we’re sure you’re checking for your keys, identification, and phone before you go out the front door. Now, imagine that you’re out running errands or what have you, and all of a sudden, your phone no longer has any service. No calls, no apps, no texts or anything. If this were to happen to you, it would be more of a problem than not being able to contact anyone. It could have disastrous results for your finances too.

  Recently, in Memphis, Tennessee, two alleged scammers were arrested for reportedly stealing close to $500,000 from AT&T customers. The pair would call into AT&T call centers posing as AT&T employees. They would then be able to get access to customer accounts. With the customer account information, they would call AT&T back and switch the customer’s service to another cellular provider. The scammers then had access to the various apps that the customer may have used. The scammers are then said to have taken money out of apps like PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App.

  While this scam is far from new, we’ve never seen it used on such a grand scale before. Even though AT&T was singled out in this post, it has happened to other providers, again, just not on this scale. This scam usually doesn’t target as many individuals as this one has. Unfortunately, the onus on protecting you from this scam is on the cellular providers. On top of this, customer service representatives for some providers are often under-trained and are asked to handle multiple customers at the same time. This can lead to a lot of fraud slipping through the cracks.

  In some instances, you can set up a PIN or password with your provider that will identify yourself in case someone tries to take over your account. Other than that, the only thing we can recommend is getting in touch with your cellular provider as soon as your service goes out.

   

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  Geebo 9:00 am on January 5, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Facebook Marketplace ( 64 ), paypal, paypal scam ( 13 ), phishing ( 79 ), Scams ( 1,406 ), text messaging ( 36 )   

  Two PayPal scams you should be aware of 

  

  PayPal is probably one of the most trusted online payment systems today. There aren’t many online retailers that don’t accept PayPal as a payment option. PayPal also allows those who are underrepresented by banks to not only shop online but to also have a debit card that the consumer can use like any bank debit card. However, this post isn’t meant to be free publicity for PayPal. While PayPal does offer many protections to their users, it can still be used in various scams as we’re about to take a look at now.

  Security experts are warning about a new series of text messages going around that are designed to steal your PayPal login information. The text messages claim that there has been fraudulent activity on your PayPal account and that your account is now limited. That would mean that you would be restricted in the use of your own PayPal account. The text then directs you to click on a link to verify your account. If you click on the link, you’ll be taken to a phony PayPal page that resembles the genuine article. If you enter your login information on this phony page, your information has just been stolen. Since many PayPal accounts are linked to bank accounts, your bank account could be in jeopardy as well. If you feel like you’ve clicked on one of these links and given them your information you should immediately change your PayPal password.

  The other scam is more hands on so to speak. A woman in Georgia was selling a cell phone on Facebook Marketplace. She met a buyer at a local restaurant. The man agreed to buy the phone using PayPal. The buyer showed the woman a fake email that looked like he had just paid her through PayPal. However, the woman wasn’t seeing the payment in her account. The man then made it appear as if he was calling PayPal himself and told the woman that the payment would be in her account in a couple of hours. As you can expect, the payment never showed up. PayPal doesn’t work like this as payments are almost instantaneous. Once you make or receive a payment you should be notified by PayPal right away. If you’re not notified you shouldn’t take a stranger’s word for it that you’ve been paid.