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  Geebo 8:00 am on April 9, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: check scam ( 85 ), overpayment scam ( 11 ), photographers, Scams, texas ( 23 )   

  How a Texas photography scam affects you 

  

  By Greg Collier

  It seems that scam artists are targeting wedding photographers in North Texas with a familiar ploy. The scammers are posing as wedding parties who are booking the photographer for a session. The scammers then send a check that’s more than the amount the photographer is asking. The scammers tell the photographer that the check was in the wrong amount and that the photographer should just deposit the check and send back the difference.

  Long-time readers may recognize this as the fake check or overpayment scam. If any photographers have deposited these checks, they may find their bank accounts a lot lighter. Banks usually don’t receive notice that the checks are fake for a couple of days. By that time the scammers have their money and the victim is stuck with paying off the phony check to their bank plus any fees incurred. At least one photographer asked her bank to research the check before she deposited it, and the check turned out to be fraudulent.

  You’re probably saying to yourself that you’re not a photographer from Texas, so why should you have to worry about this scam? The answer to that is this scam just doesn’t target one industry or one location. If you’re an employee, a business owner, or freelancer you could be targeted in this scam. If your position or business requires you to accept payments, you could be targeted in this scam. That’s not even considering that this scam has a long history of targeting individual consumers who sell items online.

  If you ever receive a check that’s over the amount you’re expecting, either destroy the check or send it back. If a business or business owner were to deposit one of these checks you could see your checks to vendors start bouncing. That could end with your business having a negative reputation with your vendors that could take a while to rebuild.

   

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  Geebo 8:00 am on April 8, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: car insurance, identity theft ( 131 ), new york ( 16 ), Scams   

  Car insurance websites used in identity theft scheme 

  

  By Greg Collier

  Some licensed drivers in the state of New York recently found themselves receiving bills for car insurance that they didn’t purchase. It seems that the system used to give consumers insurance quotes online had a flaw that allowed identity thieves to find personal information for anyone licensed to drive in the state of New York. Much like other identity theft schemes, the thieves used information that was leaked in a previous data breach to use on the insurance websites. During the quoting process, identity thieves were able to obtain the driver’s license numbers of anyone they had information on.

  The identity thieves were then able to buy legitimate car insurance policies in other people’s names. While many people buying the stolen cards may not be able to afford the prohibitive cost of car insurance, the majority of the buyers probably have records that prevent them from driving legally. The identity thieves could also be using the driver’s license numbers to file for fraudulent unemployment claims. Some of the policies may even still be active as some drivers may just ignore the bills since they don’t really have a policy with the insurance company the identity thieves used. Some consumers have said that they have had great difficulty in getting the matter resolved with the insurance companies.

  The insurance companies have said that the problem with their websites have been fixed. At least one insurance company is providing victims with one year free service of credit monitoring.

  If you live in New York and have received a bill like this, it is strongly recommended that you contact the insurance company right away to get the matter resolved. If you don’t live in New York, you can use this as an example if you receive a bill for something you didn’t purchase yourself. Don’t just ignore or throw out the bill. Get in touch with whoever sent the bill immediately to make sure your identity hasn’t been stolen. If you don’t take the proper precautions in protecting your identity, it could take years before it’s repaired.

   
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  Geebo 8:00 am on April 7, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Amazon ( 114 ), phone scam ( 50 ), refund scam ( 12 ), Scams   

  Amazon refund call is a scam 

  

  By Greg Collier

  Lately, it seems that Amazon has been used the most by online scammers. In the past couple of weeks, we’ve posted about a couple of different scams where scammers have posed as Amazon employees to fleece their victims. In both cases the victims were told that someone made a false purchase on their Amazon accounts. One victim was approached by email while the other received a robocall. Now, there’s a scam going around using the Amazon name that’s not using the false order angle. This scam uses the one thing that could motivate someone more than a phony order and that’s a refund.

  Many people from around the country have reported receiving phone calls from someone claiming to be from Amazon. They are then told that due to fraud activity on their account that they’re due a refund. The first catch is that the fake Amazon rep needs remote access to your computer. The second catch is that the victim is asked to log into their Amazon account. If that wasn’t enough, the victim is then asked to log into their bank account, so the refund could be processed. Yet, the scam still isn’t over. The scammer will then try to convince the victim that they were refunded too much money and need to buy gift cards to pay back the overage. This is a scam on top of a scam on top of a scam. Scamception if you will.

  You should never allow anyone to have remote access to your computer. No legitimate company or agency would ever need remote access to your computer. Not only does this allow anyone to peer into your private files, but they could also plant any kind of malware into your system. If you log into your Amazon account while you’re remote sharing, the scammers will now have your Amazon login information. The same goes for your bank login. And of course, gift cards should only be for gifts and not for making any kind of payment. As we are fond of saying, gift cards have become the currency of con artists.

  If you were actually due a refund from Amazon for whatever reason, it would be automatically returned to whatever card you used to make that purchase. Amazon will not call you out of the blue to tell you that you have a refund.

   
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  Geebo 8:00 am on April 6, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: extortion ( 18 ), Scams, students ( 2 ), tutor ( 3 )   

  Online tutors are extorting students 

  

  By Greg Collier

  If you’ve ever struggled in school or had a child who struggled in school, you may have obtained the services of a tutor. Back in the day, if you wanted to hire a tutor you had to hire an actual person to come to your home. This made it much easier to tell the kind of person you were dealing with. Now with everything being online, it’s more difficult to tell if you’re dealing with a legitimate tutor or not. It seems there are two different types of tutors who advertise online. There are tutors who will actually teach you or your children how to deal with the subjects someone is having difficulties with. Then there are ‘tutors’ who will do the work for you, and you can pass it off as your own. It’s the latter we’re going to talk about today.

  According to reports from the Better Business Bureau, it’s not enough that these tutors are making money from students who are looking to cheat. Some of these tutors are looking to make some extra money by threatening to tell the school that the student cheated. In some accounts, students have paid hundreds of dollars to get their work done only to be met with threatening emails and texts from the tutor saying they’re going to the school with their information if the student doesn’t pay the tutor more money. As cheating could result in expulsion from some schools, this has become a serious scam.

  As the saying goes, cheaters never prosper. So if you’re looking for someone to do the work for you, you should expect this kind of result. However, if you’re going to hire a legitimate tutor to assist you in your work, there are some steps you should take to insure you get a good one. Always do a search online to see if there are reviews for the tutor. This also applies to any service you may be considering hiring. Check with the school to see if they have any recommendations for tutors. Lastly, if you hire a tutor, negotiate fees up front to prevent surprises later.

   
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  Geebo 8:00 am on April 5, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: craigslist ( 129 ), lockbox ( 5 ), real estate ( 139 ), rental scam ( 91 ), Rentals ( 14 ), rently ( 4 ), Scams   

  A lockbox doesn’t mean it’s not a scam 

  

  By Greg Collier

  Many real estate services and platforms use what’s known as a lockbox on their rental properties. It is essentially an electronic box that allows access to the property. A prospective renter can then enter a code that gives them access to the keys so they can tour the property. A lockbox like this on a property can give the impression that whoever has access to the lockbox code must be a legitimate landlord. As we’re about to show you, that isn’t always true.

  A man from Louisville, Kentucky recently inquired about a home for rent that he found on Craigslist. That’s already not a good sign already as Craigslist has long been ground zero for internet scammers of many forms. Anyway, the supposed landlord told the Louisville man that the man can take a self-guided tour of the home using the Rently platform and provided a man with the code number for the lockbox.

  The man toured the home and told the Craigslist landlord he wanted to rent the home. The landlord said there would be a $2500 deposit and sent a lease to the man. The phony landlord almost got away with it too except he kept pressuring the man to pay the $2500. It was at this point that the man realized this might be a scam. The man then checked the property records of the home and discovered that the home wasn’t being rented by someone with the landlord’s name. Instead, it was being rented by a property management company.

  We’re not sure how the lockbox codes are falling into the hands of scammers unless the codes are not being changed regularly. If that’s the case, we can imagine a number of scenarios where the code number could be obtained.

  If you’re ever looking to rent a home that you’ve found online, we always recommend going to the county’s tax assessor office or website to verify who exactly owns the property. While it may take a little extra time and effort to find this information, it could save you thousands of dollars in the long run.

   
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  Geebo 8:00 am on April 2, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Amazon ( 114 ), customer service ( 58 ), customer support ( 25 ), false order ( 2 ), robocalls ( 9 ), Scams   

  Amazon robocall scam on the rise 

  

  By Greg Collier

  Not too long ago, we posted about an email phishing scam where the scammers posed as online retailer Amazon. Essentially, the victim received an email that said someone had made a large purchase on their Amazon account. When they called the phony customer service number included in the email they were told to buy thousands of dollars in gift cards to cancel the order. This scam seems to have returned with a vengeance across the county except this time in the form of robocalls.

  Robocalls are those automated spam calls that many of use keep receiving. It’s become an almost unavoidable everyday occurrence. Robocalls are illegal in the United States, but scammers rarely ever care about the law. This is why you still receive these calls even after being added to the national do not call list.

  Many reports are coming in from all over the country where consumers say they’ve been receiving robocalls purporting to be from Amazon. It’s an automated voice message that wants to confirm a high-dollar purchase that you supposedly made on Amazon. The message then provides a number to a phony customer service number which most certainly is not to Amazon. Other robocalls of this sort will ask you to press 1 to be transferred to someone who again, most likely does not work for Amazon.

  As we previously advised, if you receive one of these calls, do not call the number provided or press whatever number the call suggests to talk to someone. Instead, log into your Amazon account to make sure that no order of that type has been made to your account. If it has, you can dispute the order with Amazon right on their platform. We also recommend routinely changing your Amazon password if you receive one of these scam calls or emails.

   
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  Geebo 8:01 am on April 1, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: activation fee ( 3 ), customer service ( 58 ), customer support ( 25 ), Hulu ( 2 ), Netflix ( 15 ), Roku ( 2 ), Scams, streaming ( 10 ), tech support scam ( 54 )   

  Streaming devices are vulnerable to scam 

  

  By Greg Collier

  In case you’re not familiar with Roku TV, it’s a device or service that comes with your TV that allows you to access multiple streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and the like. There are other brands of streaming devices, but Roku is the most popular one with consumers. And like most internet-connected devices, they are vulnerable to attacks and scams. Recently, there seems to be a string of attacks happening to new device owners that is costing them a lot of money. It’s known as the activation scam.

  One victim who spoke to the media said she was setting up her Roku device when a message flashed on her TV screen. It told her to call a customer service number to help with the activation. The woman called the number and the person who was supposedly helping her with the activation sold her a year’s service plan for close to $200. A short time later, the customer service agent called back demanding more money or her service would be shut off. It was at this point the victim realized she had been scammed.

  If you buy a Roku or any other streaming device, there is no monthly fees to use these devices. Instead, you pay to whatever streaming service you want to subscribe to. Roku does not offer a service plan. You can elect to buy a program like that at the point of purchase like Walmart or Best Buy.

  So, how does a scam like this happen on a streaming box? From everything we’ve researched it happens when the user goes to a phony activation website. Anybody can make a website that says ‘Roku Activation Help’. That’s when the phony customer service or activation number comes up. In the user guide to most streaming boxes it will give you the authentic website to use for help and activation. If you just do a web search for activation you could be led to a scam site that could cost you time and money.

   
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  Geebo 8:00 am on March 31, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: college ( 18 ), income tax ( 17 ), IRS ( 30 ), phishing ( 91 ), Scams   

  College students targeted in tax scam 

  

  By Greg Collier

  With it being tax season, tax scams are on the rise. We’re not talking about the kind of tax scam where federal agents show up at your door because you claimed the squirrels in your yard as dependents. We’re talking about the kind where is either trying to separate you from your refund, or using the promise of a refund to steal your information. The latest targets in this kind of tax scam are college students.

  The IRS is warning people that anyone with an email address ending in .edu is vulnerable to this scam. The scam is essentially a phishing attack. The student receives an email that appears to be from the IRS asking the recipient to click on a link that’s labeled either “Tax Refund Payment” or “Recalculation of your tax refund payment.” If the victim clicks on the link they’re taken to a website that asks for personal information like name, date of birth and Social Security number.

  Theoretically, college students are a prime target for identity thieves. At that age they may have established any serious credit yet which is the holy grail for identity thieves. Identity thieves could use a young victim’s credit for years before the victim ever realizes it.

  There’s been this stereotype that’s been going around forever that young people are better with technology than their parents. While that may be true, they may also be unsure of how filing their income taxes and receiving a refund works. So, they might think that this phishing email is a legitimate way of claiming their income tax refund. We realize that our readers tend to be from a different demographic than college students, but we also realize that you may have a college student in your family. If you do, you may want to warn them about this potential scam.

   
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  Geebo 8:00 am on March 30, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Georgia ( 5 ), grandparent scam ( 73 ), Indiana ( 6 ), Scams   

  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.

   
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  Geebo 8:00 am on March 29, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: coronavirus ( 40 ), covid-19 ( 49 ), phishing ( 91 ), Scams, survey scam   

  Vaccine survey could be a scam! 

  

  By Greg Collier

  People all over the country have been reporting that they’ve been receiving emails and text messages asking them to fill out a survey about the COVID-19 vaccine. The messages even appear to look like they’ve been sent by one of the major manufacturers of the vaccine. So far, close to 50 million people in America have been fully vaccinated. This gives scammers a pretty large target. The messages are almost certainly sent out at random, but the odds are pretty good they’ll reach someone who has been vaccinated.

  The majority of these survey scams promise the recipient a free gift if they fill out the survey. Of course, the free gift comes with a catch. While the gift may be free, the survey takers are asked for their credit or debit card information to pay for shipping. The gift doesn’t actually exist, and the scammers are just out to get as many card number as they can. Officials have also warned people to not click on any links contained in the messages as they could potentially lead to your device being infected with malware.

  The surveys themselves are even said to be asking for sensitive information that could be used for identity theft. It seems like the survey scammers don’t want to leave any digital stone unturned when it comes to gathering as much data about you as possible. If you receive one of these messages, it’s recommended that you delete it immediately and not click on any of the links they contain. If you’ve already lost money to this scam, you’re asked to report it to the FTC.