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  Geebo 8:00 am on March 17, 2020 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: remote workers ( 3 ), Scams ( 1,386 ), tech support scam ( 51 ), work at home   

  Tech support scams could be on the rise 

  

  Yesterday, when we discussed phishing scams that could affect people working at home for the first time, we were remiss not to mention another scam that could be targeting new remote workers. The scam we’re referring to now is the tech support scam. This scam has been a known nuisance to home computer users for years now. This scam has also ended up costing its victims thousands of dollars apiece.

  The tech support scam usually works in one of two ways. The first and most ubiquitous way is when the victim sees a pop-up on their device that tells them their device has been infected with some kind of virus or malware. The pop-up then instructs the victim to call a number that claims to be some form of official tech support for that device. Other tech support scammers will just cold call people posing as a company like Microsoft or Apple telling their victims that they have a computer virus.

  In some cases, the tech support scammers will ask for remote access to your computer. With that access, they can do a number of malicious things. For example, a man in New York State was locked out of his computer by the scammers and was told to overnight cash while thinking he was paying to have his computer repaired remotely. In other cases, the scammers could inject malware into your system that logs your usernames and passwords. And in even more cases, scammers will just rummage through your computer looking for any information that they could find valuable.

  [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_52OwG87a04%5D

  As far as the pop-ups go that say you have a virus, you should always ignore them and close the window where they appear. You should only be concerned by warnings that are given to you by whatever antivirus protection you already have installed on your device. As far as phone calls go, companies like Microsoft, Apple or Google will never call you to notify you that you have a virus. While these companies do have a global reach, they’re not monitoring your computer for viruses. If you receive one of these phone calls, just hang up. Don’t even engage with these scammers as your number could be shared with other scammers if they know someone will answer.

  Anytime some stranger is asking you online for money to fix your ‘virus’ problem, it’s more than likely a scam.

   

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  Geebo 8:00 am on May 31, 2019 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: employment ( 37 ), repackaging ( 22 ), Scams ( 1,386 ), work at home   

  ‘Work at home’ could put you in jail! 

  

  We’ve discussed the re-packaging or re-shipping scam before. Normally how it works is someone looking for work will reply to an employment ad for a work at home position. That person will usually be hired on the spot and will be asked to receive items in the mail then re-package them and send them to another destination. This is done to send items purchased with a stolen credit card to a location where the thieves can receive the item. More often than not, the person being used in the scam either doesn’t get paid or they lose money by cashing a phony check disguised as payment. However, one man from Alabama has ended up in prison for his efforts.

  According to the Daily Beast, the man had responded to one of these ads and was re-packaging items with no problem. That was until Postal Inspectors showed up at the man’s house letting him know that he was involved in a re-packaging scam. The man then emailed the people he was working or to tell them that he wouldn’t be packaging items for them anymore. The scammers then reportedly told the man that the Postal Inspectors were actually fraudsters who were trying to steal the items being re-packaged. So, the man kept re-packaging the items he received. That was until he received a shipment of high-capacity magazines for AK-47s marked ‘toy parts’. That’s when federal agents arrested the man. The man admitted to knowing that the boxes contained gun parts and was sentenced to 16 months in prison.

  While this is a rare case of the re-packaging scam, it does show that entering into any number of work at home scams can be potentially costly to the victim. Whether it’s loss of funds, time, or personal information, these scams have proven to be quite effective in finding victims.

   
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  Geebo 8:55 am on October 6, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: employment ( 37 ), montana ( 2 ), repackaging ( 22 ), Scams ( 1,386 ), work at home   

  Beware of new work at home repackaging scam 

  

  Many work at home job offers that you might find online are scams. In most of those cases, the scam is designed to either get you to pay money up front for ‘materials’ or some kind of background check. Again, you should never have to pay to apply for a legitimate job. However, a new twist on the work at home scam has been reported out of Montana and many of the state’s residents have fallen victim to it.

  In this new scam, the supposed job is that of a ‘repackager’. The ‘company’ sends products to your home then asks you to repackage them and mail the products to their destination address. The problem is that these products have been bought with stolen credit card information. Instead of having the items sent to the thieves themselves, they instead have them sent to an unwitting person who thinks they’re just doing the job asked of them. The victim then unknowingly repackages the products and sends them to the destination intended by the thieves. The victim has then transferred stolen goods and of course, the victim never gets paid.

  This isn’t just a stolen goods scam either. When a victim applies for this kind of job they’re asked to submit their social security number, address and a copy of their driver’s license. That in turn leads to identities being stolen scamming the victim twice in one go. If you believe you have been the victim of this scam it is recommended that you contact your local police.

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  Geebo 9:48 am on May 18, 2016 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: employment ( 37 ), Scams ( 1,386 ), work at home   

  Is work at home just fly by night? 

  

  The off ramp to bankruptcy

  The work at home con has been around longer than the internet. Back in pre-internet days one of those cons was known as envelope stuffing. In it a prospective ’employee’ would pay a fee to receive materials in order to stuff mailers recruiting even more people into the scheme. With the proliferation of the internet these schemes have only become more prevalent.

  In more modern times instead of stuffing envelopes the victim, or mark, is asked to send of number of e-mails instead of envelopes, after paying money for ‘exclusive’ e-mailing software. Another work at home scheme that’s been around forever is that the ‘company’ will ask you to assemble small items such as jewelry. Again they will ask you for up front payment for materials then claim they only accept quality assembled items and your items will never meet their standards. One more work at home scam that’s been updated for the internet is the medical billing scam. While medical billing is a legitimate profession what the con artists will do is again, ask for money up front for either software or training. What they don’t tell the victim is that most medical offices usually have an in-house billing staff and rarely do they give out work to at home freelancers.

  While there are legitimate work at home positions the majority of them on the internet are designed to separate you from your money, your personal information or both. You should never have to pay money to get a job. So if you see an ad, either online or off, that promises big paydays for minimal effort stay away from it at all costs.