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  • Geebo 8:00 am on November 5, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Zelle   

    Puppy scam back in time for holidays 

    Puppy scam back in time for holidays

    By Greg Collier

    With the holidays approaching, many people may be looking to add a new pet to their families. These same people may also not be aware of the pitfalls that await them when trying to buy a puppy online. When online puppy scams first started they were simple. The scammer would place an online ad for a trendy breed of puppy for sale, where the price would be well below market value. The victim would send their money for the puppy, but the puppy would never show up because the puppy never existed. While this scam is generally the same, in more recent times, scammers have added extra steps to try to get their victims to pay even more money.

    For example, a Michigan woman was scammed out of $5300 when she fell victim to a puppy scam. Not only did the scammer ask for the price of the puppy, but also said there were additional fees for shipping the puppy. This included shipping insurance, vaccines, and housing among other charges. More often than not, scammers will also try to charge victims for a special shipping crate. The victim was also instructed to send all payments through the Zelle app, which we know now doesn’t have the best protection when it comes to scammers.

    If you are thinking about getting a puppy this holiday season, please take the decision seriously. Depending on the breed, some dogs can live as long as 20 years. Getting a puppy is something you and your family should be physically and financially ready for. Too many people who adopted pets during the pandemic ended up leaving them at shelters and abandoning them.

    However, if you have given this decision serious thought, try to avoid buying a puppy online. Scammers often set up phony websites with stolen pictures of puppies to make it look like they are legitimate breeders. Your best bet is to stick with a local breeder. Make sure that the breeder is licensed, as backyard breeders often sell puppies that have terminal illnesses like parvo.

    But before you head to your local breeder, we ask that you stop at your local animal shelter or humane society first. More often than not, you can adopt a dog, puppy or even a cat at little to no cost, and many shelters have already given the animals their first set of shots. Shelter dogs get a bad rap because too many people think that they’re problem dogs, but in most cases they’re at the shelter through no fault of their own.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on November 2, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: cold weather rule, , , Xcel Energy, Zelle   

    Colder weather brings out this scam 

    By Greg Collier

    Even though this is a year-round scam, it’s become more threatening as the colder weather approaches. Scammers are once again posing as power companies and threatening customers with turning off their service. Usually, the scammers will call their victim and tell them that the victim’s bill is overdue. The scammers will then claim that they’re turning off the victim’s service in 15-30 minutes if they don’t make an immediate payment. The victim will then be instructed to make the payment in a nontraditional way, such as gift cards or cryptocurrency. These methods are used because the payments made to the scammers can’t normally be recovered.

    For example, a news station in Denver is reporting that scammers are posing as Xcel Energy. Xcel is one of the larger electric companies in the country, serving customers from Minnesota to New Mexico. One victim has reported that she received a call from a scammer posing as Xcel and threatening to turn off her service. As usual, the scammers demanded payment, but instead of git cards or Bitcoin, they demanded payment through the Zelle payment app. Zelle has been used in a number of scams recently. Since Zelle doesn’t offer many protections like a credit card would, scammers are able to withdraw the Zelle payment almost immediately. Thankfully, the woman recognized that this was a scam and did not lose any money.

    There are a number of ways to recognize this scam. First, electric companies won’t call you and threaten you with termination of service that same day. Instead, you would receive a written notice in the mail letting you know that your balance is overdue before any termination of service happened. Secondly, no utility company is going to pressure you into making a payment with virtually anonymous methods like cryptocurrency and gift cards. Lastly, if you live in a cold weather state, your state may have a cold weather moratorium where it’s illegal for companies to turn off certain services during the colder months of the year. You can check with your state to find out when the cold weather rule is in effect.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on October 22, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , , Zelle   

    Zelle scam keeps making victims out of bank customers 

    By Greg Collier

    Reports are still coming in about the scam that uses the Zelle payment app to drain victims’ bank accounts. In case you’ve missed our previous posts about the scam, scammers are posing as nationwide banks while sending text messages to victims asking them if they’ve made a large purchase. When the victim replies back, they’re then called by the scammers posing as the bank’s fraud department. The scammers tell the victim that someone is fraudulently using their account. The victim is then instructed to make a transfer through Zelle to ‘protect’ their account. Instead, the scammers are directing the money to their own accounts.

    Bank of America has taken the brunt of the criticism in this story, since it seems mostly B of A customers who have been affected. The bank has been seemingly resistant to either issue refunds or recover their customers’ money. Many times they’ve only done so after scam victims have contacted their local media. The scam has become so prevalent across the country that even the New York media is warning consumers about the scam.

    However, it’s not just Bank of America that is seeing their customers get taken for a ride. A number of Chase Bank customers have also reported falling victim to the scam. Recently, an Ohio woman lost $13,000 to the scam, and she was a Chase customer. As of the time of this writing, Chase has not commented on whether or not the woman will be getting her money back.

    The company that runs Zelle is jointly owned by is owned by Bank of America, BB&T, Capital One, Navy Federal Credit Union, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank, Ally, US Bank, and Wells Fargo. There are other banks that also use Zelle even though they don’t hold ownership in it.

    If your bank uses Zelle and you receive one of these scam texts, do not reply to it. Instead, call your bank’s customer service number from the back of your debit or credit card. That way, you know you’re talking to a legitimate customer service representative. They’ll be able to tell you if there is any real fraudulent activity on your account.

     

  • Geebo 8:01 am on October 18, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , Zelle   

    Zelle scam victims may be entitled to get their money back 

    Zelle scam victims may be entitled to get their money back

    By Greg Collier

    The Zelle scam has been finding a lot of victims around the country. We originally posted about it here. The scam is largely affecting Bank of America customers, although we’ve also seen it affect Chase customers. In theory, it could affect any bank’s customers whether that bank uses The payment app or not.

    The scam works with the scammers posing as a bank. In this case, Bank of America, mostly. The scammers will text countless people at random. They only need to have a handful of people to fall victim to the scam to make it profitable. The text message will appear to have come from B of A asking if you’ve made a substantially large purchase lately. Within the text, you’ll be asked to reply ‘yes’ or ‘no’ if you made such a purchase. If someone replies to the text, the text is followed up by a phone call from someone posing as a customer service rep from the bank telling you that someone has accessed your account. The victim will be then instructed to move the money in their account to a ‘safe place’ through Zelle, with the claim that this will keep their money safe. What’s really going on is that you’re transferring your money to a scammer’s account, and they make off with your money.

    For the most part, victims can’t get their money back. Zelle offers no protections for this, and the banks usually tell scam victims that there’s nothing they can do. Sometimes victims do get their money back after speaking with their local media. However, it seems more like the banks are doing this for PR reasons rather than any kind of responsibility to the customer.

    That may be changing, as a little-known federal law known as Regulation E states that banks are supposed to refund customers if the customer is the victim of a fraudulent transaction on their account. That includes when a third party tricks a victim into sharing account information. However, it does not protect the customer if the customer uses Zelle knowingly to buy something online and never receives that purchase. But for this scam, victims should be able to get refunds, theoretically. Whether the banks will try to prevent these refunds remains to be seen.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on September 23, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , Zelle   

    Text message scams using big name companies 

    Text message scams using big name companies

    By Greg Collier

    We think it’s safe to assume that many mobile phone users would prefer to receive a text message than a phone call. Text message are just so much more convenient than stopping whatever you’re doing to take a call. Except, not every type of communication can be done through text messaging. For example, if you needed any kind of customer service, it would be painstakingly long to do that through text. That’s not even taking into account that text messages have become yet another domain where scammers thrive. Scammers love the anonymity that text messaging allows. This lets them pose as just about anyone, and lately, they’ve been posing as some of the best known companies in the country. We’ve recently read reports that say there a two text message-based scams that happening all over the country.

    The first text message scam we heard about recently is offering COVID-19-based discounts to customers of Verizon, one of the nation’s largest phone providers. Here is an example of what the text message says…

    “COVID-19 REFUND. VERIZON COMPANY is giving out $950 to all users of our Verizon service, If yes kindly text your Verizon.”

    As you can see, the text message isn’t very well written, which is a great indicator that the text message is a scam. The messages also contain a link that you shouldn’t click on as it could do untold damage to your device, or ask you for personal information you shouldn’t be sharing. Not only are scammers posing as Verizon, but they’ve also been posing as Netflix and Hulu, among other companies. As much as we’d like them to be, these companies aren’t in business by giving away money to their millions of customers.

    The other texting scam involves large national banks Chase and Bank of America. In this scam, victims have been receiving texts that say something along the lines of…

    Chase Bank Fraud. Did you attempt $5,000 Zelle-transfer? Reply yes/no/help.

    Or…

    “Bank of America fraud alert. Did you just attempt a Zelle transaction of $3,500? Please reply yes or no.”

    Most people would probably text no back to the sender. However, the senders are just scammers who are fishing for your banking information. Once someone replies to the text, it’s followed up with a phone call from a scammer posing as bank customer service. The scammers will then walk you through a process on Zelle that allows them access to your bank account. Before you know it, it’s been cleared out. What makes this scam so problematic is that banks do sometimes text their customers to let them know if there has been fraudulent activity on their account. In this case, it’s always best to call the customer service number on your debit card than responding to the text.

    A good way to protect yourself from such scams is to verify any text you receive about money with a phone call. Even if it’s from people you know because any phone number can be spoofed.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on September 8, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: accidental deposit, , , deposit scam, , , , , Zelle   

    There’s nothing accidental about these payments 

    There's nothing accidental about these payments

    By Greg Collier

    Last week, we posted about a scam that was affecting Venmo users. In that scam, scammers were posing as friends of the Venmo account holder and asking for money. But what do you do if a stranger sends you money that you didn’t ask for and does it through a payment app? The Better Business Bureau has issued a warning about an accidental payment scam that’s been affecting users of payment apps like Zelle, Venmo, Cash App and others.

    In what’s being called the accidental payment or accidental deposit scam, the victim receives a substantial payment from someone they don’t know. That payment is then followed up by a message from the person who sent the money, saying they sent that payment accidentally, and could you please send it back? Whatever you do at this point, do not send the money back like you would a regular payment.

    According to the BBB, the money that was sent to you was done using a stolen credit card. If you send the money back like a regular payment, you’ll be responsible for that money once it’s discovered the credit card is stolen.

    Instead, you should tell the sender to cancel the payment, which can be done on most of the popular payment apps. If they refuse or try to pressure you into sending it back, it’s more than likely a scam. Also, don’t spend the money that you receive from the scammer, or you’ll be held liable for that money.

    While many of the scammers are finding their victims randomly, others are finding them through social media. In order to prevent receiving phony payments like this, it’s best to keep your account names off of social media. While you may think it’s just a quick post between friends, it can be picked up quickly by scam artists.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on August 13, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , Zelle   

    Man loses half of his savings in bank impersonation scam 

    Man loses half of his savings in bank impersonation scam

    By Greg Collier

    It’s a scammer’s ‘job’ to make them appear as legitimate as possible, no matter how outlandish their request might be. That’s exactly what happened to a San Francisco man recently when scammers convinced him to transfer half of his life savings to a different bank.

    The call appeared to come from the man’s bank, which was Bank of America. The name and number appeared on his phone as being from his bank, so at the start the man didn’t have a reason not to believe it wasn’t his bank calling. The scammers told him that someone was accessing his bank account in Georgia. It’s not unheard of for banks to call their customers to warn them of fraudulent activity on their accounts. So, the man still believed he was talking to his bank. However, what happened next should have been a tip off that this was a scam call.

    The scammers told him that in order to protect his money, the man needed to transfer his money to another bank account with a different bank. He was given instructions on how to use the payment app Zelle to send his money to a Chase bank account for ‘protection’.

    Of course, the Chase account belonged to the scammers, who emptied the Chase account as soon as the man’s money landed in their account. Luckily, Bank of America was able to issue him a refund, but this is the exception rather than the norm.

    If a bank calls you, it’s not wrong to be immediately suspicious. If you think it’s not your bank calling you, politely hang up and call the bank directly using their customer service number that’s on the back of your bank card or on the bank’s website. You can even go to your local branch if that’s what you prefer. Any of those avenues will be able to tell you if there is an actual issue with your account. Also, banks will never tell you to use an app like Zelle to move money around. Zelle, and apps like it, are specifically designed to pay other people or receive payment from other people. If someone claiming to be from your bank tells you to transfer money using one of these apps, there’s a high possibility it’s a scam.

     

  • Geebo 8:11 am on August 3, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , Zelle   

    More tips on how to avoid a rental scam 

    By Greg Collier

    Since the dawn of online classifieds, the rental scam is probably only 2nd in frequency to the fake check scam. For two decades, rental scammers have been stealing the money from families looking to rent a new home. More often than not, the victims of these scams end up losing the last of their money, so not only can they not move, but they can’t pay the rent at their current residence. While we have much empathy for the victims of rental scams, it is one of the more preventable online scams.

    For example, a woman in Cincinnati recently fell victim to such a scam. She found a house for rent on Facebook Marketplace that was a two bedroom home for just $700 a month. The scammer sent the victim pictures of the home’s interior, but said they couldn’t show the home because they were out of state. The victim still filled out an application and sent a deposit and two months rent to the scammer over the payment app Zelle. In total, the victim lost over $2000.

    Currently, there are simple steps to prevent you from falling victim to this scam. The first thing you should do is a do a web search of the property’s complete address, zip code and all. This first listings in the search should bring up real estate websites Zillow and Realtor.com. Zillow can give you an idea of a more realistic rent, as scammers will almost always list the property well below market value. Realtor.com will let you know if the property is being rented by a real estate agency and their contact info. If that information doesn’t match what you’re being given, you may be dealing with a scammer. If you do a reverse image search from the listing you found, it might take you to one of these websites, meaning the pictures were stolen.

    There are also the red flags of the ‘landlord’ not being able to show the property and the payment through apps like Zelle and Cash App.

    Lastly, if you want to be absolutely sure that you’re dealing with the legitimate owner of the property, do a check with the county’s tax assessor’s website or office.

    It’s better to do a little research to avoid being scammed than acting rashly and losing your money.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on July 15, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Zelle   

    Bank scammer has answer for everything 

    By Greg Collier

    Payment apps like Zelle, Venmo, and Cash App are incredibly convenient. They allow us to send money to family and friends without the need for writing checks or money orders. However, what we get in convenience, we sometimes lose in security. Scammers are experts in taking advantage of the flaws in security that some of these apps have. With just a little social engineering, scammers have been known to rake in the cash by emptying the accounts of victims while the victim does most of the work for them. Not to mention that these scammers are so well practiced, they have an answer for just about everything when you try to ask questions about what they’re telling you.

    A woman from Tennessee almost feel for one of these well-crafted scams that involved her bank. She received a text that appeared to come from her bank. The text message asked if she had just made a purchase for $3500. This was followed up by a phone call from someone claiming to be a bank representative. The woman questioned if this call was actually from her bank, and the caller replied that she can verify the call by matching the phone number that called her with the customer service number of the back of her card. Of course, these number can and have been spoofed. She still wasn’t satisfied with the caller’s answer and told the caller she was going to hang up and call customer service. The caller then said that if she called customer service, she would be on hold for a long time and that he was there to help her with the problem now.

    This is where the payment app comes into play. The caller told the woman that she needed to send herself $3500 through Zelle to reverse the supposed charge. She then received an email with her Zelle activation code., The report of the incident doesn’t state it, but it most of these cases, the caller will then ask for the activation code, so they can hijack your Zelle account. Since most Zelle accounts are linked to bank accounts, this could have disastrous effects.

    Thankfully, the woman decided to go to a local branch of her bank before she sent any money.

    If you receive one of these calls purporting to be from your bank, politely end the call. First, you should check your bank statement online or through the bank’s app to see if any fraudulent charges have been made. Even if no fraudulent charges appear, call your bank’s customer service number from the back of your debit or credit card. Don’t do a web search for the customer service number, as these can often be scams themselves. But speak with the bank to make sure your account has not been misused. However, the best thing you can do is what this woman did and go to your bank’s local branch. They’ll be able to verify any fraudulent activity on your account in person.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on May 14, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , Zelle   

    Rental scammer takes advantage of pandemic victims 

    Rental scammer takes advantage of pandemic victims

    By Greg Collier

    As we’ve said in the past, the rental scam is probably the most common online scam. It has several variations, but they all result in the same thing, the victim pays for a home rental. More often than not, these scammers are from overseas, however, since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, we’ve seen more and more domestic scammers getting involved with rental scams. One of those scammers was recently arrested after taking advantage of desperate families for over six months.

    The 38-year-old Florida woman was said to have placed ads for rental properties on both Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. As with most rental scams, she allegedly copied ads from legitimate real estate listings and posted them online with her contact information. She is said to have collected deposits from over 20 victims who were desperate to find housing during the pandemic. Her victims ranged in age from 20 to 71. After she received the payments through a payment app she would then ignore and block her victims. Currently, she’s believed to have swindled over $20,000 from her victims.

    Rental scammers are always looking for victims who are in vulnerable situations such as needing immediate housing. This way, the scammers know they can catch their victims off-guard and get them to make mental mistakes that would benefit the scammer. These include sending money through payment apps like Zelle and Cash App. Victims who pay through these apps can be easily blocked by scammers after the victim loses their money.

    Even if you find yourself in a desperate housing situation, it always pays to research the property in question. If the property is actually for rent, the county’s tax assessor office or website will be able to tell you who actually owns the property. If the name doesn’t match the person or organization claiming to rent the property, it’s more than likely a scam.

     

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