Archive for the ‘Scams’ Category
Check fraud and hiring scams – new versions hit the Internet, target victims
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011The FBI released today an alert about new cyber scams currently circulating on the internet – one of them new and the other an old-timer. In the reshipping scam, criminals hire individuals to receive, readdress and forward packages to addresses generally found in the United Kingdom or Nigeria, as well as ...
Don’t get scammed by phony charity
Monday, August 30th, 2010Mildred is a senior citizen who's very involved in her community and who loves to help others. So when she was called and asked to donate to the American Cancer Society, she was more than willing to help out. She gave the caller her debit card number and told him ...
Check scams – learn to know them when you see them
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010Roberta is an older woman who lives alone, and who lives on a fixed income. She pinches every penny until Lincoln begs for mercy. So she was super excited to receive a check in the mail, along with a letter congratulating her on winning a large lottery prize. She was ...
Mail fraud scheme lands man in jail for four years
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009The mailbox is something of a quandary. On one hand it contains some of our most important information -- check, credit cards, bank statement, vehicle registrations and letters containing great personal data. On the other hand it is probably the least secure device we own. We plant it on ...
Are you a victim of “cramming?”
Thursday, September 24th, 2009There's a new scam going around called "cramming" and you may be an unknowing victim. Cramming is the act of pulling small amounts out of a victim's bank account. These amounts, normally in the realm of $5-$10 dollars, are normally unnoticed by the victim. Just think about it: how often ...
Newest scam: Have you received a call saying you owed past debt?
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009The latest scam to take the nation by storm has phony debt collectors contacting consumers and trying to collect past debt. The problem is that the consumer has already paid off the debt many years ago. This new breed of scammers has detailed access to people, including past debts ...
Real Life Version of Movie “Heartbreakers” Plays Out in Conneticut Court
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009Heartbreakers was a movie that came out in 2001 that dealt with a mother (played by Sigorney Weaver) and daughter (Jennifer Love Hewitt) team who conned millionaires out of their money. While Barbara Niedkowski isn't Sigorney Weaver and her daughter, Delilah Campbell, is no Jennifer Love Hewitt, they're stories share ...
ID Theft Scammers Mimicking IRS and Other Agencies
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009As if keeping an eye out for the taxman wasn't bad enough, now scammers are mimicking the IRS and other government agencies to trick you into giving away your personal information. The IRS recently released new reminders to consumers regarding a variety of scams currently being perpetuated -- most using ...
Don’t Talk to Strangers Applies to the Internet as Well
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009Growing up your parents told you not to talk to strangers. It wasn't because they thought strangers had your best interests in mind and didn't want you getting free lollipops and ice cream. It's because your parents knew there were bad people out there that were out to get you. The ...
Happy Father’s Day to My Two Dads
Friday, June 19th, 2009With Father's Day this weekend chances are you've already thought up and bought your father his gift. If your dad is anything like mine, that's an extremely hard process. Fathers are notoriously hard to buy for, so how much more difficult would it be to buy for two, or three ...
Bad Music, Credit Fraud, iTunes, Amazon and a Plan
Friday, June 12th, 2009There are plenty of bands that want to make it big. However few of them go about it in the way you're about to read. It seems that a gang of rather daft punks decided to used cloned credit cards from American and U.K users to purchase $750,000 dollars worth of ...
Beauty is a Beast When it Comes to ID Theft
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and that phrase has never been truer than in the case of Susan Shaw. Mrs. Shaw -- or as some people knew her Ms. Shaw -- is a former Miss Hawaii International beauty queen. Depending on who you ask, ...
Online ID Theft Prevention Begins with Building Strong Passwords
Friday, June 5th, 2009Part of protecting yourself from identity theft online is creating strong passwords for your multiple online accounts. Many times passwords are simple words, dates or sequential numbers that are used because they're easy to remember. They're also easy to crack. A good password utilizes numbers, regular characters, upper case characters and ...
Twitter and the Porn Name Game – It might cause an identity theft!
Thursday, May 14th, 2009I was reading on the Internet about the porn name game, that has been popular on Twitter, where you answer some questions about yourself and it will generate your porn name for you. HAHA very funny, it’s good for a chuckle and it’s fun to send to your friends to ...
