We’ve talked about spotting skimmers placed on ATMs before, but what if the whole ATM is a skimmer? [More]
fraud
Mother-Daughter Scam Tag Team Targeted Seniors Via Obits
By 6.23.10
Vultures. A mother and a daughter were arrested for skimming through the local obituary pages and calling up the spouses pretending to be from the bank or credit card company. They would say that the recently departed owed the company money, and the survivor needed to provide a blank check or a credit card. [More]
Bank Of America Says I Stole $11,000 From Myself, Gambled It Away
By 6.23.10
Reader M. has a sad and frightening cautionary tale for us all. He’s unemployed, and his debit card was stolen. Now he’s been accused of stealing more than $11,000 from himself and gambling it away at casinos. Bank of America has finished its investigation, and concluded that M. is responsible for the withdrawals, and now must pay back the $11,000 he didn’t spend. At the 20% APR charged for cash advances, naturally. [More]
Five Questions That Could Reveal Elder Fraud
By 6.20.10
Scam artists steal $2.6 billion from the pockets of unsuspecting seniors every year. To make sure your parents and grandparents aren’t one of the victims, ask these five quick questions. [More]
Beware The Fraudulent Doritos Coupon
By 6.15.10
Frito-Lay is warning consumers to watch out for fake free bags of Doritos coupons being distributed via email. If you are an unsuspecting victim of this subterfuge and receive the coupon in your inbox, watch out! You might get to check out and not be able to get a free bag of Doritos with a value of up to $5. Here’s how you spot the real deal and the phonies, just like Holden Caulfield: [More]
Authorities Bust International Credit Card Cloning Ring
By 6.15.10
Over 170 people around the globe were arrested on suspicion of participating in a massive credit card scam, reports Reuters. Fourteen countries were involved, and although most of the arrests were in Spain, there were also raids and/or arrests in Romania, France, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Australia, Sweden, Greece, Finland, Hungary, and the United States. In all, police say they discovered at least 120,000 stolen credit card numbers. [More]
Ex-Disney Worker Pleads Guilty To Skimming $83,000 In Guest Credit Cards
By 6.14.10
Maybe she overdosed on saccharine. A Walt Disney World resort front desk clerk has plead guilty after getting caught for placing skimmers on the computers at work, ripping off 178 people, 32 banks and credit-card issuers of over $83,000. [More]
Ben Popken On WJLA Warning About Robocall Scammers
By 6.10.10
UPDATE: Here’s the video. If you live in the DC area, tune into ABC 7 tonight at 5:45 pm to see a Consumer Alert I shot with local reporter Kris Van Cleave. Apparently, this morning like six of their reporters all got scam robocalls on their cellphones with a recording saying their ATM card had been deactivated and they needed to call the bank back. Hello, scam! [More]
86-Year-Old Receives Surprise $19k Bill From Macy's
By 6.7.10
Lorene Pounds is 86 years old and says she hasn’t shopped at Macy’s in years. That’s partly why she was surprised when Macy’s called her up and told her she was delinquent on her credit card account. The other reason she was surprised was they said she owed $19,791. [More]
How Fraudsters Make Fake Credit Cards
By 5.27.10
There’s many ways your credit card can be stolen and exploited, but this is one of the more sophisticated: In this WIRED video, Detective Bob Watts of Newport Beach Police Department shows how crooks take your credit card numbers they steal off the internet and turn a blank plastic card into something they could swipe through a Best Buy scanner or plunk down at a fancy restaurant, complete with holograms and embossing. Using these techniques, one criminal ring racked up over a $1 million in fraud before they got busted. [More]
Thieves Flood Your Phone Line While Draining Your Bank Account
By 5.14.10
How can you electronically drain someone’s bank account while also preventing their bank from contacting them to verify the transaction? Use telephony to flood all of their phone lines with anything from dead air to phone sex promo recordings. According to the Communication Fraud Control Association, these scams are increasing in recent weeks. Be wary. [More]
Man Gives $150,000 To Psychic, Then Suspects Fraud
By 5.10.10
A man in Portland, Oregon says he’s now bankrupt after giving cash, a Hummer, and lots of trust to a local psychic. In all, he says his payments totaled $150k and now he’s bankrupt, and that he wants to warn others not to fall for such things. So just to be clear: don’t give $150,000 in cash and autos to a psychic in exchange for removal-of-demon services. And if you want to buy a tabernacle from the Vatican, deal with the church yourself and don’t go through the local psychic. [More]
New Craigslist Scam Harvests Your Cellphone, Crams $9.95/Month
By 5.4.10
A new Craigslist scam is targeting your cellphone. Sellers report getting a message from a “serious buyer” who is busy “at work” and “can’t contact” them now. The fictional buyer says they “use a website that can save information” and asks the seller to “leave your phone number there” so they can call you after they “get home to arrange a meeting.” Based on one users’ experience, the site, which has already been pulled, then starts cramming $9.95/month monthly charges onto any cellphone number that gets entered. Here is one of the scam emails: [More]
Did Paulson Violate The Fair Credit Reporting Act?
By 4.27.10
When the SEC announced its fraud complaint against Goldman Sachs, people noted that the penalties involved would involve money, not jail time. But an attorney writing for seekingalpha.com argued over the weekend that John Paulson, the hedge fund manager who worked with GS to create “synthetic derivatives,” accessed FICO scores to create his financial product and therefore violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)–which could mean a penalty as high as $1 billion, and even jail time if the FTC or Justice Department decides to go after him. [More]
Energy Star Introduces Stricter Rules In Attempt To Prevent Cheating
By 4.19.10
Last year the Department of Energy, which co-administers the Energy Star certification program with the EPA, admitted that it allows many companies to certify their goods themselves. That was somewhat worrying, but nothing like what happened earlier this year when government auditors successfully got ludicrously power-hungry designs approved for the Energy Star label. The EPA and Energy Department have responded by announcing a new, stricter certification process. [More]
SEC Charges Goldman Sachs With Fraud
By 4.16.10
The SEC today announced civil fraud charges against Goldman Sachs and VP Fabrice Tourre. The chargea allege that Goldman ripped off investors by allowing a client who bet against the housing market to pick the mortgage securities being sold to other investors who were also investing in the housing market. [More]
eBay Scammers Evolve, Use Live Chat "Customer Service Reps"
By 4.13.10
Grace almost got scammed on eBay. A fraudster cracked a high-value seller’s account and posted a fake listing for a camera and tried to make Grace pay for it using Western Union, a huge warning sign of a scam. That’s typical, but these criminals went the extra mile. “Above and beyond,” if you will. When she tried to ask some questions about the transaction, they directed her to a live online chat that was mocked up to look like a real eBay customer service chat and tried to assuage her concerns by telling her it was okay to use Western Union because she had “buyer protection!” Here’s her story and the chat transcript so you can learn and not get burned: [More]
Prison Inmate Charged With Running Major Department Store Credit Card Scam
By 4.5.10
Seven Ohio men between the ages of 27 and 50 were arrested last week and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, after an investigation found evidence that they were gaining access to strangers’ store-issued credit cards to buy and resale merchandise. The group’s leader, who was also charged, is a 33-year-old inmate at Fort Dix, NJ. Investigators think he initially met one of the Ohio men in prison. [More]
