Reader Krissy writes in with an absolutely horrible story about dealing with WaMu after her purse was stolen. She’s been living without a checking account or debit card since October because of WaMu.
fraud
Beware New Domain Name Scam
By 1.9.08
There’s a new internet domain name scam going around and its perpetrators tried to target our sister site Jezebel. Basically how it works is that a website operator will get a very official looking email saying they’re an internet registration company and that someone applied to use your domain name except with a different suffix, instead of .com, .cn, in this instance. Then, says, Kevin Tjaden, Client Services Manager at MarkMonitor, If you respond to the e-mail they will register the domain and offer to “recover” it for you for a large fee. It has been a pretty successful so you will see more of them in the future. It is best to treat them like spam and do not reply.”
TV Star Includes Bank Account In Editorial Saying Identity Theft Is No Big Deal, Gets Defrauded
By 1.8.08
Jeremy Clarkson, a British TV star, wrote an editorial describing privacy activism as “palaver,” and just to prove how safe we all are, included his bank account number. Soon afterwards someone snagged £500 from the Top Gear host’s account. “I was wrong and I have been punished for my mistake,” the presenter later told reporters. Needless to say, you should never share your bank account information with anyone who doesn’t need it, for instance, millions of faceless readers.
Geeks.com Website Hacked, Customer Data Stolen
By 1.7.08
If you bought anything from Geeks.com in at least the last year or so, you might want to start paying close attention to your credit card statements—the company sent out an email on Friday telling former customers that they “recently discovered on December 5, 2007 that customer information, including Visa credit card information, may have been compromised.” Full email after the jump.
Shenanigans With Chase Credit Cards?
By 1.2.08
Anyone else get a call from Chase about their credit cards?
I thought I would pass along a problem I ran into today. I received a couple phone calls from Chase Bank fraud department concerning 2 credit cards I have with them (Amazon Visa and Chase Freedom Card). They reported (in a separate call for each card) that both cards are suspected of being compromised and that they are being closed.
By 12.31.07
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Smart Money has some new scams to watch out for, in particular, con artists trying to take advantage of people in foreclosure. [Smart Money]
Future Shop Sends You Two Blocks Of Wood Instead Of A Router
By 12.31.07
Happy New Year, Canada! Here’s a special treat for our neighbors to the north:
Second Jersey Scammer Who Claimed To Cure Lou Gehrig's Disease Imprisoned
By 12.28.07
On December 12th, the U.S. District Court of New Jersey sentenced Elizabeth Lerner, a.k.a. Elizabeth Cooperman, to 33 months in prison for “falsely claiming that she could cure amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly called ‘Lou Gehrig’s Disease.'” Her crime partner, former osteopath Charlene C. DeMarco, was sentenced to 57 months back in September.
EB Games Sells You A Phone Book In A PS3 Box For The Low, Low Price Of $500
By 12.27.07
13-year-old Brandon Burns thought he’d received a Playstation 3 for Christmas. Sadly for Brandon, the box contained a local phone book and not a PS3. He wasn’t upset, just amused. His reaction:
Canadian Funeral Home Owner Busted For Cremains Fraud
By 12.24.07
The former owner of a funeral home in Princeton, British Columbia, has been charged with fraud for handing out random urns of ashes to his customers. The funeral home had been shut down in 2005 for operating without a license, but since it’s rather difficult to spot the “wrong” ashes by sight, the problem wasn’t discovered until another funeral home began to sort through the leftover inventory and found over 50 urns that had been labeled unclaimed.
By 12.18.07
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31 people in Florida were indicted in a complex mortgage fraud scheme that installed scammers at every level of the transaction, from buyers to sellers to bank employees, title agents, and appraisers. [NYT]
Tmobile: Pay $239 For Calls You Didn't Make To Africa
By 12.17.07
Mike had his phone stolen and $239 in fraudulent calls made to Africa on November 4th, and even though he reported the charges on November 5th, Tmobile says he still has to pay up. Their inviolable policy is that you’re responsible for the charges up until you report the phone as stolen. Mike recorded his failed attempts to get Tmobile to credit his account.
Watch Out For Mysterious $8.95 Charge To Your Account
By 12.14.07
A reader writes in that he noticed an unusual charge for $8.95 on his bank card recently. He looked up the number connected to the charge—866-305-8808—at the website 800notes.com and found that it belongs to some company called Eureka or EurekaInfo.net, and that there are others who have discovered the same unauthorized charge in recent days.
How Pretexters Steal Your Private Information
By 12.14.07
Al Schweitzer, a former pretexter, described before Congress the underlying principle of how, for fun and profit, he was able to trick various agencies and institutions into giving up other people’s confidential and personal information.
Identify the piece of information you are after; identify who or what institution is the custodian of the information sought; based on real world situations or actual operational procedures of the target institution, figure out under what circumstances and to whom the desired information would be released; be that person under those circumstances.
Emphasis added. Using this method Al was able to get people’s phone records, bank statements, and tax returns for his clients, who were often insurance companies, lawyers, and law enforcement. He successfully pretexted the IRS and the Social Security Administration. Simply put, if someone with money wants it, your personal information is not secure.
Card Skimmer Harvests $10,000 From 45 Victims At California Gas Station
By 12.13.07
Police suspect that a card skimmer installed at a gas station in El Monte, CA is responsible for $10,000 in credit card fraud, says KNBC:
“It looks like the victims were gassing up here and using the outside pump terminals, and their credit card information was compromised,” El Monte police Detective Brian Glick said.
Freddie Mac's Fraud Video Warns Borrowers
By 12.12.07
Freddie Mac produced this video to educate borrowers who face foreclosure about a fraud scheme where “a con artist will seek out a public notice of foreclosure and approach the potential victim with documents and the promise of sorting out the debt,” thereby tricking the homeowner into signing over the deed to the house.
Man Fakes Death For Three Years To Avoid Debt Collectors
By 12.11.07
Man fakes death for three years to avoid debt collectors. Hides in in house and flees via secret compartments whenever guests are over. When he finally resurfaced, he did it by walking into a police station and claiming to be suffering from amnesia. He was arrested on suspicion of fraud. Debt makes people do crazy things. That’s why we’re allergic to it when it comes to buying depreciating assets (unless they’re needed to make more money.
"Why I Never Want Anything To Do With Verizon Ever Ever Again"
By 12.11.07
Verizon is finally installing FiOS in my area. But I’ll never use it. I’ll never sign up for another Verizon account in my life, and I’m encouraging my parents to change to a different service when their Verizon cell contracts end soon. Over the course of eight months, I’ve become completely appalled at the horrible customer service I’ve gotten from that company.
