We’ve written before about scam artists taking advantage of consumers’ unease with technology to trick them into handing over sensitive personal info, and now there are scammers hoping to prey upon consumers’ general dissatisfaction with customer service and tech support (and their general love of refunds). [More]
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Phone Scammers Tell Woman They Have Her Dad Hostage (Spoiler: They’re Lying)
By 12.5.13
Phone-based scammers have traditionally employed techniques that either prey upon a victim’s greed — “You’ve won a new car! Just pay the taxes to us now and it’ll be yours” — or protective instincts — “Your grandson is in a hospital in Belarus and needs money ASAP to get treatment” — but these criminals are increasingly using fear to wring cash out of unsuspecting folks. [More]
Scammer Charged With Renting Out Home She Didn’t Own Six Times In A Few Weeks
By 11.5.13
While we don’t condone scamming in any form, we’ve written enough about inept scammers over the years to pick up a few tips on how to avoid being caught so easily. For example, if you’re going to try to swindle people out of thousands of dollars in bogus rental deposits, don’t get greedy and try to hoodwink six different tenants in just a matter of a few weeks. [More]
No, Comcast Will Not Threaten To Arrest You If You Don’t Pay Your Bill
By 10.4.13
So you’ve received an e-mail from Comcast saying you’re $25 late on your cable bill and that if you don’t resolve the issue ASAP, you could be arrested. First, that’s simply not true, and second, that message isn’t from Comcast. [More]
The Good News: Your Grandson Isn’t In Peruvian Prison. The Bad News: You Just Lost $250K
By 9.17.13
Grandkids, kids, nieces and nephews: Now is a really good time for you to sit down your elders and tell them that you will likely never be locked up in a prison or stranded abroad and in need of large sums of money. Or heck, maybe set up a password — “Grandma, if I ever call and yell ‘BINGO!’ into the phone you’ll know it’s me and it’s safe to send me money.” [More]
Reminder: Don’t Be Taken In By A Charity Scam
By 9.17.13
Between the recent tragic flooding in Colorado and yesterday’s fatal shooting in Washington, D.C., it’s been one of those weeks that make many people wonder want to do something, anything, to help those who are grieving, suffering, or in need. Sadly, as we’ve seen too many times to count, tragedies always bring out the worst in a small number of people looking to cash in on the charity of well-meaning folks. [More]
Scammer Threatens To Blow Up Kmart If Prepaid Debit Card Isn’t Filled
By 9.12.13
While the man in the earlier story who mentioned that he might get a machine gun and use it against the employees of a customer service call center was improperly venting his frustration, the person who called in a bomb threat to a New Jersey Kmart was just trying to scam the store out of some money. [More]
Chase: Refunding A Scam Victim Is The Same As Forgiving A Debt
By 9.9.13
When you successfully convince your credit card company that you were scammed out of thousands of dollars and that a chargeback should be issued, you’d think that would be the end of the story, but not for one Chase credit card customer who just found out — two years after receiving the money back — that Chase now says the refund is actually a forgiven debt, and that he must pay income taxes on it. [More]
Scammers Vomit On Receipts To Trick Walmart Into Taking Back Bogus Video Games
By 9.9.13
Using the power of emetophobia, some scammers in Michigan apparently think they have found the secret formula for tricking Walmart into accepting returned video games — or rather, returned video game boxes containing counterfeit or blank discs. [More]
What’s Worse Than A Payday Loan? A Payday Loan Scammer
By 9.4.13
Short-term, high-interest payday loans are illegal in several states, but that doesn’t stop consumers from trying to get their hands on quick cash. So when they see a website offering to hook them up with a payday lender and get them up to $1,000 in about an hour, it may seem like a good deal. That is, until that loan never shows up and the borrower has even less money in her bank account. [More]
Please Don’t Press Any Buttons When You Get A Scammy Robocall
By 8.27.13 — Updated: 5.23.17
We regularly receive complaints from readers who receive robocalls even though their numbers are on the Do Not Call List or they pressed “2” to have their numbers removed. The fact is that these robocallers simply don’t care about the law or whether you want to hear from them. [More]
Just Say No… To Marijuana Stock Scams
By 8.20.13
Look, we know that all the cool kids in the neighborhood have tried it, and some swear that it’s just the bee’s knees, but before you get lured into a mistake that will leave you penniless and regretful, you should learn to just say no to investing in scammy marijuana stocks. [More]
Travel Club Scammers Plead Guilty To Bilking Millions From Consumers
By 8.8.13
After years of tricking New Jersey residents into paying millions of dollars to bogus “travel clubs,” a husband and wife scammer team have entered guilty pleas, and at least one of them will probably spend a few years behind bars. [More]
So What Actually Happens If I Fall For ‘Free Airline Voucher’ Scam?
By 8.2.13
We’ve told you before about scammy letters falsely claiming to be from Travelocity and something called “United Airways,” alerting recipients that they have won free travel vouchers worth hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars. Our readers were too savvy to fall for these scams, but not everyone is. [More]
$11 Million Penalty Apparently Wasn’t Enough To Stop Scammy Telemarketers
By 8.1.13
Back in 2007-8, the Federal Trade Commission shut down a sketchy telemarketing company called Suntasia Marketing, Inc., for defrauding consumers and charging their bank accounts without consent programs they never enrolled in, like memberships in discount buyer’s and travel clubs. Two of the defendants behind the scam were hit with $11 million settlements and barred from getting involved in these sorts of shenanigans in the future, but that apparently wasn’t sufficient penalty to set them on a righteous path. [More]
‘Winning In The Cash Flow Business’ Scammers Banned From Polluting Airwaves With Infomercials
By 7.31.13
Do you need money? Everybody does, am I right? But not everyone has time to become a Wall Street lawyer. That’s why you need a simple, 3-step system to guide you through the process of making millions from the comfort of your own home. Unfortunately, you won’t be hearing about that system from Russ “Winning in the Cash Flow Business” Dalbey or his wife Catherine, as they have been banned from stinking up your late-night TV watching with any of their infomercials. [More]
Minnesota Hopes New Background Checks Will Deter Scammy Coin Dealers
By 7.29.13
As the prices of precious metals began to take off in recent years, so did the number of less-than-legitimate buyers and sellers of coins. These scammy individuals, often ex-cons, tarnished the industry by misleading people into selling their valuable coins for a fraction of what they were worth, along with instances of theft and fraud. This week, Minnesota begins implementing a new law that hopes to discourage these people from getting into the business by requiring criminal background checks. [More]
Feds And Colleges Now Blacklisting Student-Aid Scammers
By 6.24.13
More than 12 million U.S. college students applied for federal aid for the school year starting this fall, but around 126,000 of these applicants have been flagged by schools and the government as potential scammers looking to cash aid checks without ever intending to get an education. [More]
