Are fraudulent tax returns the fault of the IRS, or caused by a weakness in the most popular software programs that consumers use to file their taxes? Former employees of Intuit, maker of TurboTax, allege that the company prevented security staff from flagging and shutting down obviously fraudulent accounts. Why? Market share. Fraudsters were ditching TurboTax and using other tax software when the company flagged their returns. [More]
scams
Customers Rush To Use Grocery Store ATM Paying Out Double Cash
By 2.13.15
Customers at a Morrisons grocery store in the United Kingdom received an exciting surprise if they went to take some money out of the store’s cash machine: it was paying out double. No, this is not a thing that was actually supposed to happen, but customers rushed to the store to take out some extra money…even though it would be fairly easy for the ATM owner and their banks to determine who had taken out more cash than they were entitled to. [More]
Waitress Caught Editing Customers’ Tips To Add $10 Or $20 For Herself
By 2.13.15
One good reason to pay your restaurant bill in cash: Tipped employees get that money right away without having to worry about being docked fees for card-processing. Another good reason: A scammy server can’t artificially inflate your credit card tip with some crafty work of the pen. [More]
IRS Issues List Of “Dirty Dozen” Scams Taxpayers Should Be On The Lookout For This Year
By 2.12.15
Each tax season fraudsters manage to separate taxpayers from billions of dollars by using aggressive schemes such as impersonating Internal Revenue Service agents or employing emails and websites designed to gather consumers’ personal information for fraudulent use. This year, the IRS has issued a list of the “Dirty Dozen” scams consumers should guard against. [More]
Ohio Residents May Need To Take “Quiz” Before Getting State Tax Refunds
By 2.11.15
If you’re an Ohio resident and you’re expecting a refund on your state taxes this spring, you might have to go online and take a personalized “quiz” in order to prove you are who you claim to be before you can get your money. [More]
Alert Safeway Employees Save Woman From Losing Thousands In IRS Back Taxes Scam
By 2.6.15
Only weeks after Internal Revenue Service officials announced that more than 290,000 consumers have fallen victim to an ongoing back taxes scam in the last 15 months, alert employees at a Safeway supermarket in Washington prevented a woman from being added to the list of victims. [More]
Revenge Porn Scammer Found Guilty, Faces Up To 20 Years In Jail
By 2.3.15
Just days after one operator of a revenge porn site agreed to settle a federal complaint against him, a man who ran a similar site in California was found guilty of identity theft and extortion. [More]
IRS Says Thousands Have Been Scammed Into Paying Bogus Back Taxes
By 1.23.15
Let’s be honest for a moment and acknowledge that not everyone is 100% honest or accurate when filing their tax returns. There are lots of people out there who wouldn’t be shocked to hear from the IRS that they owe more or didn’t pay enough, which is why thousands of Americans have been scammed out of millions of dollars by con artists pretending to represent the IRS. [More]
Watch Out For Scammers Renting Out Homes They Don’t Own
By 1.21.15
“Make sure that someone owns the apartment they’re making available for rent” seems like a completely batty consumer warning, but unfortunately it is also a necessary one. People in Sacramento say that they handed hundreds of dollars each over to a woman advertising rooms for rent on Craigslist, only to discover that she’d rented the same space out to multiple people, and didn’t own it in the first place. [More]
Facebook Launches Effort To Cut Down On Those Annoying Hoax Stories Your Friends Can’t Stop Believing
By 1.20.15
No, Betty White is not dead (and neither is Eddie Murphy, Celine Dion, Jon Bon Jovi, etc). No, a bunch of worms didn’t burst out of a woman’s chest. But because your friends on Facebook are easily fooled and don’t know about the existence of Snopes.com, it’s up to you to run through that gauntlet of idiocy on your news feed. Since those gullible folks will never learn, Facebook says now it’s going to help crack down on bogus, hoax and otherwise fake Internet stories clogging up what you read on the social media site. [More]
Man Who Stole $36M From Delta Sentenced To 10 Years, Must Hand Over Yacht, Mansion
By 1.12.15
Last summer, we told you about a former employee at Delta and Northwest airlines who, along with a partner, duped the companies out of millions of dollars by submitting and paying invoices to a bogus company. That partner was recently sentenced to 10 years behind bars and now must turn over all the fun toys he bought with the ill-gotten money. [More]
Be On The Lookout For Boxes Of Rocks When Shopping For Post-Holiday Deals
By 12.29.14
In the coming weeks, some retailers will be offering deals on unsold stock of popular holiday gift items. Sometimes stores are up-front about whether or not a particular product was previously purchased and returned, while many just put these items back into inventory with the truly new stuff. That’s why you need to open up those boxes before you leave the store — or else risk getting home to find you’ve purchased a box of rocks. [More]
CFPB Takes Action Against Two Alleged Student Debt Relief Scams
By 12.11.14
Student loan borrowers have enough to worry about, so they shouldn’t have to deal with being hounded by so-called debt relief companies promising to provide consumers with repayment benefits that actually come free of charge with federal loans. Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took action to put a stop to two such relief scams that reaped millions of dollars from thousands of consumers. [More]
ID Thieves Use Domino’s Ordering App To Check Stolen Card Numbers
By 12.8.14
Let’s say you’re a criminal who has just purchased a bunch of credit/debit card numbers stolen from one of the data breaches that occur every day. How do you check to see if the numbers you’ve purchased are any good? For ID thieves in Brooklyn, the Domino’s Pizza ordering app provided a quick and easy way to run through those numbers — and get pizza for people. [More]
Authorities Arrest Owner, Six Employees Of Debt Collection Group That Scammed $4.1M From Consumers
By 11.18.14
We’re no stranger to the shady tactics that debt collection companies use to pry money from consumers. But the latest scam to be shut down by U.S. authorities might be one of the most egregious we’ve ever seen. [More]
Terrible People Create Fake Amazon Pages, Convince Walmart To Price-Match Them
November 18, 2014
It seemed like a great victory for consumers when Walmart announced that it would price-match select online retailers, including Amazon.com. However, because we’re not evil, we didn’t foresee how some people would misuse the price-matching privilege to scam Wally World into selling them video game consoles at cut-rate prices. [More]
Fake Pizza Hut Anniversary Email Won’t Give You Free Pizza, Just Malware
By 11.7.14
Emails for free pizza might be few and far between, so when one shows up in your inbox you might be tempted to ditch those dinner plans for a few cheesy slices. But even the promise of free pizzas can be too good to be true, that was certainly the case this week when an email purported to be from Pizza Hut didn’t end in free pizza, but dangerous malware. [More]
Man Arrested For Stealing House Moves Back In After Posting Bail
By 11.5.14
If I get arrested for stealing a car, that boosted vehicle probably isn’t waiting outside the police station for me to drive away in when I make bail. But a man in New York City who was recently arrested for stealing a home from its rightful owner was able to move back into the house he’s been accused of taking. [More]
