Scams, Spam and Slams

Scams, Spam and Slams was Originally Posted on February 17, 2007 by lavarock

Scams are everywhere and that is a bad thing. Not just the scams, but also that people continue to fall for them. Thus they work so they continue.

I just deleted another phishing email that purports to be from a local Hawaiian credit union offering $100 to a few people who fill out a survey. It does not say everyone will get the money. Still, it’s a big scam! The link points you far away from Hawaii and then they ask you for your account information. DUH! The credit union already would have had your information. Credit unions usually do their business via mail with colorful brochures telling you of contests, etc. Also, credit unions rarely give away money, that is how they stay profitable compared to banks.

Here is a link to this specific phishing attempt: http://www.trendmicro.com/en/security/phishing/overview/phish060813b.htm

You should read it to see how to recognize similar attempts towards you. They include Ebay, banks, Paypal, etc. NEVER click on links in emails. A friend told me she had an email that someone was charging her PayPal account for a “suspicious” amount. She clicked on the link and AOL told her it was a scam. Still, she ended up changing her PayPal password and then had her credit card cancelled, etc, just to be sure.

Another scam is the “I’m sending you a money order for more than the cost of the item, just take what you need for the item and the shipping and send me the item and a check for the extra” scam. You deposit the cashiers check, send the item and then days to weeks later find that the check you received was a fraud. You now have no money, no item AND sent the scammer some of your own money!

These cashiers’ checks look good and often banks cannot tell you if they are valid. So you think, well, I’ll take this to the bank that issued the check and verify it. There was a long ongoing case where a guy did that with a suspected check and the bank said it was good. Then when he endorsed it and cashed it, they had him arrested for bank fraud. Clark Howard fought to bring this to light against the Bank of America. I wanted to point you to the actual story and audio feeds, but they have finally scrolled off.

Here is a page of many of the common scams currently going on, but they are the tip of the iceberg. http://clarkhoward.com/shownotes/category/6/23/167/

There used to be a scam where you would work in an office and receive a telephone call from “your copier company” offering you a deal on toner. The company calling was trying to “verify” your serial number and model. Then they would ship shoddy products and have real information about your machine to put on the invoice. Large companies would pay these things because the invoice had correct information on it.

You continue to receive spams via email about making big money. Let me tell you that if you receive an email asking you to keep the information in confidence, it is a confidence game! JUST SAY NO! There are no people over in Nigeria or anywhere else who will pay you to launder some money for them. They tell you that you can make lots of money if you just send them your bank account information (so they can deposit money). They don’t! They remove it. Most people don’t realize that there is no one-way valve on bank accounts. Giving someone access to deposit money INTO your account can also REMOVE it! Proof of that is when a Fortune 100 Company made a mistake and double paid a payroll to me, and then the next day withdrew the money back without me doing anything. You should be very very careful who has access to your bank account. I allow my mortgage company and healthcare company to deduct funds, but would NEVER allow a gym to automatically remove money from my account.

Years ago it was common to sign up for a “contest” in a restaurant or beauty parlor or wherever. On the back of the paper was tiny text saying “By filling out this sweepstakes, I agree to change my long distance company….” And all of a sudden, you and slammed to a new company and start paying tons for long distance calls. Always read the fine print.

I have mentioned recently, there is only 1 company that gives you your credit report for free (without signing up for any kind of Triple Advantage crap). Also, you don’t have to pay to have anyone do anything with your Social Security account; the government lets you sign up and will even send you an estimated payout schedule for free.

People should NEVER pay more than $9 a year for a domain name. Any company that charges you more is a rip-off. There were lawsuits against Domain registry of America, who would send out notices to people letting them THINK this company was their registry and that they were about to lose their domain name. Often these notices were sent a year in advance of actual expiration. This was so that you would not see that your current company was only going to charge you a small amount. These people are still in business and I still get post office mailings from them. I rip them up. Also, I get phone calls from people who know my domain name and want my fax number. I hang up on these people also. Most have an overseas accent. You should not be receiving physical mailings and telephone calls about your domain names.

If you want to start a website and you are NOT selling things, your website should cost nothing to a few dollars a month. I regularly set up shopping carts for people who want to sell items AND do credit card billing. The yearly website cost is in the range of $80 to $100 a year and an SSL security certificate is like $50 a year. If you are paying more than that, you may be vastly overpaying. Granted, there would be gateway fees and credit card company charges as additional cost, but most website hosts don’t do that and thus their costs don’t involve those charges anyway!

Anyway, I could go on and on about scams, spams and slams but you get the idea. Keep your wits about you. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. There are people who can pat you on the back with one hand and pick your pocket with the other. And it MAY happen to you.