The Scam Alert Blog

When it comes to Internet scams, EBay sometimes seems to have cornered
another market. Whether it’s because of the large volume of
transactions taking place there or because a number of novice Internet
users flock to EBay is anyone’s guess but the fact that scams and
schemes abound there is undeniable. This is not to state that EBay is
crooked or dishonest itself, it’s just to point out that as in every
dealing - beware.

A known scam targeting sellers on EBay and using Paypal goes something
like this. Bidding takes place and a buyer wins an auction. Buyer then
emails the seller and requests that the package be shipped a specific
way. There is no problem in the transaction up to this point, the
problem occurs because the specified mode of shipment is untraceable.
Whether it’s to a third party address with no confirmation of their
relationship to the buyer or merely sent to a foreign country that does
not provide tracking on packages, the end result can be bad. It should
be said, that someone could be purchasing the item from a foreign
country or legitimately sending this as a gift to someone they know.
This could be a legitimate transaction, but it may also be a scam. How
it works is, after sufficient time has passed the buyer emails the
seller saying the package was never received. When the shipment status
cannot be resolved because of a lack of tracking or because the shipment
was not sent to the person EBay/Paypal considers the “buyer”, the buyer
then requests an automatic refund through Paypal. Approximately seven
days later, unless the seller can provide proof of shipment, Paypal
refunds the money to the buyer and automatically subtracts the money
from the Seller’s account. Buyer receives the merchandise and the money
and the seller is out both.

Now, for foreign shipments there are other escrow services available but the danger lies in not being able to track the package. Many thousands of cases of safe delivery of foreign ordered product exist, this is simply a case of “seller beware”.

The Michigan State Attorney General issued a warning regarding the relatively new process of stealing personal information known as “pharming”. More information on “phishing” and “pharming” available here.

Note: I also posted this in our Virus Alert Blog as it applies to both getting a virus and getting scammed.

Yet another argument for having a functional and updated anti-virus
program running on your computer:

I spoke with someone recently (we’ll call him Jay) who says he,
admittedly, doesn’t pay enough attention to Internet security.

Jay tells me that last month he opened up his phone bill and while his
normal phone bill runs about $80 or so, this time his current charges
were over $1200. Jay says he was obviously shaken by the amount and
when looking for details saw that he was being billed for many overseas
calls. Now, Jay was pretty sure he hadn’t been making these two a.m.
calls to Indonesia so he angrily called the phone company. The phone
company checked his usage history and sure enough verified that they
were coming from his phone. Jay argued that he doesn’t know anyone in
Indonesia but that argument didn’t hold up to the phone company’s
records of these calls being made from his phone number. The phone
company made the suggestion that his computer had made those calls
without him knowing it. Jay took his computer to a friend who runs a
computer repair service and they looked into the possibility.

Well, Jay fancies himself a poker player and had been playing online for
the last six months or so. Over those six months he had played at a
number of different sites and has about broke even, which in my opinion
is doing pretty well. Internet poker sites, like many other sites,
require you download software onto your computer to play their games.
The technician looking through Jay’s computer found a “dialer” imbedded
in one of these sites’ software. Upon further investigation it was
determined that this was the piece of software making these late night
calls. The technician cleaned up the computer, installed an updated
anti-virus program, and gave Jay a quick lesson on Internet security.

That fixed Jay’s computer problem, but there was still the issue of the
outstanding phone bill. After numerous calls with the phone company
they finally agreed to adjust these virus-made long distance phone calls
off of his account. This was a step they didn’t have to take and Jay
was very thankful that they did.

Now that everything was back in order I did have to remind Jay of all
the warnings he’s gotten, from me and others, regarding Internet
security. Jay is a lot more knowledgeable on the subject now and is
more careful of what he installs on his computer.

This story is not told to tell people of the dangers of Internet
gambling. Internet gambling can be done in a relatively safe manner.
This story is told to illustrate the dangers of installing software on
your computer that you are not 100% sure is reliable and safe.

Though this is not technically an Internet scam, we at The Scam Alert have just now been the recipients of a scam attempt through regular, or snail, mail. We thought this would be a good chance to pass this on. Most have received these types of letters/emails before, please do not fall for it.

The letter we received said that we had been selected from our entry in the “North American Sweepstakes” and our share of the “lotto” was $65,000. There was a check enclosed that appears to be legitimate in the amount of $2,300. It says this is the first installment and is the
“tax penalty portion” of the jackpot we won. It goes on to congratulate us on our good fortune. The check is drawn on a New Jersey bank (which I won’t name here as they are most likely not part of the scam but potential victims as well), but the letter has a Nova Scotia return
address. It also has the name of our “account handler” and their phone number so we can contact them and handle the transfer of the money to us.

How the scam says it works: Basically, I am to deposit the check and then send that amount, or it may be a slightly lower amount, to the “handler” to pay for the taxes and penalties portion of the jackpot. The “handler” then does his part freeing up our portion of the jackpot
and a check for $65,000 (minus the $2,300) is overnighted to us.

How it really works: I deposit the $2,300 check in my account. I send them the tax and penalty fee. A week to ten days later my bank contacts me that the original $2,300 check is not good, there are either no funds or it is a bogus check/account. I have already sent off my check or money order to the “handler” and, you guessed it, no check for $62,700
ever shows up. My bank has credited my account for the bogus check and I am out the money that I sent off to the “handler”.

For purely informational purposes, I decided to call the phone number of our “account handler”. The first four tries I could get no answer. Finally someone answered and they explained to me that I need to deposit the check and send in $2,000 to cover the taxes and penalties fee.
Never intending to do this, but having way too much fun talking to this person I asked if there were any other alternatives. I asked why the lottery company didn’t just subtract the taxes and liabilities fees from my winning amount and then send me a check for $62,700 and send a check for $2,300 to the account handler. His response to this was that the fees vary depending on the country where the winner is located. I then proceeded to talk to him for about 15 minutes about what I was going to do with my winnings and how much this meant to my family. I told him about the new swimming pool we would be putting in and how excited the
kids were. I was really having fun at this point. I then asked him if I could just endorse the $2,300 check over to him and send that to him through the mail. He said this wouldn’t work as I would be overpaying the fees by $300 and that money should be mine. I told him I didn’t
mind at all as this would allow me to get my payment to him faster, thus getting my larger check faster. He then said that this wasn’t “legal” (oh, I loved him using that word) as the payment for the taxes and fees had to come from me, not the lottery company. I then thanked him for his time and told him I would get the payment right out to him.

The next day I took the letter, the check, and the envelope it came in and brought it my local branch of the United States Post Office where they will investigate if for mail fraud.

I urge anyone who receives this type of letter or email to not respond or follow through with their steps. Remember, common sense states that if it sounds too good to be true it usually is. Plus, how can you win a lottery that you never signed up for?

A common scam going on right now goes a little like this.

Party A is from a foreign country and agrees to purchase an item from Party B. Party A then sends a cashier’s check or money order for more than the amount of the purchase price. Party A then alerts Party B to their “mistake” and asks for a refund of the overpayment. Party B refunds the money only to find out later (sometimes much later as the time for a foreign check to clear is sometimes longer) that the original payment is a forgery or counterfeit. Party A then has a good time spending Party B’s money.

If someone buys something from you and gives you any reason why they are sending a form of payment that is greater than the agreed upon price and they’d like the difference back, red flags should be going up. Make sure that the check has cleared before sending any refunds.

Don’t get scammed,
Mark

It appears that 1000 Barbra Streisand concert tickets are now invalid after it was determined they were bought with a stolen credit card and then resold. Hopefully this doesn’t affect you.

This points out yet another way of being scammed. You could be purchasing a perfectly legitimate item like a concert ticket and it could be perfectly authentic, as in this case as they came straight from TicketMaster, but if they were purchased with a stolen credit card it won’t matter - your tickets will be invalidated or confiscated.

Knowing who you’re buying from is an important part of an online transaction. The best deal may be from the guy operating a part-time business out of his spare bedroom, but the safer deal may be buying from a known entity. If you’re truly wanting to buy something off the secondary market, there are some venues (ebay, amazon, etc.) that have feedback ratings that will at least give you a little more assurance of completing the deal satisfactory.

Don’t get scammed,
Mark