The Scam Alert Blog

Here is a great story that shows the process that some of these online scammers go through to get money and information from people. The “puppy scam” has been around for a little while now, it’s where an ad is placed saying that due to a sudden move across country or out of the country someone has to get rid of their puppies. For a small fee to cover shipping of the puppies, you can adopt them yourself. As with all scams, what is promised is never delivered.

There is yet another online scam out there that tries to appear that it comes from the IRS. It works like this, you get an email confirming your tax refund is ready and all you have to do is click the link in the email. The link takes you to a site that looks like an IRS site and asks for you to confirm your “information” (name, address, phone, mother’s maiden name, social security number, and PIN number). You guessed it, it isn’t an official IRS site… it’s a scammer’s site and they’re trying to steal your identity. Always be on the lookout!

An Australian woman has been operating for 3-4 years selling items she doesn’t own to other moms online. Concert tickets, baby supplies, baby furniture, and more have all been reported to have been paid for but never delivered. Police are investigating right now.

Here is yet another scam that centers around the payment being sent to a foreign bank account, this one involving fake stock investments. The scammers will groom potential victims with promises of ground floor investments that are not available to the general public yet. They’ll provide them with all the fake paperwork and websites to show that it is a real opportunity. The eye opening red flag that should make everyone aware that it is a scam is when they ask for the payment to be sent to a foreign bank account.

Be very wary of any transaction where the person selling you the goods or services requires payment sent to a foreign bank account. Most legitimate businesses have no problem establishing bank accounts in countries that they do business in. Don’t let scammers separate you from your money.

There is a scam going on right now where a fraudulent company gets ahold of debit card numbers, issues a pending charge of $1 to verify that the number is good and in use, and then chargest anywhere from $400 to $800 under the name ID Theft or Identity Protect. If this happens to you, dispute the charge so the bank will refund the money and then see what other steps your bank will take to protect your account. Don’t let scammers get your money.

Australian Robert Kobis allegedly scammed over 1,000 people out of their hard earned money with the promised sale of holiday vacations. The transactions took place over Internet auction house eBay who has become involved in the investigation and in a rare step is also offering to reimburse everyone who was scammed by this criminal. The investigation is not complete, but appears to have been primarily targeted at Australian and New Zealand residents. Another reason to double check any online transaction you choose to make. Don’t let an online scammer separate you from your money.

Nigeria, home to many wonderful things, and unfortunately what seems to be the home country of a large percentage of online scams. Well, from this area of the world comes the latest online scam, detailed here, that targeted residents of The Cayman Islands. Basically, a job opening would appear in the classified section of the newspaper. When responded to, the “job” would be cashing counterfeit traveler’s checks and money orders, keeping 10% of the money and sending the rest to the “employer” located in, you guessed it… Nigeria.

If it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is.

Check out this story where a senior citizen was almost conned out of hundreds of dollars by a large established box store. It seems the senior was being told about all the repairs that would be needed to make his computer work properly again when an onlooker who happened to know what he was doing overheard and stepped in. Upon opening the case and discovering a key component was either accidentally or purposefully unplugged by the box store employee, the problem was easily fixed at little or no cost.

Sometimes it is unavoidable, but when you put yourself at the mercy of someone who knows more than you do in any particular field… you open yourself up to be defrauded. For this reason alone it is a good idea to get second and third opinions, or seek out the opinion of someone you trust.

Don’t let scammers (no matter how established they are) separate you from your money.

Be careful when donating to your candidate via the internet. Most candidates for major offices have a well designed and efficient web presence these days. Many take in millions of dollars in donations through the internet. This has opened the door for scammers to put up sites designed to make you think you are trulyon the candidate’s website, but in truth you are not. Scammers trying to get your money while posing as legitimate campaign sites is a real concern and one you should be aware of. Don’t let scammers separate you from your money.

It looks like scammers are trying to come up with better sounding phishing and hoax emails. It appears that there is an underground network of scammers that are hiring people fluent in english to write or re-write their phishing and other hoax emails. This mean that you have one less way to spot a scam email as it may no longer stick out because of the broken english. Stay one step ahead of the game and check out any business or organization on the internet before you open their emails or enter any transactions with them.