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Next Show: Tuesday, July 24th, 2007 @ 11:06amFrom our new Valley Talk Studio in the Historic Venetian TheaterArchivesMay & June 2007, April 2007, March 2007, February 2007, January 2007, December 2006Archives March 2007Content from Radio Show on March 20th 2007Go to Download mp3 Audio Archive Section.Tangent couple lose $3,315 in 'Net scam By Alex Paul, (c) 2007 Albany Democrat-Herald TANGENT - All Catherine Nelson wants is an inexpensive used car that runs well. Her 17-year-old car has nearly 200,000 miles and an engine that's running on borrowed time. Nelson needs something reliable to get her back and forth to her job working with autistic children through the local Education Service District. She and her husband, Francis Romano, were ecstatic when they found a 1997 Nissan Pathfinder for sale for $3,200 on the popular Internet site Craig's List. The two-owner SUV was within their budget and sounded like an answer to their prayers. "Being a spoiled vehicle, the previous owner insisted that it be kept in the garage ... no, this vehicle is not a one-owner, but you will be proud to own it," the advertisement read. The couple's joy turned to sorrow and frustration upon learning they had been scammed by someone who provided false information designed to make them think the transaction was protected by services provided by eBay. "We had contacted eBay several times before we sent the MoneyGram, but we never heard back from them until the day after we sent the money," Romano explained. "Catherine was very nervous about sending money this way, we just haven't done it before and we were trying to be as careful as possible." The couple wired $3,315 on Jan. 31. The next day they realized they had been scammed when they couldn't track their purchase through normal eBay channels. Romano learned that the seller was supposedly in Utah, so he contacted the FBI office in Salt Lake City. They were told they would have to follow the chain of command. In the last six weeks they have filed seven more complaints with the FBI and haven't received any personal contact, Romano said. The scammer had sent the couple several documents to ease their fears about sending so much money sight unseen. All looked like real eBay documents but were fake. When Romano contacted eBay by telephone, he was told they had been "spoofed." Romano says looking back over paperwork sent by the scammer, several red flags should have popped out at him. A purchase confirmation letter contained grammatical errors and the return e-mail address was not from eBay. "We have no hope of getting our money back," Nelson said. "I'm going to have to drive my car until it drops," she continued. "I hope it lasts long enough for me to save up money to buy another car. I'm sick about it but I won't let this rule my life. I'm going to write to as many places as I can and hope that other people don't get scammed in the same way. You definitely need to check everything." The Federal Trade Commission warns online buyers they should never wire money to a seller's account unless they "know the seller personally or can verify the seller's identity. Buyers should be suspicious of sellers who insist on wire transfers as the only form of payment they will accept. If something goes wrong with the transaction, you most likely will lose your payment and not have any recourse." 
 e-PowerSellers, Albany Notary, Shipping Annex
Telemarketing Fraud When you send money to people you do not know personally or give personal or financial information to unknown callers, you increase your chances of becoming a victim of telemarketing fraud. Warning signs -- what a caller may tell you: · "You must act 'now' or the offer won't be good." · "You've won a 'free' gift, vacation, or prize." But you have to pay for "postage and handling" or other charges. · "You must send money, give a credit card or bank account number, or have a check picked up by courier." You may hear this before you have had a chance to consider the offer carefully. · "You don't need to check out the company with anyone." The callers say you do not need to speak to anyone including your family, lawyer, accountant, local Better Business Bureau, or consumer protection agency. · "You don't need any written information about their company or their references." · "You can't afford to miss this 'high-profit, no-risk' offer." Some Tips to Avoid Telemarketing Fraud: It's very difficult to get your money back if you've been cheated over the phone. Before you buy anything by telephone, remember: · Don't buy from an unfamiliar company. Legitimate businesses understand that you want more information about their company and are happy to comply. · Always ask for and wait until you receive written material about any offer or charity. If you get brochures about costly investments, ask someone whose financial advice you trust to review them. But, unfortunately, beware -- not everything written down is true. · Always check out unfamiliar companies with your local consumer protection agency, Better Business Bureau, state Attorney General, the National Fraud Information Center, or other watchdog groups. Unfortunately, not all bad businesses can be identified through these organizations. · Obtain a salesperson's name, business identity, telephone number, street address, mailing address, and business license number before you transact business. Some con artists give out false names, telephone numbers, addresses, and business license numbers. Verify the accuracy of these items. · Before you give money to a charity or make an investment, find out what percentage of the money is paid in commissions and what percentage actually goes to the charity or investment. · Before you send money, ask yourself a simple question. "What guarantee do I really have that this solicitor will use my money in the manner we agreed upon?" · You must not be asked to pay in advance for services. Pay services only after they are delivered. · Some con artists will send a messenger to your home to pick up money, claiming it is part of their service to you. In reality, they are taking your money without leaving any trace of who they are or where they can be reached. · Always take your time making a decision. Legitimate companies won't pressure you to make a snap decision. · Don't pay for a "free prize." If a caller tells you the payment is for taxes, he or she is violating federal law. · Before you receive your next sales pitch, decide what your limits are -- the kinds of financial information you will and won't give out on the telephone. · It's never rude to wait and think about an offer. Be sure to talk over big investments offered by telephone salespeople with a trusted friend, family member, or financial advisor. · Never respond to an offer you don't understand thoroughly. · Never send money or give out personal information such as credit card numbers and expiration dates, bank account numbers, dates of birth, or social security numbers to unfamiliar companies or unknown persons. · Your personal information is often brokered to telemarketers through third parties. · If you have information about a fraud report it to state, local, or federal law enforcement agencies. ABA WARNS OF FRAUDULENT PHONE CALLS WASHINGTON, March 12 - The American Bankers Association has been alerted that someone or a group of individuals making phone calls purporting to be from ABA are actually part of an identity theft scam. These con artists are calling members of the public to falsely report that the receiver's personal financial information is on the Internet and ABA is calling them as a courtesy. These fraudulent calls, which have been discovered in Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania, are an effort to obtain personal financial information and are not being made by the ABA. The ABA would never request such information. In effort to further legitimize themselves, the con artists sometimes do not ask for personal financial information during the first call but simply recommend that the person call their bank. The con artist will then ask for the personal financial information during a follow-up call ABA is working with law enforcement to identify the source of the phone calls and to disrupt them. ABA offers the following advice to consumers: · Never give out your financial information to anyone unless you have initiated the contact, and this includes emails; · If you have already responded to this type of call or email by providing your personal financial information, contact your financial institution immediately to protect your account; · Inform the ABA about fraudulent phone calls and emails that use ABA's name by sending an email to alert@aba.com. Current Cell Phone Urban Legends Must be popular, as in the last week I have had five emails from friends asking about these gee-wiz things you can do or use your mobile / cell phone for... Claim 1. Dialing 112 on your mobile phone while in Europe will contact you with emergency services similar to 911. · Partially True: Some countries allow for 112 access, but your call will still be blocked if the relay towers don't recognize the signal. This will also fail if you phones carrier does not share access. Claim 2. That if your car has remote keyless entry, and you have an extra set of keys at home, you can call your home via your cell phone and someone at the other end can send the signal from the keys trough the house phone to your mobile phone and if you hold your cell phone about 1' away from your car door it would open. · Totally False: Cars use RKE transmission systems and Mobile phones do not, they are two separate signal sources and transmit at different frequencies. This is completely impossible. Claim 3: By hitting *3373# on your cell phone you can boost your battery for more time as there is a hidden battery reserve. · Nokia has what is called a half rate codec that adjusts the sound quality on a phone so that the battery has a longer talk life, there is no battery reserve and on a full charge may give you up to a 30% increase in battery life. However the other error is the code is actually #4720#, as the *3373# code actually puts that phone back to full codec. Regardless this is basically a non option and not worth considering even if you have the few phones in the world that allows this to happen as the loss of quality removes the value. Claim 4: Disable a stolen mobile phone by reporting the serial number to the provider. By entering code *#06# a 15 digit code will appear on the screen. If you write this down and you call your provider they can disable the phone even if the sim card is switched. · Partially True: This code may or may not appear on your phone, it is easier to write down the IMEI number on any of your mobile phones, usually on the sticker on the box when you get your phone or for sure under the battery. Only certain providers can remotely disable a phone. Claim 5: Instead of paying for 411 from your cell carrier (charges between $0.75 and $1.50) use a toll free 800 number for 411 info like 800.FREE.411 aka 800.373.3411 without incurring cost. · Partially True: As the service is free, you are still paying for the call, so if you are paying by the minute you are still paying by the minute. Remember cellular phones don't count 800, 877, or 888 numbers as toll free, you are paying for airtime and maybe distance depending on your plan. FBI 2006 Stats / Overview During 2006, consumers filed 207,492 complaints. Complainants said they lost $198.4 million, the highest total ever. Nearly 45 percent of the complaints involved online auction fraud-such as getting a different product than you expected-making it the largest category; more than 19 percent concerned undelivered merchandise or payments. Another pervasive scheme last year involved an e-mail threat of murder . The perpetrators: Three-quarters were men. Nearly 61 percent lived in the U.S., with half in one of seven states. Other top countries included the U.K., Nigeria, Canada, Romania, and Italy. Victims: All over the map. But the report shows that the "average" complainant was a man between 30 and 40 living in California, Texas, Florida, or New York. Individuals who reported losing money lost an average of $724; the highest losses involved Nigerian letter fraud, with a median loss of $5,100. Nearly 74 percent of the complaints said they were contacted through e-mail, and 36 percent complained of fraud through websites, highlighting the anonymous nature of the web. See the full FBI report here: http://www.ic3.gov/media/annualreport/2006_IC3Report.pdf Note: Oregon ranks #22 in fraud reporting
e-PowerSellers, Albany Notary, Shipping Annex
Bulletin on Vishing Scam With the new commonality and popularity of VOIP Voice Over IP Internet Phones, cyber criminals are using these systems to exploit Vishing scams. As we mentioned before on our show Vishing is very similar to Phishing, except instead of email the scammers use voice (phones) to contact the mark. There are currently two versions of this new Vishing scam. · In one version, you get the typical e-mail, like a traditional phishing scam. But instead of being directed to an Internet site, you're asked to provide the information over the phone and given a number to call. Those who call the "customer service" number (a VoIP account, not a real financial institution) are led through a series of voice-prompted menus that ask for account numbers, passwords, and other critical information. · In another version you're contacted over the phone instead of by e-mail. The call could either be a "live" person or a recorded message directing you to take action to protect your account. Often, the criminal already has some personal information on you, including your account or credit card numbers. That can create a false sense of security. The call came from a VoIP account as well. The advantages of Vishing scams over more traditional phishing scams is that VOIP is inexpensive, especially for long distance which allows cheap fake international calls. Also because VOIP is web based it is easy for criminals to create real sounding incoming customer service lines. Because it is easy for these cyber criminals to hide and reroute the IP address they are hard to track and even harder to prevent. Don't let this happen to you, be aware of the possibility a customer service call is fake, ask for the call back number and then check with the real financial institution to see if the information matches. If not the call is likely fake. Call the real financial institution directly to see if your account has any problems, odds are all is well and you just prevented a Vishing attempt.
Goto Download mp3 Audio Archive Section.
 
Next Show: Tuesday, July 24th, 2007 @ 11:06amFrom our new Valley Talk Studio in the Historic Venetian TheaterArchivesMay & June 2007, April 2007, March 2007, February 2007, January 2007, December 2006Quick Links
No Scam EmailEmail: noscams@kgal.com
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