12 Days of Scams Day 8: Reporting scams can make a difference

The British Museum contains the world’s oldest documented consumer complaint: a 3,800-year-old Babylonian tablet from the ancient Sumerian city-state of Ur in Mesopotamia — now known as Tell el-Muqayyar in Iraq. The clay tablet recorded the complaint of an unsatisfied copper ore customer written to his supplier.

Sad to say, 6,000 years of crooks robbing others hasn’t helped us all avoid being taken to the cleaners.

Many feel after suffering financial loss from a scam that they can’t do anything.

But reporting the scam to the Federal Trade Commission could lead to a prosecution of the scammer and refunds to the victims. Debt management, credit counseling, health care frauds, revenge porn, work-at-home plans, diet products, business opportunities, vocational training, and third party debt collection are just some of the recent scams that were halted and refunds to victims made, as discussed in Appendix A at https://www.ftc.gov/reports/2018-annual-report-refunds-consumers?utm_source=govdelivery.

But watch out for the scammers who can swoop in and scam victims a second time during the refund prosecution process -- https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2019/10/ftc-refunds-real-deal-or-not?utm_source=govdelivery

For those who want to make such a complaint, https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/#crnt&panel1-1 is the place to start. There are seven categories to choose from to help stop the crooks!

12 Days of Scams Day 7: Scammers International

We may think that fraudulent scams mostly originate in American “boiler rooms,” as they are called. Instead, they are growing on the international scene. Many of the operations are thought to be funded by drug cartels.

The federal government has bigger and bigger problems to deal with these criminals operating in other countries.

Recently, two defendants operating from call centers in Costa Rica were convicted in federal court of posing as representatives of the Federal Trade Commission and Securities & Exchange Commission to defraud older Americans out of millions of dollars. The defendants told victims they had won substantial sweepstakes prizes but had to make up-front payments to collect them. The scam defrauded victims out of $10 million in total. The two defendants were sentenced to 25 and 20 years in prison respectively.

The Department of Justice has extradited four Peruvian residents to the United States, where they face charges of operating a large-scale extortion scheme from 2012 to 2015. The defendants are alleged to have run Peruvian call centers that contacted Spanish-speaking individuals living in the U.S. to threaten them into paying fraudulent settlements or nonexistent debts.

These prosecutions, discussed at https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USFTC/bulletins/246ccf0, illustrate just how much money there is in fraudulent schemes, whether they originate in China or India or elsewhere.

Unfortunately most international telephone fraudsters like these never get caught or prosecuted. Most victims of these kinds of scams never get their money back. Since prevention is our best hope, sharing warnings about such scams with your friends and family might be a truly valuable holiday gift.

12 Days of Scams Day 6: Free Medical Alert Scams

Showing just how heartless scammers are, elderly consumers have recently been bombarded with over a billion unsolicited robocalls to pitch supposedly “free” medical alert systems. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/06/ftc-law-enforcement-partners-announce-new-crackdown-illegal?utm_source=govdelivery

The calls were often made to numbers on the Do Not Call Registry and typically “spoofed” caller ID information so that the consumer thought they were dealing with a local company.

The internet even contains scripts for such calls, so anyone can start such a scam.

Some scammers used pre-recorded messages, which were meant to sound like a live person, that falsely told consumers that a $400 medical alert system had been purchased for them, and they could receive it “at no cost whatsoever.” However, telemarketers would not answer questions about who bought the system for them.

Many messages claimed falsely that their medical alert system had been endorsed or recommended by reputable organizations like the American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, National Institute on Aging, or the AARP.

The callers also told consumers they would not be charged any monitoring fee on the device until they activated the system, even though their credit or debit cards were charged immediately. The consumers were also often falsely reassured that they could cancel their service at any time.

When an unsolicited caller tells you that something will be free, don’t believe it. It definitely won’t be! Comparing prices and purchasing something you need at your own pace is not what the scammers had in mind, so outsmart them!

12 Days of Scams Day 5:. Credit Card Interest Rate Reduction scam

Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission filed a case in Florida federal court against three individuals who had set up a maze of interrelated operations that used illegal robocalls to contact financially distressed consumers, many of whom were seniors, across the nation with offers of bogus credit card interest rate reduction services.

They were told that, for a fee, they could lower their credit card interest rates to zero for the life of the debt to save them thousands of dollars on their credit card debt. Too good to be true? Definitely!

Using the ploy of confirming consumers’ identities, many were tricked into providing their personal financial information, including their Social Security and credit card numbers.

If consumers did not buy the services, some later found out that fraudulent credit cards had been applied for without their knowledge or consent. Those consumers were able to do that through checking their free annual credit report at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action

When it’s too good to be true, hang up fast!

12 Days of Scams Day 4: Government imposter scams

Many of the federal government’s consumer protection efforts are handled by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The FTC reports that scammers pretending to be from the federal government reached the highest levels on record in spring 2019, and this is the most commonly reported fraud the FTC deals with..

Consumers were contacted by phone or email by someone falsely claiming to be from the Social Security Administration, Internal Revenue Service, or another government entity.

These scammers may tell people that their Social Security number has been suspended, which does not happen, or that they are facing arrest because they owe back taxes and demand payment from the consumer to avoid getting into trouble. Often, they demand that a consumer pay with a gift card -- which is a dead giveaway that the consumer is dealing with a scammer.

This scam doesn’t actually work all that well any more, but it does haul in victims of all ages. The scammers are willing to use a high volume of computerized calls or emails just to haul in a few gullible folks. Watch out for it! More information is available at https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USFTC/bulletins/253a8d4.

12 Days of Scams Day 3: A new twist on the old grandparent scam

“Grandma, something bad has happened, and I need your help right now!” is often the start of a scam phone call. No grandchild’s name is included for her to identify, so Grandma often fills in the blanks, “Tommy, is that you?” (If Grandpa answers, the spiel quickly switches to a plea to him.)

The reason for the emergency assistance will often be sketchy and playing on emotions is also how it works. It is frequently “I am in jail” or “I was in a car accident.” The scammer often requests that Grandma not notify the parents, playing on her loyalty. “What more natural alliance is there than that between a grandparent and grandchild?” says AARP WV President Rich Stonestreet.

The help requested is often money from gift cards Grandma is to purchase at a specified store or a wire transfer to a specified company. The amount is usually in the hundreds of dollars, and Grandma is convinced it’s a legitimate call.

But it’s not, so be careful when answering any phone call. If you hear such a plea from the caller, stay calm and get suspicious immediately!

More details are available at https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0204-family-emergency-scams.

Interestingly, robocallers don’t leave this type of message for Grandma or Grandpa, so pre-screening calls through letting the call go to voicemail can avoid such a scam and make a lot of sense.

The new twist is that 25% of victims of family imposter fraud victims who reported to the Federal Trade Commission in 2018 were asked to send cash rather than gift cards.

12 Days of Scams Day 2: Job offer scams

Currently, one of the most effective online scams deals with job offers. Taking advantage of those needing to find a way to earn more income, those bogus job offers from a so-called employer generally involves paying a fee for further assistance in securing the possible job. Often, the money is needed for “training” or “equipment.” But there are no jobs, just people willing to hook new victims.

An alternate version is when the fake employer sends a bogus paycheck that cannot be cashed. In the meantime, more money will be solicited from the victim.

Learn more at https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0243-job-scams and tell family members and friends about this heartless scam that often results in losses in hundreds of dollars because the victims desperately need a job.

Tis the Season for Online Purchase Scams

Online purchase scams are still out there!

When a person wants to sell items on Craigslist, eBay, and other seller-to-buyer websites, they are often pleased to hear that someone is interested in buying. When the seller receives a worthless check that can’t be cashed and they’ve already shipped the item, they realize they’ve been scammed.

Others shopping online find out the hard way that the seller is fraudulent. They forgot to look for the special web address of https: or the small lock near the web address which shows there is security for the transactions. The scammers won’t usually bother with security, and the victim finds that they have a worthless item – or nothing -- for their trouble.

This helpful Federal Trade Commission site explains more -- https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2017/03/some-online-deals-charge-dont-deliver Also, don’t use debit cards for online purchases, it puts your back account balance at risk. With a credit card, the unhappy buyer can at least dispute the charge with their credit card company, which is exactly what the consumer should do next.