March 19, 2024

The Scammer Said to Me...

Dec. 14, 2008
On the Second day of Christmas,
the Scammer
Said to Me…



This week, the Express continues its Ripped-Off series that alerts consumers to pocketbook predators. We’ll draw on true stories from people around the region. Of course, the more stories the better, so call Anne Stanton toll-free at
1-877-244-8787 if you’d like to share your own.



How would you like an “instantly approved” credit application for a Target or Kohl’s card?
Hey, it’s not a coincidence these generous card offers arrive just in time for the holidays. Lots of people are running short on cash for gifts and might consider these offers a godsend. But before you call the 800 number to activate the card, check out the interest rate. These cards typically come attached with rates of 21 percent or even higher.
It’s not a scam exactly, but those finance fees and interest rates sure will drain your bank account.
If you’re like most Christmas shoppers, you’re probably more focused on buying the right gift rather than watching out for your wallet.
But ho, ho, ho, the holidays are a gift to scammers, who view this brief period of mania shopping as a personal windfall.

MALICIOUS SOFTWARE
Denise Richardson, author of Give Me Back My Credit, has—through personal experience and research—become an expert on identity theft and Internet scams. She shared the following advice on her blog.
“New this year, just in time for the holidays, is malicious software disguised as electronic greeting cards,” she wrote in her blog.
The hacker sends you a holiday e-card from a familiar e-mail address or name such as “Mom,” according to Brian Tombley, product manager at McAfee, an anti-virus software company.
If users open the attachment or click the link to view the card, the hacker can then install a Trojan horse program that lets them electronically collect the victims’ keystrokes for e-mail, online banking or other passwords, send pop-up ads to the computers, or delve into the victim’s address book.
So before opening that Christmas e-mail card, be sure you want to take the chance.
Here are some other tips to avoid getting scammed:
• Avoid buying gift cards because they are prone to fraud. We don’t want to inspire copycats, but believe us—this particular high-tech scam is happening in Northern Michigan.
• When buying items on the Internet, make sure the website is secure before typing in your credit card number. Look for a closed padlock on the browser’s status bar. When you’re asked for payment information, the beginning of the site’s URL address should change from “http” to “shttp” or “https,” indicating that the purchase is encrypted or secure, Richardson said. Safer yet: Don’t type in your credit card number on the Internet; call the 800 number instead.
• Use only credit cards when shopping online. Credit card companies will usually help with a refund if the product doesn’t arrive, is defective or isn’t what you expected. You’re out of luck with a debit card or money order, Richardson said.
• If you’re buying something online, make sure the seller has a strong return and warranty policy. Beware of the eBay offer that warns, “absolutely no returns.”
• Check out the reviews of the seller before buying.
• If you get a bulk email either selling a product or telling you that you won something, delete it. Scams happen most often with bulk emails.
• Often when ordering something on the Internet, be careful. You might be asked to type in your email to accept the “offer,” but the offer might be much more than your intended order—a monthly membership costing $20 a month, for example. Do not rush through transactions. Read all the text carefully before pressing the return button.
• Thoroughly review your credit and debit account statements to make sure no one is using your cards.
• NEVER sell or buy or engage in any communication with someone from Nigeria.
• Be incredibly cautious when selling merchandise overseas, because if you’re duped, you’re done.

GREEDY OR TRUSTING?
Law enforcement officials say that people who’ve been scammed are simply too greedy or too trusting.
Often scammers visit websites such as match.com and develop a strong relationship with their victim before moving in, said Traverse City Detective Derek Sutherin.
A Suttons Bay woman, single and lonely, sought out friendship on an Internet chat room. A gentleman she “met” seemed like an interesting guy, writing about a bridge he was building in Africa. As their relationship bloomed, they talked about marriage and money. Out of kindness, he sent her five or six money orders from Wal-Mart. He told her she could cash them and then wire back a fraction of the check amount to him in Africa.
But when the woman tried to open checking accounts in Leelanau and Grand Traverse counties with the money orders, she was stunned to find out they were fraudulent.
“Luckily she hadn’t lost too much money out of the deal because the banks were onto it pretty quick,” said Leelanau County Prosecutor Joe Hubbell.
Banks nowadays are more hesitant to cash checks—even U.S. Treasury checks and Traveler’s checks—because there are so many that are counterfeit, he said.
“The Internet has kind of changed the course of banking,” Hubbell said.
In fact, Sutherin holds monthly meetings with area bank representatives, the FBI and Secret Service to discuss the most current frauds. He also makes sure that frauds are publicized in the newspaper and television. But no matter how much this issue is in the news, there always seems to be people who fall victim to obvious scams, he said.
There was an elderly couple in Leelanau County, for example, who had received a scam email notifying them that they had won the lottery. They had recently sold some view property and had a healthy bank account at the time. The scammers asked the couple to send $10,000 dollars as an entry fee, and they’d get millions in return. They had never bought a ticket for the lottery, yet they still agreed.

AGAIN & AGAIN
When the money didn’t come after the initial wire, the scammer promised that this time they’d make good. This happened once, and then again and again. Detective Clint Kerr said he got involved after receiving a phone call who knew what was going on and was hoping he could persuade them to exit the terrible hoax. When he arrived at the couple’s home in the fall of 2006, he saw a thick stack of Western Union receipts.
“Supposedly someone was coming any minute with a big check. Their phone rang five or six times while I was sitting there. They had clearly gotten on the sucker list. Every crook was now trying to get them to send money.
“On one of the phone calls, I could hear a woman yelling at him, because they had sent the Western Union money to the wrong address or made it out to the wrong name and she was yelling at him to replace the wire immediately. He was trying to explain, I live 30 miles away from the Western Union office. When he got off, I told him, ‘If you won a lottery, someone shouldn’t be screaming at you over the phone.’ It was very sad. They didn’t want to believe me. You get halfway across the river and you don’t want to turn back.”
“They kept going bank to bank to withdraw huge sums of money, and the bank would tell them, ‘You’re getting ripped off, you’re getting ripped off.’ One of the banks closed their accounts because they couldn’t sit by and watch them send their money.”
The Royal Canadian Police was able to intercept $25,000 at the border, but the couple lost the rest. The scammers lived in Nigeria, as most do, and federal investigators could do nothing, Kerr said.
Interestingly, the couple called the sheriff’s office again last Spring, reporting they had been defrauded again. The Express was unable to interview the couple, as they had changed their phone number.

TECHNOLOGY RIP-OFFS
Most of these scams are obvious. “You can’t win a lottery you’ve never entered, but people don’t want to hear it. It would mean having to admit they’d been foolish, they’d been duped,” Kerr said.
And while some people are ripped off because of greed or an over-developed sense of trust, some are just victims of technology.
Richardson herself just received a phone call from Sprint, saying that her account was in jeopardy and she needed to call customer service immediately. The woman left her name and an 800 number to call.
The caller was using a scam known as vishing (a take off on phishing or email tricks). Vishing, also known as social engineering, is when a potential victim receives a voice mail. The message claims that suspicious activity has taken place on one of your credit card accounts, bank account, mortgage, or cell phone account. When you call back, the scammer will ask you for the routine security information to identify yourself—your Social Security number and mother’s maiden name, for example.
Richardson did not call back on the 800 number left on the voice mail, but did call Sprint’s customer service number. Not surprisingly, nothing was wrong with her account.
There are many variations on this ploy. In this area, people have posed as employees from the doctor’s offices and Munson Medical Center. But most of all, they pretend to be calling from your bank. They start by looking in your mailbox to learn where you bank, Sutherin said.
“They might call you and say, ‘This is so and so with Fifth Third Bank, and I’m calling to notify you that there’s an issue with your account. First, I’ll need to verify your account information, and then ask you for your account information,’” Sutherin said.
“If that happens, tell them, ‘I’ll come into the bank and talk to the bank manager about it.’ Or call the bank, not with the phone number they give you, but with the phone number in the book.”

THE DIRTY TELLER
One local scammer called a woman, saying there was a “dirty teller” and the bank needed her assistance to confirm the teller was stealing from the bank. They asked the woman to withdraw money from her account from this “dirty” teller on a certain day. The victim did, and the “bank representative” met the victim at the door and asked for the money, promising he would mark it and return it. That was the last she saw of her money.
The “wicked twin” of vishing is smishing, Richardson said.
That’s when thieves text you on your cell phone. They typically tell you that you’ll start receiving something—a magazine subscription, for example—unless you go to their website and tell them you don’t want it. If you fall for their trap and click on the website, the thieves grab all the data off your cell phone, she said.
The technology grabs are getting so sophisticated, it’s getting downright impossible to protect yourself.
Richardson said she subscribes to a fraud protection service called Life Lock, for which she often speaks as an unpaid spokesperson. She was initially skeptical, but now believes it’s worth the money.
LifeLock files continuous fraud alerts with Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian—a service that tells creditors to be on the alert for impostors. When the fraud alert is in effect, the creditor will take extra precautions when a credit application is filed.
In addition to continuous fraud alerts, LifeLock stops junk mail to the client’s home, along with offers of pre-approved credit cards (which are sometimes used to steal a person’s identity). LifeLock also provides a copy of their client’s credit report every year, scours the underground chatrooms where criminals buy and sell credit information, and offers a $1 million guarantee to restore a customer’s identity in the event that it’s ever stolen.
Consumers can get junk mail stopped themselves; they can also order credit frauds and credit reports for free through Experian, Trans Union and Equifax. But the fraud alerts only last 90 days and have to be repeatedly requested. (For a free credit report, go to AnnualCreditReport.com). Richardson said it’s been easier to have LifeLock handle all the details for $10 a month.
“Consumers can do a lot of this work themselves, but they are then left to do the recovery work themselves too,” Richardson said.

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