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Education & Outreach — Scam Alerts
Scams change and evolve rapidly. Stay up to date with the latest tricks and scams that are happening.
California Department of Corporations Alerts
Active Scam Alerts
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Don’t Let Thieves Put a Damper on Your Holidays
Quick Tips for Seniors to Protect Themselves, Their Finances and Their Property during the HolidaysLos Angeles (November 20, 2007)– When shopping or traveling this holiday season, the senior service providers of WISE & Healthy Aging, along with the St. Barnabas Senior Center, want to remind local seniors of these important tips to help keep their money and property safe.
Stop your mail while traveling for the holidays.If you are traveling to visit relatives for the holidays, be sure to stop your mail service to avoid letting your mail pile up. If a thief gets a hold of your credit card statement, they can use the information to make purchases or open new accounts.Switch to direct deposit. To reduce the risk of having your Social Security or other federal benefit payments lost or stolen, sign up for direct deposit through Go Direct. Call (800) 333-1795 or log on to www.GoDirect.org.
Protect yourself from pickpockets. The holidays are high season for pickpockets. Keep handbags zipped and wallets in your front pocket.
Don’t donate to charities you have never heard of before. If you are going to give to a charity this year, make sure your donation goes to the right recipient. Ask all charities to provide you with their tax ID number. If they refuse the information, don’t donate.
Make sure your home is never dark. If you don’t have lights on a timer, then leave them on when you leave the house, especially porch lights and other outdoor lights.
Check your accounts for signs of suspicious activity.Sign up for online access to your bank and credit card accounts and check the accounts several times a week for unusual transactions. If you notice a transaction you did not initiate, call your financial institution or credit card provider immediately.
Don’t give out your personal information.Never give any personal information over the phone or Internet to an unfamiliar company or caller, even if they tell you it is for “verification” or “identification” purposes. This information – such as your Social Security number, driver’s license number, credit card number and expiration date – can be used to access your bank accounts or make unauthorized charges on a credit card.
- Scam
Targets Military Spouses
A new scam targets spouses of military servicemembers currently on duty in Iraq. A caller will claim to be a representative of the American Red Cross and says that the spouse's husband/wife was injured in Iraq and transferred to a hospital in Germany. The caller states that they need to verify the husband's/wife's social security number and date of birth before doctors can start treatment. The Red Cross does not report any type of casualty information to military family members. The Department of Defense will contact families directly regarding injuries to their enlisted family member. The American Red Cross will contact military members/dependants directly only in response to an emergency message initiated by the family. Perpetrators of this fraud are committing a federal crime punishable by up to 5 years in prison. Should any military family member receive such a call, do not release any personal information. Instead, please report the contact to their local Family Readiness Group or Military Personnel Flight.
- State
Securities Regulators Warn Against Slippery Oil and Gas
Deals
Oil Patch Scams Remain Favored Ploy to Fleece Investors: Although oil prices have fallen since reaching an all-time high last summer, fraudulent oil and gas deals remain a favorite ploy of con artists nationwide, according to the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), the membership organization of state and provincial securities regulators.
- Oil and Gas Investment Fraud Tips
- Fraudulent Spam e-Mail Claiming to be from FBI Director Mueller
- Kansas Commissioner Warns Medicare Beneficiaries About New Scam
- Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - NASD Issues Investor Alert on Scam
- Don't hand your house to a thief.
- Latest Information on Veterans Affairs Data Security
- Tuesday, May 23, 2006 - Personal Data on Veterans Is Stolen
Federal Trade Commission BIZOPPS Program
- Business Opportunity e-Card
(english)
(español)
This :30 animation features a princess considering various bizopps and a helpful frog who lets her know they're "RRRRRRRR-ipoffs." Consumers can forward the message to friends and family to spread the word that "Easy money is a fairy tale." (Make sure your speakers are on for the full effect.) Banners and buttons advertising the e-card are attached. - Teaser Site (english)
(español)
Who wouldn't be interested in Sundae Station ice cream vending machines -- "a proven system guaranteed to generate $10,000 - $25,000 - even $50,000 a month for motivated entrepreneurs"? But when consumers click for more info, they learn Sundae Station is not their recipe for the Sweet Life. It's a fake, posted by the FTC to warn consumers to think twice before sinking their money into what might be a rip-off - BIZOPPS Web page (english)
(español)
The FTC has compiled their bizopps materials onto one page. Find brochures with tips for consumers on spotting some of the most common bizopp rip-offs -- pyramid schemes, envelope stuffing, work-at-home scams, medical billing, vending, etc.
Internet Scams
Recognize Internet hoaxes and scams! More information here.
Common Scams
Scamsters know the same old tricks probably won't work anymore. Now they're using everything from phones, to computers, to good old-fashioned snail mail to break into your life and empty your wallet. List of recent scams that may effect you.
- Medicare & Medicaid — The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) warns seniors and people with disabilities to be aware of a scheme that asks Medicare beneficiaries for money and checking account information to help them enroll in a Medicare Prescription Drug Plan.
- 9-0-# Scam — The 9-0-# scam has been around for years and is directed at businesses, hospitals, government agencies and other organizations that use telephone switching equipment called private branch exchanges (PBXs) to handle their calls.
- Security Guard Credit Card Scam — Scammers pretend to be fraud investigation agents for Visa and MasterCard in order to obtain credit card security codes.
- Bird Flu Fuels Stock and Investment Scams —The threat of bird flu is fueling stock scams touting large gains from companies that claim to be poised to capitalize on helping the world avoid a global pandemic.
- Child Identity Theft — Last year, 400,000 American kids had their identities stolen. Experts say they make easy targets because they have clean credit histories and no criminal records.
- Work at Home Scams — You post your resume online, and someone offers you a job "testing" his or her new money wiring service. You're supposed to get a commission, but you end up emptying your bank account and getting nothing in return.
- Jury Duty Scam — Someone tells you you're about to be arrested because you missed jury duty. Just hand over your social security number and date of birth, and you'll be in the clear. Experts say jury officials would never ask for that info. They already have it.
- Pretexting — Pretexting is when a scammer calls you claiming to be doing a phone survey or something like that. Then they ask just the right questions to get you to give up personal information. This scam is all about finesse on the phone so watch out, these guys are good.
- Medicare Plan Scam — With recent changes to the Medicare plan, scammers are now calling seniors and telling them to sign up for a new service or they'll lose their coverage completely.
- Pharming — Pharming is when crooks put a virus in your computer. When you try to buy stuff online, you actually end up on a fake site where the scammers take all your personal info.
- Caller I.D. Switch — This is where scammers make you think they're a legitimate U.S. company by changing the phone number you see on caller I.D. with Internet phone services. The scammers are really overseas and looking to take your money out of the country.
- ATM Scam — Look for devices that shouldn't be there and keypads without Braille on them. These could be tiny cameras planted by thieves that take pictures of your card number or pin.
- Fake Government Grant — Scammers say they are with the government and that because you have always paid your taxes on time you are eligible for a $12,000 grant. You give them your bank account number over the phone, and they'll wire you the money. Instead, they wire your money out.
- Scholarship Scam — Scammers say your kid has qualified for a scholarship because he or she got such good grades. You pay a processing fee or hand over your social security number to hold the money, but it's just another scam.