Internet scams abound
Everyone I know is bombarded by loopy email spam trying to sell everything from property in Costa Rica to sexual enhancements. Some of these emails may be legitimate businesses, but too many are not. I can't believe that despite extensive media coverage about email and Internet scams that the all time king of fraudulent fleecers is the Nigerian "419" scheme in which some bogus local operative claims that they need a bank account number in order to transfer $XX million dollars, and for which a commission will be paid of varying amounts of money. According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, this bunko scheme bilked Americans out of an all time high of $183 million in 2005 alone, a rise of 169% from 2004. WOW!!
But bogus email scams don't have to be so far fetched as some African money transfer scheme. "Phishing" has become the Internet crime of choice, and it is increasingly difficult to spot real emails coming from a bank or financial institution from a fake. I wrote three separate Times-Standard Tech Beat articles on this in the past year. The first and second articles addressed phishing particularly, while the third one talked about emails in general.
Fred Mangel's Humboldt Blog (web log) mentioned a new scam that appears to come from a court needing information about your jury duty. Since I work in courts, I knew about this one from a Court Technology blog maintained by the National Center for State Courts. In it, someone calls claiming to be from the court asking why you didn't appear for jury duty. When you say you never received the notice, they ask for your Social Security number, drivers license number, etc to check their records.
The wackiest jury scam I heard was in Albuquerque where some chap would call prospective jurors and offer to serve in their place for $50. Setting aside the moral aspects of this dilemma, you are never assured he would show up when promised.
Yet another nasty scam looks like it comes from the Internal Revenue Service. YIKES!!
OK, listen up class ... too many rats are out to steal your identity so they can then steal money from you. So here are the rules:
RULE # 1 - NEVER respond to an unknown email, telephone call or mail asking for your personal information, bank account numbers, Social Security Number, or date of birth unless you absolutely and positively know who it is. Better yet only give this information out over the Internet if YOU initiate the contact and you are absolutely positive about the website you are using. Look to make sure it is an encrypted site and has a little lock icon.
RULE # 2 - if someone sends you a link purporting to be from a bank or other institution, run your cursor over it (don't click) and read the address. It should be something familiar like www.BANKOFAMERICA.com and not http://12345.678910/ or some other screwy address. Better yet, see rule #1 and don't ever click on these.
RULE # 3 - report the rats. If a phishing scan is coming from Chase Manhattan Bank, report it to them. Also report it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center and send a copy to reportphishing@antiphishing.org.
RULE #4 - monitor your credit using Equifax, Experian or Trans Union. It is worth the expense and a valuable early alert if someone starts opening accounts in your name.
RULE #5 - don't be stupid ... no one is going to give you something for nothing.
You be safe out there, you hear?
Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com
Comments
"this bunko scheme bilked You wrote,"Americans out of an all time high of $183 million in 2005 alone, a rise of 169% from 2004.".
Wow, indeed! I'd heard that some people actually fell for that scam, but didn't know THAT many fell for it.
Posted by: Fred Mangels | April 15, 2006 02:53 PM
You said it, Fred. This is SHOCKING that so many people are duped by this dumb Nigerian money transfer scam. No wonder there are so many of these scams in my email inbox. THEY SEEM TO BE WORKING!!
PT Barnum was, unfortunately correct ... there seems to be a sucker born every minute. All the more reason we need to spread the word about how to avoid getting fleeced.
To be fair, some of these scams look frighteningly real. And some grab your attention by saying that an unauthorized person is accessing your account, so click here to verify who you are so we can correct it.
The rats!
Posted by: Chris Crawford | April 15, 2006 09:51 PM
Must be my Norton/Symantec. I never get any of those.
Posted by: Robb Willis | April 19, 2006 12:41 AM