Scam Alerts! Be informed, protect yourself

[Nancy OShea]

By now everyone is familiar with the "Nigerian letter" or "upfront fee" scam that goes something like this:  Someone contacts you from overseas offering you a share in a large sum of money on the condition you help them transfer money out of their country.  While these scams originated in Nigeria, they now come from all over the world.

This latest version has a new twist.  My business was contacted by one of these yesterday.  

Someone contacts your business by phone or e-mail from overseas offering to place a large order for goods.  The scammer requests that the goods be shipped overseas and the price plus freight charges billed to credit cards (sometimes more than one).  The scammer INSISTS that the business use a particular shipping company and provides a phony email address for the shipper.  The business then contacts that “shipping company” which requests the freight charges be paid up front by cash wire transfer.  The sting is not about goods but the shipping charges. 

The "Shipping Fee Scam" works because the business is fooled into making the wire transfer after having checked that the credit cards have sufficient funds and don't appear to be stolen.  But the shipping company's e-mail address is a front for the scammers and the credit card details ARE STOLEN, probably from online card accounts which may take several weeks or months to discover.  

At the end of the day, the business can be out of pocket for shipping costs which can amount to more than $5000 plus the cost of goods and chargeback penalties. The use of wire transfer to offshore accounts means that your monies cannot be traced or recovered.  

Businesses need to be very cautious when dealing with overseas orders and need to verify who they are dealing with before sending money or goods.  If anything about it sends up red flags, do not proceed with the order.

[Nancy OShea]

Creative Cloud Lifetime License Scam

https://community.adobe.com/t5/account-payment-plan/edunoo-offer-lifetime-license-scam-on-facebook/m...

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Beware of fake Adobe reps who may contact you privately offering to sell you software or take control of your computer. It's a scam, run away!
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3 Easy Ways to Identify Genuine Adobe Staff
https://tinyurl.com/10791730

[Nancy OShea]

The Overpayment Scam

I've encountered this a few times myself.   If you sell items online or through auction sites like eBay, be on the lookout for this.  A scammer posing as a customer pays MORE than the agreed upon price by check or credit card. 

The scammer contacts you with a fake apology/excuse and asks you to send the overpaid amount by bank or wire transfer or a pre-loaded gift card, bitcoin, etc... to a 3rd party.  The scammer's check or credit cards turn out to be no good.

An online variation is the scammer who pretends to have overpaid by PayPal and sends you a fake receipt of payment. The scammer will then claim that the money is being held until you forward the overpaid amount to a 3rd party.

Don't fall for this. 

[Nancy OShea]

The latest bank scam that's occurring in my neighborhood goes something like this. 

Hackers/identity thieves gain access to your bank account info and try to transfer money out of your account.  But the bank has 2-step verification and sends the account holder a text message with a verification code. 

A few minutes later, the scammer calls the victim posing as bank security and says "Some suspicious activity was detected on your account #xxxxxxxxxx.  We just sent you a text with a verification code.  What is it?"

The victim gives the scammer their 2-step verification code and voila! their bank account is drained. 

It's important to note that banks will not reimburse victims for these kinds of losses because the bank didn't do anything wrong, the victim did by giving out their verification code.  So when in doubt, call your bank directly to find out what's going on.

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Finally, an interesting article about a hacker who penetrated an offshore scammer's boiler room. 

https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2021/international-tech-support-scam-exposed.html

[Chuck Uebele]

Great info, and very interesting AARP story.