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IDENTITY THEFT LEADS LIST OF SCAMSBy More than half-million Americans suffered Identity Theft during the past year. The thieves tricked many people into divulging vital personal information. Identity theft leads the list of frauds now plaguing consumers. The government reported this year that it costs banks and credit card companies more than $300 million annually. Internet scams, nondelivery of merchandise and on-line Identity Theft cost each victim an average of $427. Beth Givens of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse is one of the nation’s top three consumer rights advocates on Frauds and how to defend against them. She told how it works for "Application Fraud." She said, "You may get a phone call offering you an approved credit card at an attractive interest rate with no interest on balance transfers for one year. The caller says they just need to verify some information, including your Social Security number, date of birth and mother´s maiden name. That, by the way, is all the information a con-artist needs to apply for credit in your name." Ms. Givens continued, "When they receive the illegally obtained card, it is charged to the limit. You may never know about this card until you apply for a car loan or a new credit card yourself, and the bank turns you down. Under federal law, you are liable for only $50 of the fraudulent charges but restoring your credit can take years, and to top it all, the thief frequently causes further damage to your credit because he sells the stolen information to someone else. If this happens to you, call all credit reporting agencies immediately and place a fraud alert in your credit report file, and they will notify you when a credit application is made in your name." Those credit-reporting agencies are:
Then there is Account Spoofing, as the con artist calls it, if you should get an e-mail from someone who says he/she is from your internet service provider, bank or credit card company. He may say the company needs to update your information. He will ask for your credit card number, its expiration date and perhaps your personal identification or Social Security number. He may even ask you to fill in the information on a website that looks like it belongs to the company. The first thing you will want to do is ask for the caller’s name and tell her you will call her back. Then call the company’s customer service number, verify the request, and ask if the website is legitimate. Keep in mind that reputable companies rarely ever call or e-mail to verify account and security information. They already know it quite well. Susan Grant of the National Fraud Information Center reminds us once again to be aware of the "Nigerian Fee Scam." "With the Internet, there is a new one now," she said. "In the past a letter arrived from a Nigerian official offering you a reward if you helped him/her move money out of Africa to your own bank account for safekeeping. Today, the thieves send the fraud by e-mail from the Middle East or Afghanistan. It targets women and religious groups in particular. ANY unsolicited email that mentions Nigeria and money is fraudulent. Ignore and delete these e-mails. "Do Not Respond To Them under Any Circumstances" is as strong as I can say it," commented Ms. Grant. In addition, Ms. Grant reported a New Sweepstakes Rip-off. It may come via a phone call or e-mail saying that you have won a foreign sweepstakes. Now, the "sweepstakes officials" will tell you they are going to send you a check, sometimes as much as $20,000, as long as you agree to wire back the necessary taxes, bonding, customs and administrative fees when the check clears. The check will have a fake routing number and it may take days or weeks before the bank discovers the error. The bank will then take the funds back from YOUR account, and you will have lost the amount you wired back to the "sweepstakes" people. Ms. Grant stated, "Don’t Ever Believe You Have Won Money Out of the Blue, especially if they require money from you. You Will Get Bilked, if you respond to this one." Then there is Modem Dialing Fraud, as reported by Shirley Rooker from All for Action, another watchdog agency for frauds. It works like this: Someone offers you access to an Internet site with free job postings, chat rooms, psychic readings, casino gambling, etc. All they say you must do is download the required website viewer or dialer computer program. "Sounds good, doesn’t it?" Ms. Rooker said. "The dialer program bypasses your local internet-access phone number and instead uses an international number. That international number is on an island outside of the United States. Using that number will cost you as much as $350 an hour and up, mostly up. This foreign area code functions like a 900 toll number in the US, and the foreign telephone company serves as a third-party billing service for the con-artist." Children and grandchildren are frequent targets of this fraud because calling the international number does not require a credit card. Even if you block international calling on your phone, some modem dialers circumvent this by using a "10-10 dial around" prefix. They know how to get around you. You have to get up early in the morning to get ahead of these con artists. Last, but not least is the Fake Driver’s License Scam. Let’s say you have a terrible driving record and you are about to lose your license. You check the Internet and discover for $300, an Internet outfit offers international driver’s licenses that are never suspended or revoked for any reason. Don’t believe it. You must register at a foreign address to get the license, and if you show this license to a US police officer, you will be committing a crime by lying about your address. Don’t forget…. your car registration will show your US address. Motto here: Don’t Do It, Crime Doesn’t Pay. These advocates tracking the con artists who do these unthinkable things are doing their best to keep us informed. So tuck this article away somewhere to read again when needed, and remember the top swindle is the Identity Scam. Don't ever give your private information to anyone you do not know or who will not give you a phone number to call them back. Just tell them "no thank you" and hang up. It takes practice, but you must protect yourself. Not everyone who calls you is your friend, and you should not treat him or her as if he or she is. They want to steal from you and hurt you. They do not care about you at all. Check everything out not only once but also twice, and if they still "take you," at least you can say you did take precautions.
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