Damn those Scams

NPR apparently did a story this morning about online privacy and while this was happening, I got visited by someone at NPR.org. I can only assume that Steve Inskeep was listening to the story and decided to google himself. All the while, I was listening to the story and was wondering how easy it was to get someone’s information and use it for evil purposes. Within the 5 minute story, I was able to dig around, find out how old Steve Inskeep was, where he lived, how much he paid for his house, when he bought it, and how much it was going to be worth in 2007 (triple its value).

Apparently there’s a family tiff going on where a renowned neuroscientist/psychiatrist lost up to 3 million US dollars in a nigerian scam. And now his son has filed a lawsuit to remove him as the administrator of the family’s multimillion dollar partnership. So now I know why scamming is the third largest industry in Nigeria, because even the best of us can be lured into a scam by greed and just not being aware of there are a lot of shady people out there in the world.

“While it seems unlikely, even ludicrous, that a highly educated doctor like (Gottschalk) would fall prey to such an obvious con, that is exactly what happened,” the son’s attorney wrote in court papers.

Read more about it here from CBS.

The Coshocton Tribune is reporting of a scam where emails are being sent that are supposedly from the “Social Security Administration” that alerts you that your identity has been stolen, and sends you to a phony “official SSA” website where they ask you to verify your social security number, bank info, etc.  You know the drill.  DON’T DO IT!

Once directed to the phony site the individual is asked to confirm their identity with “Social Security and bank information.” Specific information about the individual’s credit cad number, expiration date and PIN number is then requested.

Whether on the agency’s Web site or by phone, Social Security will never ask you for your credit card information or your PIN number.

Scanning the news this morning, I found this acrticle about this scam that is pretty disturbing.  Pressing a few keys on your home phone will give the scammer total access to use your line to make long distance calls.  Turns out most of these scammers are guys locked up in prison, and figure they can make nice long international calls on your dime.

Individuals claiming they are AT&T service technicians are calling peoples home.

They claim to be conducting tests and say that in order to complete the tests they need the owner to press the following numbers and then hang up.

Nine—-Zero—-Pound.

But by pressing these numbers and hanging up you will give the caller access to your phone lines and they can make long distance calls using your number.

I got this email forward from a family member, and after checking out snopes.com to see if it was as urban legend or not, turns out its not.  In fact snopes says: Real fraud, potential for financial harm unknown.  As always, never give out your social security number, nor any other relevant information to anyone unless you called them, or you know who you’re dealing with.

Most of us take those summons for jury duty seriously, but enough
people skip out on their civic duty, that a new and ominous kind of scam
has surfaced. Fall for it and your identity could be stolen, reports CBS
news.

In this con, someone calls pretending to be a court official who
threateningly says a warrant has been issued for your arrest because you
didn’t show up for jury duty. The caller claims to be a jury
coordinator.

If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the
scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he
or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant.
Sometimes they even ask for credit card numbers. Give out any of this
information and bingo! Your identity just got stolen.

The scam has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma,
Illinois, and Colorado.

This (scam) is particularly insidious because they use intimidation
over the phone to try and bully people into giving information by
pretending they’re with the court system.

The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on
their websites, warning consumers about the fraud.

The Washington Post is running a nice article about how the current tax season in the US is increasing the number of “relevant” phishing emails everyone will be getting in hopes of scamming us out of our bank account numbers, social security numbers, or anything else a scammer can use to steal our money,credit and/or identity.

“Usually these things peak around the time taxes are due,” said Dan Hubbard, senior director of security and research for the Internet Web security firm Websense. “Basically it’s another timely current event that’s on top of people’s lists and another lure to deceive people into giving away credentials in some way.”

And scammers are capitalizing on the fact that more than half of all tax returns are expected to be filed electronically this year. Consider this recent e-mail claiming to be from the IRS: “You filed your tax return and you’re expecting a refund. You have just one question and you want the answer now. Where’s My Refund? Access this secure Web site to find out . . .”

The Web site looked like the real IRS site. But it wasn’t.

NPR’s On The Media program has a pretty interesting story on the Nigerian scammers and why they’re never getting the justice for being such annoying scammers. Its a good listen, so take a listen and then take a look at their site to make a comment.

The Longest Con
It’s estimated to the third largest industry in Nigeria, grossing hundreds of millions a year, and it may be the most successful confidence game in the world. It’s the Nigerian e-mail scam. Victims are often left with no legal recourse, due to corruption in Nigeria and the high price of international investigations. And so they’ve banded together to take the law into their own hands. Legal Affairs contributor Josh Rosenblum explains to Bob how an online posse was formed.

I got a call yesterday for a defunct domain I used to own and another woman on the other end with an Indian accent butchered my name and then proceeded to ask me if I owned the aforementioned domain. Again, butchering the domain name pronounciation. I told her it was expired, and that I did not want to continue this conversation and hung up.

Seriously people, are they that hard up to make a buck that they’re dumpster diving into expired domain registrations? I’m also wondering who’s selling these lists. Is it Yahoo? Since that’s who I registered the domain with (back in 99 or 2000, I don’t even remember.) Is it Network Solutions or ICANN that handles most of the domain registrations? I don’t know, but its making me pretty peeved that once I pay these hucksters for my domains, they feel completely feel no responsibility to guard my privacy.

Another 001819 scam? Sounds like it after I googled it and found so many people having the same issue. I just got the call from this phone number, 866-383-0986, and I didn’t know, so I picked up. Luck was on my side though, since I was out at one of my favorite burger joints in Virginia (Elevation Burger) and it was extremely loud, so I couldn’t hear anything. From what I could decipher, it sounded like an Indian accented woman, but I kept screaming, “I can’t hear you” into the phone. After a few seconds, I guess she gave up and hung up. Karma was on my side for once.

I know Verizon and Cingular have already started suing these scammers, but I’m glad T-mobile has jumped on the bandwagon, since I do use their service.

From yahoo news:

BELLEVUE, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jan. 23, 2006–In an effort to restrain the unlawful activities of entities that attempt to fraudulently obtain confidential customer information, T-Mobile USA, Inc. is bringing legal action against online data brokers the company believes are involved in illegitimately obtaining and selling call records. Acting under Washington State criminal profiteering laws, T-Mobile today filed suit in King County, Wash., Superior Court seeking an injunction to stop Locatecell.com, as well as related companies and individuals, from allegedly engaging in such illegal behavior. T-Mobile also is prepared to take similar legal action against other believed violators.