Facebook "like-jacking" or "click-jacking" scam 1/27/12
Scammers are creating misleading "like" buttons on sites that lead the clicker to another site where users are asked to give up personal inforamtion or are tricked into giving up financial info. BBC News
FBI Scam Warning 01/03/2012
"The Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued a warning about a new Zeus malware attack targeting commercial bank accounts, ultimately leading to incidents of corporate account takeover. The Zeus variant used: a malware called Gameover, which the FBI says is able to defeat several forms of dual-factor authentication..." Read More at BankInfoSecurity.com
More on the GameOver virus at Examiner.com 1/25/2012
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Typosquatting 12/23/2011
Typosquatting is when a scammer will purchase domainnames that are based on common misspellings or errors from typing in a legitimate website. They will make their site look like the original in order to trick you into giving out personal information such as bank account log-in info, credit card inforamtion, social security numbers, etc. (from Debix.com)
Fraudulent Scemes? There are enough out there to fill a book. 12/5/2011
A wonderful article by the Baltimore Sun on many different types of online scams that consumers and internet users need to be aware of.
Netflix Email Scam 10/24/2011
An email is circulating that appears to be from Netflix. It tells the reader that their payment was denied and, in order to resume their Netflix subscription, they need to download and open a .zip file. Once opened, this file contains malware.
from DigitalJournal.com
"Smishing" scammers may hit cellphones 10/18/2011
There is new way scammers are trying to reach consumers to get their personal information... text messages. This new trend is called smishing and it involves scammers sending text messages to consumers attempting to phish their information. Click
here to read more.
Immigration Green Card Scam 6/21/11
This scam is an email informing the recipiant that they have one a US Green Card by Email Ballot Lottery. It tells the recipiant that they cannot get their visa unless they send in the "processing fee" of anywhere between $800 and $1,500 American. They must send this money by wire or direct bank transfer. You can see what this email looks like HERE
Modified Hitman/Extortion Scam 12/02/10
Similar to the old "hitman" scam, this one targets nannies and those working at day care centers. The victim receives an email from a supposed "hitman". They say for $150,000 - $250,000 they will spare the victim's life and provide for them evidence of who hired the hit. If they don't pay, they are threatened not only with death, but the kidnapping of the children they are taking care of. ic3.gov
Payment Processing Ponzi Scam 12/02/10
A website claimed to be a payment processing site and advertised that it would allow transactions that other payment processing places would not allow (such as guns) in order to obtain customers. The site appears to have begun as a legitimate business but appears to have used newer customer's transactions to pay for older customers. Resulting in delayed payments or nonpayment. ic3.gov
Adoption Scam 12/02/10
This online scam prey upon those who wish to adopt a child and collects their personal information. Victims said they responded to an online advertisement from this agency claiming they had a child from overseas who needed to be adopted. ic3.gov
Craig's List Job Scams 10/14/10
Unfortunately there are many different types of job scams that can be found on Craig’s List. Some will simply ask for your social security number when you submit your resume. Others will request that you visit a building with all of your personal documents, and later you will discover that the building is actually empty and they were squatting in it so they could scam people.
Another scam will ask the applicant to pull their credit report before proceeding with the application process. The hiring company will insist that the applicant use their credit report company. Once the applicant inputs their personal information, they usually do not receive their credit report and they will not hear from this company again, except for more questions about their personal information.
Do not be fooled!
Do not give up any personal information online.
Do not comply with a credit check or any other background check until you have met with them face to face.
Only visit physical, business locations with the name of the company on the building or in the floor listing. Do not meet for your interview off site.
Craig's List Car Scam 10/14/10
This scam poses as a listing for a car on Craig’s List. The car is usually located in another country like Canada, but not always. The owner is almost always “away overseas”. If you are interested in the car, the “owner” will suggest that you use eBay’s car seller site. You will then be asked to wire the money, sometimes to a third party who is handling the “owner’s” finances while they are away.
Once the money is wired, you will never get it back. There is no safety net, nobody you can report it to in order to reverse the wire transfer.
The car does not exist. You will never get the car. The picture is usually from somebody else’s legitimate posting.
"I'm stuck in ___ country and need help!" email scam 10/14/10
At the ITRC we have been getting many calls from victims who have come into contact with this scam.
Usually, a hacker will gain access to a person’s email account. They will change the passwords and security question. They will then send an email to everybody in the victim’s address book stating that the victim has robbed or otherwise stranded in a foreign nation (usually England) and they need the recipient to wire transfer some money so they can get home. The email also states that the victim has lost their cell phone and cannot receive calls. After sending this email, the hacker will sometimes erase the victim’s address book and all stored emails.
If you’re email account has been taken over as a result of this scam, read Sol. 20 on email account take over, run a virus scan on your computer, and contact everybody that you can that may have received the scam email.
If you have received such an email, do NOT respond to it. Print it out for your records and delete it from your computer. File an incident report with your local police department and run a virus scan on your computer. Inform the person whose email account it was sent from. They may not know that their email was hacked.
FBI/Inheritance Scam 4/7/10
An email posing as from the FBI informing the recipient that a large some of money in England has been willed to them. All they have to do to get it is wire a sum of money to England.
The FBI does not alert US citizens of trusts or inheritances created in foreign countries. The FBI does not have offices outside of the United States. Click HERE to view an example.
FBI/Central Bank of Nigeria Scam 1/19/10
An email claiming to be from a US Government office (in this case, the FBI) telling the receiver of this email that there is a large some of money waiting for them in Nigeria. It further warns the receiver that there are many scam artists out there trying to steal their money and tells the reader to stop dealing with anybody else claiming to be from Nigeria. That THEY are the legit ones. Click HERE to view an example.