When a fraudster gets hold of a stolen credit card they cannot instantly be sure that it will work for them. Prior to the introduction of PIN numbers they would find a shop and buy a small, inocuous item, as a test to see if the card was blocked or not.
In recent years the introduction of Chip and PIN has meant that most credit card scams now take place over the internet as the absence of the card makes things easier for the fraudsters. They evolved from testing the cards in real shops too - making small donations to charities became a common practice for determining a credit card’s viability.
Fast forward to today and the credit card scammers have found a new means of testing cards - iPhone downloads.
They will attempt to download a music track, for around a dollar and, if successful, will then move on to bigger purchases. They will continue to use the card until such time as it is cancelled or the credit limit is reached.
With this knowledge in hand, you should examine your credit card statements carefully, as ever, but also be alert to any small payments taken for music downloads - they may be an indication that bigger amounts are soon to be debited.
If you believe the security of your credit card has been compromised then you should contact the card issuer immediately in order to have it blocked at the very least.
Also remember to contact the police to gain a crime number in case of a future claim and consider too, that if any personally identifying information could have got into the fraudster’s hands, then you may also be susceptible to identity theft.
One of my readers, who identified himself simply as ‘Carl’, asked me to look into Gangster Greed.com.
Gangster Greed is a fairly new website that offers it’s members the chance to earn cash, via paypal, for completing offers or participating in surveys. Knowing that the vast majority of paid survey sitesare scams, I first visited Gangster Greed with that thought in mind.
The first thing I noticed is that the offers side of Gangster Greed is only available to residents of the U.S. so I wasn’t able to actually partake in any surveys to verify exactly what is involved first hand.
Their affiliate scheme, however, is open to almost anyone so I have signed up and may add any findings from that via the comments at the end of this post, as and when I have anything significant to add.
How does it work?
It looks like Gangster Greed is, primarily, offering deals which involve visiting websites and entering your email address in return for a typical payment of $0.40. As I am not resident in the USA I couldn’t follow any of these through myself but I am guessing that you would be subscribing to an email list or newsletter.
With the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 you must opt-in to receive a company’s promotional emails so presumably this is what is involved here. I would therefore advise using a ‘throwaway’ email address if you take advantage of any of these offers or else you will likely end up with an inbox stuffed full of spam. (more…)
Paid online surveys have long had an association with scams. In fact, I believe I recently read somewhere that at least 97% of them have a dubious reputation at best.
With the number of people who use the internet growing by the day, an ever increasing number of people are looking for ways to make money online. Whilst filling out paid surveys is never going to make anyone rich, they certainly seem to offer a reasonable return for minimal effort.
Certainly there are some good online survey companies but my research on the subject tells me there are a whole lot more that are out to fleece you. If you are new to the paid survey scene then you need to know how to avoid getting scammed.
I certainly intend to take a deeper look into some paid survey scams in the near future but, for now, I have come up with 5 tips to help you avoid falling into one - (more…)
A recent report from the credit reference agency, Equifax, suggests that the sudden surge in popularity of several key social networking sites could lead to more cases of online fraud and identity theft.
They say that web networkers on popular sites such as Bebo, Facebook and Myspace are ignoring common sense and are plastering their personal details all over the internet.
From what I have seen when I have utilised these types of site I would have to concur that Equifax are probably quite right - it is all to easy to find out people’s names, phone numbers and even addresses. I can imagine that a determined identity thief could also acquire social security / national insurance numbers, and maybe even bank and credit card details too, if they tried.
Last year in the UK alone the cost of identity theft was estimated to be around £1.5 billion with 80,000 victims.
Neil Munroe, external affairs director for Equifax, went on to say “Fraudsters are taking advantage of the new craze for social networking. “The problem is that people don’t realise the significance of the kind of information they are putting out on the web and who may be accessing it. “More and more consumers are signing up to these sites every day and chances are they’ll put on their date of birth, location, e-mail, job and marital status. “Fraudsters can use this information to steal an individual’s identity and open accounts in their name.”
It defies logic, but there are a great many people who visit social networking sites who are conscientious with their personal details away from the computer, but also extremely trusting of strangers online… why???
Remember your personal details should be just that.. personal.
Whilst telemarketing can open a portal to increased profits for some companies, I am of the opinion that such methods of promoting goods or services is annoying, at best, from a consumer’s point of view.
I have always taken special care to keep my home phone number private, including having it made ex-directory so that it does not appear in the phone book. Somehow I still receive dozens of unsolicited calls per month, generally from double glazed windows companies.
For other people I would imagine that telemarketing is no more than a mild annoyance (I also imagine that some people are actually looking for these offers and are happy to get unsolicited calls too).
The Dark Side of the Phone
However, there is a darker side to telemarketing - criminals can, and do, employ telemarketing style methods to attempt to scam the unsuspecting.
So who is most susceptible to a telemarketing scam?
Well, obviously, everyone is different and therefore more or less a potential victim. However, the elder members of society do tend to be more at risk. This may be because they grew up in a more trusting age or simply because they enjoy taking time out of their day to talk on the telephone.
Telemarketers, whether looking to scam or not, take advantage of the fact that it is hard to tell if someone is telling the complete truth or not over the telephone. Also, the elderly are known to be more trusting, are looking to boost their retirement savings and are less likely to hang up, often out of politeness.
Rogue Telemarketing Tactics
What tactics do the telemarketing scammers try to spring on their senior victims? Here’s a few possibilities - (more…)
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Monday, August 27, 2007
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