November 14, 2012
With the holiday season upon us, most of us become more generous and more compassionate. The sad reality is: Scam artists know this. While there is nothing wrong with generosity and compassion, the Robertson County Sheriff’s Office wants to remind you that it “pays” to beware of some popular scams so you can ensure you don’t become the next victim. Here are a few of them:
Lottery and Sweepstakes Scams: The letter says you just won a lottery. All you have to do is deposit the enclosed cashier’s check and wire money for “taxes” and “fees.” Regardless of how legitimate the check looks, it’s no good. When it bounces, you’ll be responsible for the money you sent.
Overpayment Scams: Someone answers the ad you placed to sell something and offers to use a cashier’s check, personal check or corporate check to pay for it. But at the last minute, the buyer (or a related third party) comes up with a reason to write the check for more than the purchase price, asking you to wire back the difference. The fake check might fool bank tellers, but it will eventually bounce, and you’ll have to cover it.
Relationship Scams: You meet someone on a dating site and things get serious. You send messages, talk on the phone, trade pictures, and even make marriage plans. Soon you find out he’s going to Nigeria or another country for work. Once he’s there, he needs your help: can you wire money to tide him over temporarily? The first transfer may be small, but it’s followed by requests for more – to help him get money the government owes him, to cover costs for a sudden illness or surgery for a son or daughter, to pay for a plane ticket back to the U.S. – always with the promise to pay you back. You might get documents or calls from lawyers as “proof.” But as real as the relationship seems, it’s a scam. You will have lost any money you wired, and the person you thought you knew so well will be gone with it.
Mystery Shopper Scams: You’re hired to be a mystery shopper and asked to evaluate the customer service of a money transfer company. You get a check to deposit in your bank account and instructions to withdraw the amount in cash and wire it – often to Canada or another country – using the service. When the counterfeit check is uncovered, you’re on the hook for the money.
Online Purchase Scams: You’re buying something online and the seller insists on a money transfer as the only form of payment that’s acceptable. Ask to use a credit card, an escrow service or another way to pay. If you pay by credit or charge card online, your transaction will be protected by the Fair Credit Billing Act. Insisting on a money transfer is a signal that you won’t get the item – or your money back.
Apartment Rental Scams: In your search for an apartment or vacation rental, you find a great prospect at a great price. It can be yours if you wire money – for an application fee, security deposit or the first month’s rent. Once you’ve wired the money, it’s gone, and you learn there is no rental. A scammer hijacked a real rental listing by changing the contact information and placing the altered ad on other sites. Or, she made up a listing for a place that isn’t for rent or doesn’t exist, using below-market rent to lure you in. If you’re the one doing the renting, watch out for the reverse: a potential renter will say she wants to cancel her deposit and ask you to wire the money back – before you realize the check was a fake.
Advance Fee Loans Scams: You see an ad or website – or get a call from a telemarketer – that guarantees a loan or a credit card regardless of your credit history. When you apply, you find out you have to pay a fee in advance. If you have to wire money for the promise of a loan or credit card, you’re dealing with a scam artist: there is no loan or credit card.
Family Emergency or Friend-in-Need Scams: You get a call or email out of the blue from someone claiming to be a family member or friend who says he needs you to wire cash to help him out of a jam – to fix a car, get out of jail or the hospital or leave a foreign country. But he doesn’t want you to tell anyone in the family. Unfortunately, it’s likely to be a scammer using a relative’s name. Check the story out with other people in your family. You also can ask the caller some questions about the family that a stranger couldn’t possibly answer.
This list is not all-inclusive of every scam out there. Scammers plan and execute new schemes every day. However, being aware of some the typical and popular scams can protect yourself and your family from becoming victims.
(Source: http://tn.gov/consumer/documents/DontGetScammed.pdf)