by Jack
SCAMS, SCAMS and MORE SCAMS. . .
Craigslist is becoming a haven for internet fraud, especially when it comes to home rentals, vacation rentals and home sales. This is typically a big money scam where a fat deposit is the objective of the scammer. Here’s a tip to avoid being scammed and you can apply this simple logic to any number of scams: If it sounds too good to be true…it probably is a fraud.
When it comes to doing a big dollar transaction you really need to think twice about doing it over the internet and especially on Craigslist.
I hope there is nobody left out here that would still fall the classic email scams. Need I say it? Your brother, nephew, cousin, isn’t in a Mexican jail and needs bail and he hasn’t been mugged and needs money via Western Union. No, you have not won the Canadian lottery and the African Prince really doesn’t want to give you big bucks just to use your bank account to smuggle money out of Zululand.
Phone scams have been on the increase and they are getting more devious. Sadly they usually involve a con that applies to your patriotism or sense of giving; for example, they are collecting money for care packages for our troops overseas or for the police youth soccer league or some such thing. Did you know that you will never be called by Microsoft because they detected a virus on your computer?
I recently heard that scammers are using a magnetic card reader at ATM’s. Apparently, it’s about the size of your finger and it is applied right above where you insert your card into the machine. Not only can they scan your card information, but it can recover your pin number when your legit card activates the machine. This is where situational awareness comes into play. You have to be observant! If there is a device that is attached to your ATM that you’ve never seen before, use another machine and alert the bank or call the police…let them check it out.
Oh, and one last thing, when you read a used car advertisement online (usually Craigslist) that asks you to bring cash and meet the seller at a remote location just don’t do it, ok?
Poor Jack. The previous administration litigated against such goings on. This administration? “Caveat Emptor” would be the motto of this administration. You look after yourselves … if you can.
If you can’t … suffer and die.
Are you kidding me!
I don’t recall any big headlines touting massive fraud investigations over the last eight years and I’ll wager you haven’t got any evidence that this administration wouldn’t litigate fraud in particular given it’s been what…eight or nine weeks?
All you got is to feign sympathy for the supporters of the team that won. That says quite a bit about your sorry state. Are you that desperate that you must chomp at the bit before there’s time for a record?
Yes, Tina, we know you don’t recall … you don’t hear, and you don’t recall.
Any number of sanctioned private universities recall, though.
Poor old VW recalls.
Let’s take score in two years.
Good idea.
I still think your snarky remark is total BS.
Cases of fraud will be litigated under Trump just as they have in the past.
The thing you liberals do is prosecute in the arena of public opinion before evidence is even presented. You often do it with bogus (fraudulent) science and end up being responsible for the deaths of millions of people (DDT). You have yet to own up to the error.
Your stuff do stink, Lady, and it’s about time you owned it.
Caveat Emptor is, by the way, a legitimate legal doctrine.
I know you progressives love playing the victim but fer pity’s sake, grow up!
I’m just pointing out a few things. Like, how is a 20% cut to the Department of Agriculture’s budget gonna square with this?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/us/burying-their-cattle-ranchers-call-wildfires-our-hurricane-katrina.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
It makes no sense to complain about Craigslist, like you want the thing policed or regulated or something, and at the same time crow over government cuts that make it impossible.
I’m just sayin’.
Key words there Tina
Headlines
The real news is not in the Party PR firms called Mainstream Media.
You really need to start keeping up with real news not MSM Headlines.
Libster, Mr. Jack is just trying to help.
Bashing people trying to help…that’s you Libster…why are you and so many liberals so cruel?
Libby for as long as I can recall I always looked out for myself. In my working years I looked out for the public as well as myself. That was the intent of my article. How you could find something negative to say about a consumer fraud warning is almost comical. You really do go out of your way to that, don’t you realize? Sorry to disappoint you if I won’t be suffering and dying anytime soon, but thanks for the thought.
I don’t believe that I addressed a comment to you personally, Jack. I was commenting on the post, and the contradiction embodied by it. You did infer that something should be done about the situation, did you not? I pointed out that the current administration was unlikely to be any help. And I was lamenting for people who have troubles tending to their business: Adolph’s … and now Donald’s … “useless eaters.”
http://www.salon.com/2017/03/20/donald-trumps-war-on-the-poor-has-historical-precedent-and-its-not-pretty/
Jack these scams are not new. But maybe it is time to look at the executive orders going through that allow corporate fraud to rise by getting rid of consumer protections.
Street scams are a dime a dozen.
And watch out for the biggest scams of all…forms 1040, 1040A, 1040EZ, 540, 540EZ, the list is too long to complete here.
Ok no taxes. Now how do you fund your military and wars for corporate profits?
Like it’s been done for decades, just have the Fed print up (electronically of course) more of them fiats! (Another scam.)
Or how bout we just get the Chinese to loan us more, than stiff them? (If our government defaults, they will pay them back in dollars of much less value due to inflation. So they’ll get stiffed one way or another.) Although I think the Chinese are finally catching on to that scam.
Mr. Jack, my ATM card is tied to my checking account (as you’d expect) but also my savings account. If that card reader gizmo captured my card info could they empty my savings account? I know my bank used to have a daily limit you could take out via ATM.
“If there is a device that is attached to your ATM that you’ve never seen before, use another machine and alert the bank or call the police…let them check it out. ”
I’d try to remove the device or better yet wait for the criminal to retrieve it than clock him over the head!
The answer is YES – any bank account tied to your ATM card can be drained once the bad guys get your info. Daily limits apply, but that doesn’t keep them from using your card to purchase stuff in addition to a cash withdrawal.
Solution: Use a credit card instead since you have 60 days to dispute a charge. Keep the ATM card for use only IN your bank for regular bank activity.
Good advice. Thanks.
Guys they can walk by you and grab your card info. Devices are small. But on the dark web they sell card numbers cheap. Scammers buy blocks of them and try them out til they get a big fish.
Most card hackers are foreign youngsters.
Some put devices on machines, drive around with laptops and have pocket devices.
The Pros hack card processing companies.
For those with a PayPal account: You must give them your checking account info when signing up. After a big charge supposedly from a scammer using the PayPal info, I added my Amex card to the account. Took me about 3 weeks of arguing with the Bank to get that charge replaced.
Then, I wrote to PayPal (gotta write – can’t call or do it online) and had the checking account number removed. Now the bad guys can’t empty my bank account and I have 60 days to dispute a charge!
Be alert, people! The scammers are ALWAYS looking for targets!
Joe, you probably should not take any action on your own, except to notify the police or the bank. You might destroy evidence if you tried to remove the device, but I appreciate your sentiments about wanting the clunk the bad guy over the head….but, that’s probably not a good idea either.
I heard one man recently lost $27,000 in his checking account to such a devious scam.
J. Soden had some great comments – thanks.
Good God, you’re not supposed to keep $27K in your checking account!
You see what I mean, Jack? Even the monied are hapless, helpless, and in need of regulatory assistance.
You can keep the $7 in your checking account, if you must, but the $20 goes into an account with no plastic attached to it (goodness … remember passbooks … locked up in the desk drawer?) Mind you, this will not save you from the Russians. We need our Congress up off it’s hiney for that.
In the past two days I’ve received incoming calls from, as my answering machine announced, “invalid number”. Sure enough a peek at the phone showed the number 1-000-000-0000. I did not answer, of course.
Any ideas?
Almost certain to be a spam caller if the number is not identifiable. Have been doing some investigating, and many spam calls originate outside the US. Hard to identify those, and foreign spammers ignore the “do not call” list. But if the call can’t be identified, do you really want to answer it at all???
If you use a cell phone, get TrueCaller. Will identify incoming calls other than those on your contact list. They also allow you to ID a spam call, block it, and that info is shared with everyone else that uses TrueCaller!
It really works, and it’s free!
Same company also has a text app called TrueMessenger, which helps eliminate spam texts!
Tina
I called the DOJ, FBI ect ect once when I got a call. They said they were aware of that particular prob. Since they were not in US had no jurisdiction.
They are usually foreign using pings off us numbers ect.
The blunt truth is, the FBI does not have the ability nor the desire to work interstate internet fraud. If the crook is outside the USA, 99.9999% of the time they won’t even lift a finger to help. They provide a token staff for major frauds originating in the USA and that’s about it.
If it was a case they were interested in, then things change. See, if we have an embassy in the country of origin, (where the crook is calling from) we can work with the local police and bring these con-artists to justice. But, there’s only a handful of nations that give a rats B what happens to Americans. The rest don’t want to bother, so the crime keeps escalating. Name the African country and I’ll show you a country full con artists trying to get to Americans by any means possible. If there were not so many people in the USA that are such suckers they wouldn’t be scamming us, but fleecing Americans is easy…and they make billions every year off our naive, gullible and mentally compromised citizens. It’s very sad and there’s almost nobody to protect them.