From Phishing To Smishing, Scams Are All Around You

A release from Stoneham Safety Officer Joseph Ponzo:

Criminals are constantly finding aggressive ways to steal your money, identity or anything of
value from you. Scammers use many techniques to fool potential victims, including conducting
fraudulent auction sales, reshipping merchandise purchased with stolen credit cards and selling
fraudulent or stolen gift cards through auction sites at discounted prices. My friends at Apollo
Security have researched and provided me with several tips to help protect everyone this holiday
season.

Internet criminals post classified ads and auctions for products they do not have and make the
scam work by using stolen credit cards. Fraudsters receive an order from a victim, charge the
victim’s credit card for the amount of the order, then use a separate, stolen credit card for the
actual purchase. They pocket the purchase price obtained from the victim’s credit card and have
the merchant ship the item directly to the victim. Victim’s of this scam not only lose the money
paid to the fraudster, but may be liable for receiving stolen goods.

Shoppers may help avoid these scams by using caution and not providing financial information
directly to the seller, as fraudulent sellers will use this information to purchase items for their
schemes. There are several legitimate payment services available today such as PayPal that are
very simple to set up by just going to their website and entering in your credit card information
and that company will make the payment for you without ever divulging your credit information to the seller or buyer for that sake.

Be careful when purchasing gift cards through auction sites or classified ads. It is safest to
purchase gift cards directly from the merchant or retail store. If the gift card merchant discovers
that your card is fraudulent, the merchant will deactivate the gift card and refuse to honor it for
purchases. There are many places to purchase gift cards, such as supermarkets and convenient
stores so always take the receipt when you purchase the gift card and give the receipt to the
person you are buying the gift card for this will hold as proof of purchase if anything goes wrong
with that card. If you see that someone is selling a gift card at a discount, this does not
necessarily mean that it is a scam, but “buyer beware”!!! Cover yourself by checking that card
first. Some retailers let you check the balance of the gift card on line, while some will make you
go to the particular store to check these balances. Do your homework and check the balance on
every card you buy at a discount.

There are other common scams known as “Phishing” and “Smishing” schemes. In Phishing
schemes, a fraudster poses as a legitimate entity and uses emails and scam web sites to obtain
victim’s personal information, such as account numbers, user names, passwords, etc. Smishing
is the act of sending fraudulent text messages to bait a victim into revealing personal information.

Be leery of emails or text messages that indicate a problem or question regarding your financial
accounts. In this scam, fraudsters direct victims to follow a link or call a number to update an
account or correct a purported problem. The link directs the victim to a fraudulent web site or
message that appears legitimate. Instead, the site allows the fraudster to steal any personal
information the victim provides.

Current smishing schemes involve fraudsters calling victims’ cell phones offering to lower the
interest rates for credit cards the victims do not even possess. If a victim asserts that they do not
own the credit card, the caller hangs up. These fraudsters call from TRAC cell phones that do not
have voicemail, or the phone provides a constant busy signal when called, rendering these calls
virtually untraceable.

Another scam involves fraudsters directing victims, via email, to a spoofed web site. A spoofed
web site is a fake site that misleads the victim into providing personal information, which is routed to the scammer’s computer.

Never respond to unsolicited (spam) email. Do not click on links contained with an unsolicited
email. Be cautious of email claiming to contain pictures in attached files, as the files may contain
viruses. Avoid filling out forms contained in email messages that ask for personal information.
Contact the actual business that supposedly sent the email to verify if the email is genuine. If you
are asked to act quickly, or there is an emergency, it may be a scam.

These are only a few of the common scams that are conducted every day out of the thousands of
scams conducted. According to Apollo Security and my father, if it looks too good to be true, it
probably is!!

Remember Safety First!