Every year millions of people are taken in by a scam. You’ve heard of some of the most common ones like the Nigerian letter schemes. I’m sure you’ve been exposed to several and hopefully have spotted them right away. Unfortunately they do work often enough to keep them coming and new ones are being invented all the time. The key is to be sure you know how to spot and avoid them no matter the packaging.
Scams are often really creative and potentially very effective. I’m surprised by some of the current ones out there. Take the jury duty scam. The target gets a call from someone identifying themselves as a jury coordinator. They say their records show that you failed to appear for jury duty on such and such date and they’re calling to inform you that an arrest warrant has been issued. Can you imagine how most people feel at that moment? A lot of pressure, to say the least.
When you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty they say, ‘let me verify your information. If there’s been an error we’ll cancel the warrant.’ They rattle off your address and phone number and ask you to provide your Social Security number and your date of birth. If you were to give them that information, then bingo, your identity was just stolen. The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web sites for this scam.
Here’s another current one to look out for. Someone calls saying they’re with the Security and Fraud Department at your bank. They say, ‘my Badge number is 124606. I’m calling about the Visa card you have with us. Your card has been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern. Did you recently purchase a new cell phone from a company called Golden Star Cellular for $449.95?’ When you say ‘no’, the caller then tells you that they’ll be issuing a credit to your account and that this is a company they have been watching. They have a lot of purchases just under the $500 limit that most cards use as a warning flag. They assure you that before your next statement the credit will be sent to you at—then they tell you your correct address and ask you to confirm it. You say ‘yes’ and they continue to tell you they’ll be opening a fraud investigation on it. ‘If you have any questions, just call the 1-800 number on the back of your card and ask for Security. You’ll need the reference number for this transaction.’ And they provide you with a reference number.
The caller then says, ‘I need to verify that you’re still in possession of your card’. He’ll ask you to ‘turn your card over and look for some numbers’. There are 7 numbers; the first 4 are part of your card number, the next 3 are the security numbers that verify you are the possessor of the card. Would you please read them to me?’ After you tell the caller the 3 numbers, he’ll say, ‘That’s correct, like I said, I just needed to verify that the card was still in your possession. Do you have any other questions?’ After you say ‘no’, the caller then thanks you and tells you not to hesitate to call back if you do and hangs up. And why not, after all he just got the only thing he needed—that 3 digit number.
Most scams signal what they really are in at least one of two ways, and both are usually easy to spot.
The first one is that you do not know them and they contacted you. It’s just not safe to do business with strangers who contact you. If you get a call or an email and it all seems very legitimate, you should still not respond directly to the call or email. They broke the rule. They contacted you. Never click on any attachments or call any phone number provided in an email. If you think the email or the call really is from your bank, your credit card company, or whatever—no problem—call them directly and only on a number you look up, never on one given to you. That way you are sure to speak to a legitimate representative of the company.
The second one is that the offer has to pass the too good to be true test. If it sounds too good to be true, then it’s not true, or at least there is a costly catch! This is the most common signal and it is utterly reliable. Fortunately scammers also generally use certain magic words as part of their pitch, especially when it comes to investing money of any sort. If you hear or read one, look out. More than one? We’re done.
Here are some of those “too good to be” true magic words: free, secret, sure-fire, anyone can do it, always, no risk, foolproof, insider, confidential, the smart money, not a get-rich-quick scheme, become a millionaire, and so on. Every one of these is a huge red flag. If you hear more than one, run the other way!
By only giving your information to companies that you have contacted from a number you look up and by avoiding too good to be true offers, you can steer clear of scammers who are out to steel your identity or rip you off. Avoiding scams is easy if you keep these two rules in mind.