Imposter

Beware newest tax scams

Posted on by smaneli

In the first scenario, identity thieves file a fake tax return and have the refund deposited into your bank account. The thieves then contact you, often by phone, and — posing as the IRS or debt collectors for the IRS — demand you return the money to the IRS. But following the thieves’ instructions actually sends the money to them

In another version, after you get that erroneous refund, you get an automated call, allegedly from the IRS, threatening you with criminal fraud charges, an arrest warrant, and “blacklisting” of your Social Security number. The caller gives you a case number and a telephone number to call to return the refund.

Please do not fall for these. If you happen to get an unexpected refund, follow the instructions given by the IRS on their website. Make sure you are on the IRS website. Their is a difference in returning a check vs a direct deposit. Each year these scammers come up with a new way to get money from the consumer in whatever illegal fashion they can dream up.

And here is another way, scammers are setting up fraudulent tax preparation sites to file your tax return, all this is is a way to get your personal information. If you file on line be careful what button you push as these sites are designed to look like the real thing. Not only will your tax return not get filed you just gave out your personal info.

On advice from FTC:

file your tax return as early as possible

file from a secure website, or mail it from the post office

to make sure the website is encrypted look for the s in https, the s is for secure. If the first page is the only page that is encrypted and the rest of the pages are not, this leaves your account open for hackers. Don’t use it. Make sure each page you are on is encrypted.

Ask tax preparers about their data security policy and  how do they protect your information.

Respond to anything you receive in the mail from IRS, promptly

If tax identity theft happens to you go to IdentityTheft.gov to report it to FTC. File an identity Theft Affidavit with the IRS, and get a personal recovery plan with them.

It is so easy to find yourself on the wrong website. It’s like having a computer problem and you are wanting to get in touch with Microsoft and you find yourself on a site that is so similar and then have to look again at the http to make sure where you are, it is so easy to do with anything. When I was looking for the website to do the annual vehicle registration, I ended up on a page that was just about identical to the one I go to each year, and the Lone Star is at the top of the page and the instructions almost identical and then I saw where the amount differed from what the State of Texas motor vehicles charges, I got out of the site and started paying more attention to where I am going online.  This was years ago and I got out of it and thought what the hell website did I go to. So I want back to see and it was easy to see how I did it, that is why one has to be so careful on line. Gotta get to the proper website.

Honest to goodness, if these scammers put their ideas toward something honest and legal, they would have more money than they do scamming, and do not have to look over their shoulder that the law may be right behind them. I suppose some of them think it is worth the risk, or they won’t catch me, or to be a criminal I guess you think you are smarter than everyone and you won’t be arrested, and then some just don’t care. I have heard people say, how do these criminals sleep at night, they sleep like babies, because to take from the elderly or any hard working person by scamming them, you have no conscience so you do just fine.

I have to admit, I was wondering with tax season here, what the latest scams were and sure enough, FTC is there warning us all what is afoot. I often wonder when the internet was first out there, did anyone ever imagine the damage it was capable of causing. I am not pointing fingers, the internet is beneficial in so many areas, and thank you to the creators that brought it to us, but I tend to compare it to,  keeping a dead bolt on all your doors at home, make sure you lock your car wherever you go, when you do something as simple as go to the grocery store or shopping be aware who is around you and don’t carry to many things so you can barely maneuver when going to the car, be careful about who is ringing your doorbell, be careful of your own cell and who you talk to, in other words it has made trusting anyone almost impossible. And being on the internet is the same thing, we can’t afford to trust every site, and even just browsing, your every move is documented.

So everyone be careful and be safe, wherever you go online or just in your everyday world.

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New Deadline For Western union settlement requests.

Posted on by smaneli

Did you lose money to a scammer who had you pay using Western Union between January 1, 2004 and January 19, 2017? If so, you can ask for money back from the FTC’s settlement with Western Union. And the deadline to file your claim was just extended to May 31, 2018.

Here’s the deal. Western Union agreed to return $586 million to people to settle the FTC’s charges that Western Union hadn’t adequately protected people from fraud, and didn’t properly discipline problem agents. To get money back, here’s what you need to do by May 31, 2018:

  • Start at FTC.gov/WU to file your claim online. If you got a letter in the mail about a complaint you filed earlier, you’ll have a Claim ID and a PIN. Click the blue “I got a pre-filled claim form” button and use those to file your claim. If you didn’t get a letter in the mail, click the orange button that says “I lost money, but did not get a claim form.”
  • Give as much information as you can about your loss. Upload any paperwork you have. The Department of Justice, which is handling the claims through their contractor, Gilardi & Co, will use that information to try to validate your Western Union money transfer.
  • Yes, you have to give your Social Security number or ITIN to file a claim.
  • Don’t pay anybody to help you file your claim, or get money back. Anybody who asks you to pay for your claim or refund is scamming you. Tell the FTC.
  • Then, be patient. It might take a year for the Department of Justice to validate all the claims and start returning money.

This is what I have been telling everyone about what FTC is trying to do for the consumer. Hard to believe that $586 million was scammed from citizens. There are no get rich quick schemes, you did not win any foreign lottery or local lottery, there is no down payment, if you will, on beginning a surefire home business , you did not inherit a lot of money from someone you never heard of who knows about all your heartaches and woes and wants to leave you $100 million, you did not win a sweepstakes, you did not win a new expensive anything.  no one from Microsoft called you to let you know you have a virus and they want to fix your computer  for you for a fee,and access to your information, you did not get a call from a genuine IRS agent stating he will be glad to accept your payment on back taxes if you send a wire transfer of a vanilla visa card , you did not win a gift card to anywhere, legitimate Government agency is not calling and ready to send you money you are owed. All these scams and many more require you to pay upfront and divulge personal information.

These are just some of the scams citizens have fallen for and if you have to pay a dime on anything you “won” it is a scam. The sad part is that $586 million owed by Western Union is a drop in the bucket to the $million and $millions that are irretrievable. When there is no paper trail, hard to get it back.

We are a country of instant gratification, and this is how so many get into mischief. If I give a few hundred bucks my worries are over, I am going to get a few million. Not in this lifetime, IF IT SOUNDS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT PROBABLY IS. When you think about it, there is that small percentage of citizens who are so desperate for extra money they will spend what little they have to get the pie in the sky, this is sad, and then there are those who are just greedy by nature and jump in thinking if I pay a few bucks what a return I am going to get, woohoo  and not have to pay a dime in taxes.

If the scammers continue to have an audience to play to, then this will never end.

If you know anyone who has been burned by Western Union, let them know so they can get some money back.

Courtesy of Attorney for Midwest Region, FTC.

The Secretary of State is not emailing you

Posted on by smaneli

I have another public service announcement. This one is a classic.

There are many scammers who pretend to be government officials – from the IRS, Social Security, and even the FTC. The latest twist is an email from – supposedly – the Secretary of State. In the email, someone pretending to be Secretary Tillerson says you’re owed a payment – which he knows about because of an investigation by the FBI and CIA. The email goes on to say that you’ll get an ATM card with $1.85 million on it – and it even gives you the PIN code. But, to get the ATM card you have to send in $320 and a bunch of information about you. And you can well imagine what that information is.

Except you don’t have to send either the money or the information. Because it’s not the Secretary of State emailing, nobody owes you $1.85 million dollars (just guessing), and no government agency will ever tell you to pay a fee to collect funds owed to you. Here’s what you can do the next time you get an email or call from someone claiming to be from the government. Ask yourself these two questions,

Did they say you owe money, are going to jail, or won a prize?

Did they say you can get your prize, or get out of trouble and avoid jail by paying right away?

If the answer to these is “yes,” that’s going to be a scam. You don’t need to send money. You don’t need to give up your information by phone or email. You don’t need to worry. But what I hope you will do is tell people you know about the scam you spotted – and then tell the FTC.

It is hard to imagine that anyone would honestly think the Secretary of State is emailing individuals to tell them about any monies owed them or about anything else for that matter. The problem is there will be those who will fall for this, and many times they feel so foolish they do not report it to FTC.  FTC does not make judgement calls, they just need all the info you can give them about these scammers.

Throwing names you are familiar with like FBI and CIA gets peoples attention, they do not stop to think that neither one of these organizations is in the business of a payment you are supposedly due. I think they have other things to do. The FTC is involved in trying to get money back to those who have been scammed. They try to get the consumer as much as they can, but this business of debit cards is impossible to trace and that is an avenue that is used all too often. Western Union was penalized millions of dollars for going along with these scams. They knowingly participated and FTC took them to Federal Court and it cost them.

Years ago I received an email from the “World Health Organization’ telling me I was due a refund, in the amount of $15,000. They had investigated this thoroughly and for sure I was due this money. Now the catch of course was to get this amount there was a $200 fee to process this so I could receive a cashiers check for the $15,000. Of course there were several grammatical errors in the email but the funniest part was I needed to respond immediately to a gmail address. I decided to respond, I told them if you are going to do this properly,  first make sure you correct all the spelling mistakes , grammatical errors, etc. Then I said you need to find another organization that would actually be involved with refunding private citizens, not the WHO,  and do get rid of the gmail address. And since you have identified yourself as the Chairman of the Board, is that what is written on the back of your directors chair? I don’t suggest doing this I just could not resist. Never heard another word and never got another email like this. Reported it to FTC and what I had done. The response was something like I made their day with what I had written in response to the bogus email, but did not advise anyone to do it.

The problem, I repeat, is there are so many older citizens who need money and it would be so easy for them to go along with some bogus scheme, and if there is a threat that they might go to jail if they don’t pay some bill, that adds fuel to the fire.

Spread the word about the scammers, you could spare someone a loss they can ill afford.

DNC list not working

Posted on by smaneli

Being hounded by these robocalls is enough to drive anyone to doing some serious bodily injury with these people. Some of these callers have gotten clever with the numbers. They will appear as an individual, my favorite is Ann Taylor. The problem with using an individuals name is if you use your smart phone for business, this could be a customer or a referral and you would like to be able to answer your own phone, well today you are taking a chance.

Reporting these numbers to FTC to start and according to FTC there is an app , a robocall blocking app that has the ability to :

  • prescreen your calls before the phone rings
  • block certain types of calls, including calls that others have flagged as fraudulent or unwanted calls
  • block anonymous calls that show up as “Unknown” callers
  •  use reverse look up to detect fake caller ID from call spoofing

Which app works for you might depend on your phone’s operating system. Before you consider downloading any app, think about the call protection that you need and do your research.

Read Blocking Unwanted Calls for other ideas on stopping robocalls. You also can find out more about what the FTC is doing to fight illegal robocalls at ftc.gov/robocalls, including several initiatives to develop technology-based solutionsI

If your mobile number isn’t already on the National Do Not Call Registry, it’s also a good idea to add it. If you continue to get sales calls, at least you’ll know the callers don’t respect the law. If you continue to get illegal robocalls or other unwanted calls, report them to the FTC. Your complaints not only help FTC target scammers, but also help telecommunications carriers and other industry partners that are working on call blocking solutions.

Scammers are using fake caller ID information to trick you into thinking they’re someone who can be trusted. The practice is called caller ID spoofing, and scammers can fake anyone’s phone number. Reports are even coming in that scammers are even using FTC’s number to make calls. Here are a few things to help you stay ahead of the game, for now anyway. Tomorrow is another day and staying ahead of these jerks is a job.

  • If you get a strange call from a government phone number, hang up. If you want to check it out, visit the official (.gov) website for contact information.
  • Don’t give out — or confirm — your personal or financial information to someone who calls.
  • Don’t wire money or send money using a reloadable card. In fact, never pay someone who calls out of the blue, even if the name or number on the caller ID looks legit.
  • Feeling pressured to act immediately? Hang up. That’s a sure sign of a scam.

These types of calls may not bother you, but I am tired of it. I disconnect the call when the phone rings and they continue weeks and weeks on end. I have blocked them but they simply change a digit or two and are back on the phone again.

The only thing that makes an impression on these people is money. Get the list, a long list together and fine each and every one of them who has called someone on the DNC list. I should think if the sum is hefty enough it should put a dent in all these calls.

I have Verizon and they allow 5 calls at a time to be blocked. Now that may sound like a large number but you may need 10 different numbers for the same robocaller. Answering and demanding they stop does not do any good either.

And rumor has it, these scammers are going to start using text messaging and there is no way to block those. It’s simply not safe to answer your phone and now plan on being bombarded with scammers text messaging, anyway to get to you. It is like you have a court order for a restraining order and it gets violated on a daily basis. I think someone somewhere took issue with this and declared this an invasion of privacy and it was decided it was not, so look for the texts anytime now,of the scamming variety.  One thing about the texting, text back stop at least should help, can’t do it with some of these calls because they are land lines, I tried already.