Van Zandt News (Canton, Tex.), Vol. 33, No. 41, Ed. 1 Sunday, February 16, 2014 Page: 4 of 28
twenty eight pages : ill.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
4A
VAN ZANDT NEWS
Sunday, February 16, 2014
_From Page One/Local_
County
Better Business Bureau names ‘BBB Top Ten Scams of 2013’
u KIIIIVU u
T‘ !■■ lu -.if LK*«1
mji -r.. Z9*X 5K‘
raoK uwrwifirs.
-= u-: i m. Bid E-uri
'■WF. Ctf-h: HfevGrg
•*=*«■*■ 1-jk.i '
€16WI "1ST
: M3 tit.- 5. r.;.
: Mm ui
-.•ton: irciKi. &iK
.njEii. i i i>J c >>. «>]
' ' ihm
S«|Ti'nerS-«» Imcn
■.u -UI..Y * Em ■&*.
riV-Ei-iFr.- ,‘ihr--
3a.(mTH-w fi'J k*
I In- 4in**Cj.
l'»n Jr*".
i.w!sn.jT^ ly
C£r,vLUi ^L 'i>*.iii
iSC-assist
-Jll I
Lnr^i
Ylhlh
fiflfcii F'l
■ kn«'H:n]. iuti
:i!ii:fl - ' ■jtjiJtir.i"
- * £l iht i<. rf
>.'<b Hue 11 k'x! ikn .
Irnn ycir -?r.-:
15 ■ ■ <p rhi : :■
init'iT ary :h
'ffwir^F jiai-
3c HiACrf UU
CrTir J VaH- ID
Cj !5 L«_! s(i-n|fi.
jj'ii-n:n; 1-3 zn
Inyn
OP-10
n y-: i; ■ j :■. Shm-q
TlY . r i Yi rw,
‘tftfilffr
■ II
[wr.-ivi
Hii.
\ it-p*:*®- 7-fnd
■#-<11 "juk 'jj.y t-t
■¥sm 1 IUT1TH'
*+■3 jhes HCV*' ■
ird mit:ivy'll |
.€55
Ih ffl
i I'j-y
■ (■in (itt a 5 f+LDj.fci
r F.E*.
0OC*K, -Tt K?TI
irJrr
0 rnml il Hrilrr Phnrrh im in
Every year, Better Busi-
ness Bureau receives
thousands of calls and
emails from consumers
who have been scammed
... or from the lucky ones
who have dodged scams
by being wary.
Some scams are wide-
spread, getting a lot of
people for small amounts.
Others are more narrowly
focused, but take people
for thousands or tens of
thousands of dollars. The
Federal Trade
Commission’s Consumer
Sentinel Data Book esti-
mates that Americans lost
$1.4 billion to scams in
2012.
The Council of Better
Business Bureaus, the
umbrella organization for
the 113 local BBBs across
the U.S. and Canada,
culls its annual “Top Ten
Scams” list from a variety
of sources, including re-
ports from consumers,
some of whom have
been victims of scams;
from federal agencies;
and from other reliable
information sources.
“These are not neces-
sarily the scams with the
biggest losses, or those
with the most victims, as
many people don’t report
scams or even know
they’ve been victimized,”
said Katherine Hutt,
CBBB spokesperson.
“These are the scams that
seemed to be the most
widespread, aimed at the
most vulnerable, growing
in popularity, or just plain
audacious. Scams are ev-
ery-changing, but we
want to help people rec-
ognize them and be pre-
pared the next time they
get a suspicious call,
email, text or solicitation.”
BBB Top Ten Scams
of 2013
Medical Alert Scam -
A new twist to the
telemarketing scam hit
2013 hard. With promises
of a “free” medical alert
system, the scam targeted
seniors and caretakers
and claimed to be offer-
ing the system free of
charge because a family
member or friend had al-
ready paid for it. In many
cases, seniors were asked
to provide their bank ac-
count or credit informa-
tion to “verify” their iden-
tity and, as a result, were
charged the monthly $35
service fee. The system,
of course, never arrived
and the seniors were left
Scam-
the back numbers and
using the telephone, give
(the caller) the numbers.”
“He was given several
telephone numbers
which in turns are trans-
ferred to another phone,
“ Wiley said.
The numbers had 876
area codes. That is the
area code for Jamaica.
Wiley said the elderly
man recalled that the
caller was a man and
hard to understand and
talked with a heavy ac-
cent.
“This brings us to re-
member, if it sounds too
good, beware,” he said.
with a charge they had
trouble getting refunded.
Easy rule of thumb - be
wary of “free” offers that
require your personal in-
formation upfront and al-
ways verify with the sup-
posed friend or family
member that the caller
says paid for the service.
Auction Reseller
Scam - Many people
turn to Ebay and other
online auctions sites to
sell used items they no
longer need, and rela-
tively new electronics
seem to do especially
well. But scammers have
figured out a way to fool
sellers into shipping
goods without receiving
payment. Usually the
buyer claims it’s an
“emergency” of some sort
- a child’s birthday, a
member of the military
shipping out - and asks
the seller to ship the same
day. The seller receives an
email that looks like it’s
from PayPal confirming
the payment, but emails
are easy to fake. Always
confirm payment in your
Ebay and PayPal ac-
counts before shipping,
especially to an overseas
address.
Arrest Warrant
Scam - This one seemed
to really take off last au-
tumn. In this scam, con
artists are taking advan-
tage of technology that
can change what is vis-
ible on Caller ID, and al-
lowing them to pose as
the office of the local
sheriff or other law en-
forcement agency. They
call to say there is a war-
rant out for your arrest,
but that you can pay a
fine in order to avoid
criminal charges. Of
course, these “police”
don’t take credit cards;
only a wire transfer or
pre-paid debit card will
do. Sometimes these
scams seem very per-
sonal; the scammer may
refer to a loan or other fi-
nancial matter. It may
just be a lucky guess, but
don’t be fooled into
thinking you are about to
be arrested.
Invisible Home Im-
provements - Home
improvement scams vary
little from year to year,
and most involve some
type of shoddy work-
manship from unli-
censed or untrained
The elderly citizens
bought four of the money
cards and deposited $500
on each card. He re-
ceived two $4,000
checks drawn on a
Larned, Kan. bank by a
Roger Bell. “These two
checks were not good,”
Wiley said. “However,
the senior citizen had
mailed a cashier’s check
for $ 1,050 from his bank
prior. This was to pay
taxes, etc. All this was
supposed to be con-
nected to the Publisher’s
Clearing House
Sweepstake prizes.
When you call PCH, the
workers. The hardest for
homeowners to detect,
and therefore the easiest
for scammers to pull off,
are repairs or improve-
ments to the areas of your
home that you can’t see:
roofs, chimneys, air
ducts, crawl spaces, etc.
Scammers may simply
knock at your door offer-
ing a great deal because
they were “in the neigh-
borhood,” but more and
more they are using
telemarketing, email and
even social media to
reach homeowners.
Helpful videos on
YouTube can add legiti-
macy to a contractor, but
consumers have no way
of knowing if the video
is real or “borrowed”
from a legitimate con-
tractor. Check out home
contractors at bbb.org
before saying yes.
Casting Call Scam -
This is not as widespread
as some other scams, but
it seems to have really
been on the increase in
recent years, thanks to the
popularity of television
talent shows like
“American Idol” and
“Project Runway.”
Scammers pose as agents
or talent scouts looking
for actors, singers, mod-
els, reality show contes-
tants, etc., and use phony
audition notices to fool
aspiring performers into
paying to try out for parts
that don’t exist. There are
several ways this plays
out. It can simply be an
unscrupulous way to sell
acting lessons, photogra-
phy services, etc., or it
can be an outright scam
for things like fees for
online “applications” or
upcoming “casting
calls.” Even worse, the
information provided on
an online application
could be everything a
scammer needs for iden-
tity theft.
Foreign Currency
Scam - Investments in
foreign currency can
sound like a great idea,
and scammers frequently
use real current events and
news stories to make their
pitches even more ap-
pealing. They advertise an
easy investment with high
return and low risk when
you purchase Iraqi Dinar,
Vietnamese Dong or,
most recently, the Egyp-
tian Pound. The plan is
that, when those govem-
will inform you that this
is a scam as you do not
have to pay anything on
any prize you win from
them. They have an
internet website showing
hundreds of people who
have been scammed.”
Wiley said before
ments revalue their cur-
rencies, increasing their
worth against the dollar,
you just sell and cash in.
Unlike previous hoaxes,
you may even take pos-
session of real currency.
The problem is that they
will be very difficult to
sell, and it’s extremely
unlikely they will ever sig-
nificantly increase in
value.
Scam Texts - With
online and mobile bank-
ing skyrocketing, it’s not
a surprise that scams
quickly follow. One ma-
jor tactic recently is the
use of scam texts, known
as “smishing,” to steal
personal information.
They look like a text alert
from your bank, asking
you to confirm informa-
tion or “reactivate your
debit card” by following
a link on your smart
phone. Banks of all sizes
have been targeted, and
details of the scam vary,
but the outcome is the
same: scammers get your
banking information,
maybe even your ATM
number and PIN. You
may even inadvertently
download malicious soft-
ware that gives the
scammer access to any-
thing on your phone.
Do Not Call Scams -
The National Do Not Call
Registry (U.S.) or
the National Do Not Call
List (Canada) offer con-
sumers a free way to re-
duce telemarketing calls.
Scammers call anyway, of
course, and they’ve even
found a way to scam con-
sumers by pretending to
be a government official
calling to sign you up or
confirming your previous
participation on the Dot
Not call list! In one varia-
tion, scammers ask for
personal information,
such as your name, ad-
dress and Social Security/
Social Insurance number.
In another, scammers try
to charge a fee to join the
registry. Either way, just
hang up. These services
are free, but sharing per-
sonal information with a
scammer could cost you
a lot.
Fake Friend Scam -
Did you ever get a Friend
Request on Facebook
from someone you al-
ready thought was your
Friend? If you hit Accept,
you may have just
sending any money to
anyone, residents should
also check the website
ww w.ripoffreport .com.
“If you are informed
that you have won any-
thing, check it out before
you give them bank num-
bers, personal informa-
friended a scammer. A
popular recent scam has
been the theft of people’s
online identities to create
fake profiles, which can
be used in a variety of
ways. A new Friend can
learn a lot about you to
scam you later, “recom-
mend” sketchy websites
that download malware,
use your account to scrap
information on your other
Friends, even imperson-
ate a military officer or
other trustworthy person
to perpetrate a romance
scam. Be careful on so-
cial media, keep your pri-
vacy settings high, and
don’t share confidential
information. You can’t al-
ways be sure that your
Friends are really your
friends.
Scam of the Year:
Affordable Care Act
Scam
Scammers had a field
From 1A
tion, money and Social
Security numbers,”
Wiley said. “This is what
some of them want so
that they can scam you
of all your money by
opening charge accounts,
getting credit cards, buy-
ing homes, cars, truck,
property and expensive
items in your name.”
Wiley said some have
lost $800,000 to the Ja-
maican scams. He asks
that anyone who has re-
ceived an attempted scam
call, contact him at 903-
880-5955.
The Better Business
Bureau said the
day with the Affordable
Care Act (“Obamacare”),
using it as a way to fool
Americans into sharing
their personal informa-
tion. Scammers would
call claiming to be from
the federal government
and saying the would-be
victim needed a new in-
surance card or Medicare
card. However, before
they can mail the card,
they need to collect per-
sonal information.
Scammers do a lot to
make their requests seem
credible. For example,
they may have your
bank’s routing number
and ask you to provide
your account number. Or,
they may ask for your
credit card or Social Se-
curity number, Medicare
ID, or other personal in-
formation. But sharing
personal information with
a scammer puts you at risk
for identity theft.
scammers have also
claimed to be from UPS
or a government agency
and tell their victims to
send money via Green
Dot Money Pak or West-
ern Union.
It is illegal for foreign
lotteries or sweepstakes to
operate within the United
States and it is also illegal
for U.S. citizens to partici-
pate in these sweepstakes
or lotteries, according to
information from the
BBB, but because they
are operating from foreign
soil, it requires vigilance
on the part of U.S. con-
sumers.
BBB offers the following advice to avoid be-
ing taken by these scams:
— Be extremely cautious when giving out
any personal information.
— You must enter to win.
— Never pay any money to collect supposed
sweepstakes winnings.
— Never wire money.
— Never provide personal information.
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Fisher, Donnita. Van Zandt News (Canton, Tex.), Vol. 33, No. 41, Ed. 1 Sunday, February 16, 2014, newspaper, February 16, 2014; Canton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth868001/m1/4/: accessed June 12, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Van Zandt County Library.