OT - Beware of these scams, frauds, dangers
- From: "tscottme" <blahblah@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 01:21:56 -0500
Don't use check cards or debit cards to pay for future goods and services.
It's probably better to stop using these "fake Visa/Mastercards" and use a
conventional credit card if you are disciplined enough to pay off the bill
each month. There are some protections using check/debit cards, but if
everything goes bad the cash in your checking account can be wiped out and
you'll have to cope until you manage to get it back. If your account is
emptied and your checks begin bouncing you may or may not be able to have
the bank fees refunded. On a credit card, if someone makes fraudulent
charges, you file a form and simply don't pay that fraudulent portion of
your bill. It's more like playing with the other guy's money rather than
your own.
There are any number of scams/frauds floating around on the internet,
especially on online auction sites, online roommate services, or any site
where you post items for sale. The overall scheme is to give you a fake
check for an amount more than you asked (personal, corporate, or cashier)
and then ask for you to refund the difference under some pretense. The
eventual end of the scam is you lose whatever item you shipped and you have
to reimburse the bank.
If you don't want more credit cards, call, write, or logon to
https://www.optoutprescreen.com and sign up to have no more pre-approved
credit card offers sent to your mail. Also, buy a shredder and make sure to
shred any of the convenience checks that may be included in these offers or
included in your credit card statement. Read your monthly statements to
spot unauthorized charges. If you suspect your ID has been stolen, call
logon to the credit reporting agencies and put a "fraudwatch" on your
account. This is a flag they place on your account which requires them to
require additional verification before someone extends credit.
http://www.equifax.com
http://www.experian.com
http://www.transunion.com
BTW, after 60 days from date of the statement you lose the right to dispute
a charge on your credit card bill. If You don't notice that AOL is
continuing to bill you it might be impossible to recover those funds paid
more than 60 days ago.
People everywhere in the USA are now eligible to receive at least one free
credit report from each of the three agencies, see links above. The only
official web site which allows access to any of the 3 agencies is
http://www.annualcreditreport.com/ There are other sites with similar
names. Most often these sites will give you a free report and then they
will mine the personal data you submit so as to spam you or flood you with
junk mail and offers. The annual credit report is the only official site
and the easiest one to use for this purpse. If you want to game the system,
you get one report from say experian. Wait 4 months and get one from
equifax. Wait 4 months and get a free report from Transunion. That gives
you a free report several times each year. There should be very little
difference among the tree reports. If you are expecting to buy a home, get
a report at leats 6 months in advance so you can get any false info cleared
up before you apply for a mortgage.
Take your Social Security card out of your wallet. You only need to present
the card in rare occassions. If you lose your wallet having the SSN along
with driver license and credit cards is all that's needed to start creating
more fraudulent accounts.
Some con-men are sending checks for small amounts hoping you will cash them.
This is more of a threat to busniess accounts. When the check is deposited
or cashed, the crook gets your bank account info, routing and account
number, monitors your account balance and then empties your account when it
is at it's maximum.
You didn't win a lottery for which you bought no ticket. You didn't win the
Canadian lottery, the Irish Sweepstakes, or some other lottery elsewhere in
the world. The scam here is to get you to pay fees to receive all or a
portion of the winnings. If you didn't buy a ticket you can't possibly win
and the lottery officials wouldn't have any means of tracking you down if
you had won. You don't submit your contact info when you buy a ticket.
You aren't related to someone in a distant land that died in a car crash
leaving you the sole remaining heir. The scam here is to get you to pay
some fees for an imaginary inheritance or to get your bank account info
which will be emptied. There are no Nigerian officials with mega-millions
that need your bank account info to get the money out of the country.
If you access the internet by a dial-up connection, call your phone company
and have "international call block" put on your phone. One nasty form of
"virus" you may pick up will cause your PC to dial some long-distance number
in the middle of the night. The huge bill will arrive in your phone bill.
If you are still an AOL member and don't like the service or the very high
price, if you call and threaten to cancel your account they will offer you a
$10 version of their ISP through a company they own. Before you cancel with
AOL you have to get the name and date of the people you spoke with, it's
better to cancel in writting as AOL has a bad habit of forgetting to stop
billing your account for months on end.
http://clarkhoward.com/topics/cancel_aol.html
--
Scott
I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.
Winston Churchill
.
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