Scams and Frauds

[Grumpy]

Several agencies (FTC, BBB, etc) have warned that phone, mail and internet scams and frauds are on the raise because of the poor economy and the holiday season. Some things to be especially watchful for are:

DO NOT CLICK ON OR REPLY TO emails that promise you money for helping to transfer large sums of money and other offers that seem too good to be true. The reason some people keep getting these offers is because when you reply to the scam, even to tell them off and you know its a scam, they then know they have a valid email address and will keep trying until they find something you may fall for. JUST DELETE THEM.

BEWARE OF SEEMINLY VALID POP-UPS when shopping on-line. Read everything before you hit OK or whatever. Many scammers use valid sites to run their scams to get you to authorize payments to a scammer when you think you are just trying to buy something you wanted.

NEVER ANSWER AN EMAIL FROM YOUR BANK, CREDIT UNION, OR CREDIT CARD COMPANY no matter how valid or urgent it may seem be. If you get something from one of these companies, do not answer them but close it out and go to your FAVORITES and bring the company up the way you would if you wanted to contact them. Almost always, you will find that they did not try to contact you, but a scammer sent the notice.

BUYER BEWARE has never been truer than it is on the Internet. I am going to stick this at the top until after New Years but remember it always.

Grumpy

[first2fish]

Thanks for the warning. This is something everyone should know but sometimes forget so its good to refresh the memory from time to time.

[BigPoppy]

Grumpy is on the spot here guys, but be sure to tell all of the older folks they may or may not use PCs but the telephone scams are screaming and they will con an older person quick, one of the worst is the help your local food bank, or law enforcements agencies. an older friend lost nearly 500 dollars on a $5 donation to the "police' THANKS GRUMPY