Watch Out for FDIC Phishing Scam

The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) which insures your savings at banks (NCUA is the credit union insuring body) wants you to know about a scam using the FDIC as bait.


The subject line of the e-mail states: "check your Bank Deposit Insurance Coverage." The e-mail goes on to say that, "You have received this message because you are a holder of a FDIC-insured bank account. Recently FDIC has officially named the bank you have opened your account with as a failed bank, thus, taking control of its assets."

The e-mail directs you to a fraudulent link and instructs you to "visit the official FDIC website and perform the following steps to check your Deposit Insurance Coverage". It then instructs you to "download and open your personal FDIC Insurance File to check your Deposit Insurance Coverage."

This is a phishing scam. Remember no financial institution would ask you to follow a link, provide information or download an attachment. Don't be fooled by official looking emails. For more about phishing scams read the Coors Credit Union informational flier.

Yard Sale Update, Craig's List and Spam

You're probably logical enough to figure out what this post is about by the title, but here are the details.

First of my yard sale did not go so well. However, like all experience it taught me some things, or one thing. Don't start your sale late in the morning. My daughter had soccer practice at 9, so I started the sale at 11a.m. I did post a sign on my garage that was large and clearly stated that we started at that time, and I don't think there was any confusion. It's just that garage sale mentality kicks in early and doesn't last that long. What I mean is that most people will get out early to get the best stuff. After a few hours of saleing they are exhausted. By 11 or so they are ready to go home, have some lunch and get on with their lives. I did sell a few items and had several people stop by saying things like, "Oh I wish I had seen your sale first...I just bought an X, but yours is nicer...Darn, I paid to much for this X at another sale." Whatever.

Originally I hoped that I could unload my stuff all at once and avoid Craigslist, but after the preparation and boring hours sitting in my front yard I turned back to Craig. I already had everything cleaned up and ready. So I took some pictures and did quick posting.

This morning I was excited to see that I had 8 replies to my items. But once I opened the first one my excitement died. (I'm sure you've guessed why) Here's what it said...

Goodmorning, Would you be interested in working online?
Bing™ brings you maps, menus, and reviews organized in one place. Try it now.
this message was remailed to you via: sale-pbav6-1395391794@craigslist.org

There were 4 emails with similar messages. The "Try it now." was hyperlinked. I did not click it and have removed the hyperlinks for this post.

Four other emails contained messages similar to this one below (again, hyperlinks removed):

I saw the inStep trailer - found here: http://boulder.craigslist.org/bab/1395388031.html jumped out at me. I, too had been doing the same thing since I lost my job. 3months ago, it was aweful, but I needed to sell my boy's games just to make our house payment and it was most definitely the lowest point in my life.
Saying it was demoralizing couldn't even describe it right,but I knew I had to make the house payment or we would be homeless (I was already several months behind).Thank goodness that will be the last time I'll have to hurt my babies like that.
One of my good buds showed me what he's doing to earn ethical income working on his home computer. I couldn't believe he would share this with me, but I'm so grateful that I have been sharing this with anyone who needs a financial break and who might be in the same situation.
Thank God it's easy or I would not have been able to complete it, in additionit is the most financially stable I have ever felt before. I promise you'll find this link worth the 30 seconds it takes to look it over. Oh, there is the link: http://g4.ms/moreforus
Take great care, and Bless You!

The four previous emails all advertised Bing and came from hotmail.com addresses. The second set of emails all included links to "articles" and came from gmail.com addresses. The hotmail emails had sender and subject lines in all capital letters. Both sets of emails used similar subject lines, i.e. "RE: Kelty Backpack" which is the same as the name of my posting. The articles are linked through a cloaking service that could be used for marketing, redirecting and/or click tracking--or perhaps spyware.

It doesn't matter whether these are malicious or not, they are an annoyance at the least and potential dangerous. Virus software is not enough to protect you--you've got to be proactive as well.

Lease-Back or Repurchase Scams Prey on Desperate Homeowners

Scammers just love to kick people when they are down. The Lease-Back or Repurchase scam has been hot for awhile and people are still falling for it. In this case the potential victims are homeowners who are delinquent in mortgage payments.

The scammer promises to pay off your delinquent mortgage, repair your credit and possibly pay off credit cards and other debt. However, in order to do this, you must “temporarily” sign your deed over to a “third party” investor. You are told that once your credit is repaired you’ll “have the option” to buy back your home. Plus, you can stay in the house. You’ll just be renting, this is supposed to help you build credit also.

The trouble is once you have signed away your rights in your property, you may not be able to repurchase the property later, even if you can and want to. Once you become the renter you might realize that conditions have been set that make it impossible for you to back your home. Often this includes ridiculous time-limits and an exorbitantly high buy-back price. Your rent could be raised unreasonably and You could also be evicted by the investor owner. Typically, after the deed is signed away, the property changes hands numerous times. The scammer may have taken a new mortgage out on your home for hundreds of thousands of dollars more than your mortgage, making it impossible for you to buy back your home. Or your home may be sold and you could be tossed out.

Be careful, when things get tough the first thing you should do is consult a company that you trust—like your credit union or mortgage holder. There are legitimate programs to help homeowners who are having difficulty making payments.

Even if you are not facing foreclosure, but want to reduce your mortgage payments, or improve your debt situation, your credit union may be able to help. It doesn’t hurt to ask the credit union to review your situation; in fact there isn’t even a charge for this service. And improving your financial outlook is nothing to be embarrassed about—it’s a smart thing to do.

When Opportunity Knocks, Don't Answer

There is one business that is booming even as we're in the midst of a recession...Business Opportunity scams. Watch this excellent video by the FTC to save yourself from these ripoffs.

Beware of Handsome Strangers

A good looking person catches your eye at the mall and begins conversation. Could it be a love at first sight or just a clever scam?

Canadian police are warning shoppers of debit card thefts that include distraction from a handsome stranger.

As reported by The Gazette, a Canadian publication:

“…fraud artists have been active for months and have developed a method where they follow a target through a large retail store, peek over their shoulder as they enter their PIN while making a purchase at a cash register and then approach the unsuspecting person outside the store.
In some cases, the person used to create the distraction is attractive and speaks with a European accent while asking for help with street directions.
Within the brief amount of time a person is distracted, their wallet is snatched away and their debit card is cloned. The wallet is returned without the victim noticing, but their bank account is quickly cleaned out.”

The comments on the article whose intent is to warn the public are rather interesting:
Bonzola “ I would be happy to pay the price for having an attractive person talk to me.”
DON'T LET THEM GET CLOSE TO YOU “While performing a transaction, don't hesitate to "accidentally" elbow someone in the face if they don't respect your space. It's very easy to suddenly get scared and have an involuntary reaction. If people start getting hurt, word will get around and people will start to behave correctly and respecting the privacy and space of others.”

Remember what your mother said about talking to strangers.

Still Phishing After All These Years

This post originally ran back on June 22, 2008. The point was to let you all know that phishing is still a prevalent scam. Sadly though phishing hasn't decreased. It's gotten worse and know this type of imposter scam has spread to text messaging and telephone forms. Beware of anyone claiming to contact you from any company that you have a financial relationship with. No company that you do business with will ask for your account number, passwords or PINs by contacting you. They only ask for this info when you contact them.

WHEN IN DOUBT, DON'T GIVE IT OUT

Check out this email message from PayPal.

Yep, it's a fake. But you can safely click on these images. I captured them from an actual message that showed up in my email box yesterday morning. Get a look at how realistic this bait is. But then there's that tricky "Dispute" link.

I decided to click the link. But Internet Explorer picked up the phony. If the link were to work it would likely ask me for personal information like my PayPal login and credit card or account info.

Really, I'm am surprised that phishing is still so popular. Yet it must be lucrative since it's still going on. This particular message looks quite authentic. And since I hadn't made the noted purchase I might have actually fallen for the the "Dispute". But I'm not at all trusting of email that I didn't initiate and you shouldn't be either. Consider this a reminder--be suspicious.

Phishers are getting more sophisticated, but you can outwit them. And if you do encounter a phishing bait notify the Anti-Phishing Workgroup.

Cell Phone Scam Alert

Recently another Colorado credit union reported that its members were receiving fraudulent calls to their cell phones. It works a lot like phishing. The recipient gets a call to their cell phone. Upon answering they will hear a recorded message such as, "This is a message from your bank, XYZ Credit Union, announcing that your Visa Debit Card has been temporarily suspended. Please dial 0 to reactivate your card." As you might have guessed, if someone presses 0, they are then asked to enter the debit card number, the expiration date and the security number.

Please don't fall for this. If you should receive a call like this be sure to capture the incoming phone number. Then contact the credit union or any other named financial institution and follow up by contact the Anti-Phishing Working Group.

Wow, that sure would be some fancy technology if your credit union could reactivate your card in this manner. But rest assured even if they could, they wouldn't. Remember, not your credit union nor any other financial institution would never ask you for ANY personal information such as account numbers, social security or PIN via the telephone or email.

Is my friend stranded in Nigeria?

So the other day I got an email from a woman that I know but don't really hang out with often. I hear from her every couple of weeks via email, so even though we don't see each other I sort of know what she's up to, but not in much detail. We're more of acquaintances than close friends. The subject of the email was "Urgent." Normally I might be suspicious of any email that says "urgent", but I know that her work and life circumstances can sometimes make this word relevant.

<<== No Way is this woman going to Nigeria (photo by Malingering )

This is the text from her email. I've removed her name--you know for protection.

Happy new year in advance.

Actually i need you to help send $2000 today, i had traveled to west Africa few days ago with intention that i will return home before the new year, i am stuck in Nigeria right now. i lost my wallet that contain money and contact information, i don't have access to phone except email . please do loan me the money i will refund it as soon as i return. you can send the money VIA Western Union or Money Gram to my name and this address.

Name: S######## R############
Add: 38, Oke Aro street
Akure City, Ondo State. Nigeria

I would need the Money transfer control number M.T.C.N, text question and answer and senders name. to pick up the money.this is weird, please keep this very confidential because no one is aware of this trip, i will explain better when i arrive.
Thanks
S###########

You probably guessed right away that this was a scam and that my friend's email was likely hijacked. Fortunately all of us that know this woman didn't fall for the scam. But still you never know.

I was working furiously at the time this came in on a complex writing project. I read the email quickly and didn't think much of the small grammatical errors. I thought this was especially strange because this is a woman who wouldn't travel anywhere that didn't have a mall but then it didn't seem constructed by a computer or foreign speaker. So I did a crazy thing.

I sent back a reply. It read "S######, what is this?"

About an hour later I got this response:
I know this is weird, but is real. I really need help this time.

This still didn't convince me. So I decided to call her at home. Her voicemail box was full--probably from everyone who received the email. So I did nothing. And then two days later I got this email:

Thanks for all your phone calls, texts and emails. I am not in Nigeria, although could use a few $$$$. Someone hacked into my email and infected my entire hard drive. I have been working on getting the situation corrected. Today just broke off and bought a new computer as the hard drive was gone. (it was 8 years old, good excuse.) I have to tell you it felt so awesome to be reminded how many people care about me. Sometimes we forget. Have a happy and safe new year!!

I have no idea how my friend's email was originally hijacked. There are so many ways it can happen. But what we should take away from this experience is to be careful. And also consider the sender. Like I mentioned there is no way I could picture this woman travelling to Nigeria. That was the one thing that her entire email contact list agreed on. Never send money to anyone who requests this from email. There are ways to verify a real emergency. Remember the guy that was saved by using Twitter.

If this should happen to you of course you should run virus scanning software. But that doesn't always do the trick. You'll also need to contact your email provider's technical support. You'll need to change your account password. You may have to change your email address.