Spotted a scam? Tell us about it.

[AARPLynne]

Spotted a scam?  Tell us about it.  Our scam-tracking map gives you information about the latest scams targeting people in your state.  You’ll also find first-hand accounts from scam-spotters who are sharing their experiences so you know how to protect yourself and your family. Go to the Scam-Taking Map>>

[cat0w]

I'm sure that's what I received this morning at 0645. I've never gotten a scam call this early before. The lady said I qualified for a gift card from my choice of Target, Walmart or other store all I have to do is pay Two dollars for shipping and handling. I hung up. My caller ID showed Moore George 655-2124.

To pay the two dollars over the phone means giving a credit/debit card number plus security number on the card. 

[BrendaH798408]

Remind everyone to always hover over, do not click on sender line to verify real or fake addresses!

Received an email From "Medicare Plan" Subject Line: "2021 Medicare Open Enrollment"

Actually a Phishing sender: random letters, no reply and invalid HTML after the @ 

These guys are "good" at faking out even the most savvy user. THANKS!

[s748470r]

Several weeks ago, I received a white paper booklet about arthritis from Remedy Health Media on behalf of University of California--Berkeley. I did not order this booklet and did not want it, so I mailed it back to Remedy Health Media at their return address in Palm Coast, Florida. Since then, I have received two invoices attempting to bill me for the booklet. I am ignoring these invoices as the USPS informs me that unsolicited materials received in the mail can be considered "gifts." Has anyone else had a similar experience of being billed for unsolicited, unwanted material received via US mail, and does anyone have any advice for me? I am concerned that Remedy Health Media may turn this billl over to a collection agency.

[n2Liberty]

If they send you a collections letter send them a "drop dead letter".

It is a letter telling them you do not owe them what they are asking

and that according to the fair credit law they are not to contact you

again about it. 

Somthing like this:

Date:Name of Collection Agency
Mailing Address of Collection AgencyRe: Account Number

To whom it may concern:

I have been contacted by you regarding a debt I allegedly owe.  I dispute the account number referenced above and deny any liability.  Please cancel the account immediately.

Please cease any and all further communication with me regarding this debt immediately.

Under the regulations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act you may not contact me further once I have notified you not to do so.

Sincerely,

Your signature
Your printed name

Send it certified mail. You should not hear from them again.

However if they believe it is a real bill they can file suite and

will have to present you with evidence that you owe the money.

If you get served such a letter indicating they have filed suite

do not ignore it. You must challenge their complaint for which you

should seek legal advice. 

[s748470r]

Thank you so much for the great advice!

[imaglo52]

I got an email the other day telling me my Kohls account was blocked looked suspicious so just deleted. It was an obvious phish attempt. 

[imaglo52]

Walmart shopper they send you text then a check which bounces after you do the shop. I will never trust a secret shopper ad again! 

[c309076k]

I received a  voice mail from a 917 area code that I  was wanted for crimes that I was involved in.  Deletedcit.

[EricR484742]

Grandpa has been the victim of many scams and unnecessary purchases costing him big $$$. A Big Funeral company where grandpa had purchased a burial plot (paid over time) convinced him to buy insurance for the purpose of ensuring his burial plot gets paid off in the event he dies b4 the account is settled. And the beneficiary of the insurance policy was the Big Funeral company. This insurance "product" has the effect of making it harder to pay off the original account, thus increasing the likelihood the insurance policy will pay off...to Big Funeral! Warn your older family members of this Big Funeral practice.

[Gdnr]

Here is the scam:  https://www.aarp.org/money/budgeting-saving/info-2014/can-this-be-used-reused-quiz.html?cmp=EMC-DSO-...

It just doesn't work.  Pleassew add this to your list of scams.

[michaeld507004]

WELLS FARGO BANK ATM MALFUNCTION STEALS WELFARE AND DISABILITY MONEY ON 12/2/17! RENT IS NOW OVERDUE, FOOD CANNOT BE PURCHASED, WELLS FARGO HAS NOT RETURNED THE MONEY, NOR WILL THEY EVEN ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR ATM'S ERROR! Here are the details of Wells Fargo's responses: https://tcom10.wixsite.com/wfargonightmare https://twitter.com/Tcom08740 Please help by retweeeting so that others are made aware and are able to avoid this bank.

[kathytwoponies]

You know, some of us are here trying to protect our loved ones from being hurt. You know perfectly well that complaining about an AARP article is not a scam. YOU are getting in the way of us trying to figure out how to help our families on this scam related page, but instead you are whining and complaining instead of reporting a link that doesn't work. Does that make YOU a scammer? No, it makes you mean or lazy. But it doesn't make you a scammer.

[ch40972525]

Name: Heather Johsonwall from Humanity of Empowerment, supposedly home office in VA.

Asked for name, date of birth, email, next of kin, place of employment...said she would help get me a Grant from Government, once she had all this information, she started asking for $1000.00 & up for FREE GRANTS. I couldn't find any legit information through BBB, & now I don't know what to do.

[kathytwoponies]

did you give her the info? If so, first thing to do - contact your credit bureaus (all 3) and your banks. Get a freeze on your credit. Yes, it will cost a little, but save you many thousands.
Contact your bank.
Contact your credit card company.
Above all, contact the FTC with any info you have about them, and contact the IRS asking for a fraud letter.
I would also spring for an Identity protection service. (My info got hacked 5 different times through no fault of mine, so I monitor it like a hawk.)

If you didn't give any info, good for you, that makes it better. Be aware that if you did give them anything you may start getting more scam calls. I'm so sorry, but that's true. (It happened to my mom.)

[octavia84]

If you did not send them money, do not do anything. Block the call so they cannot contact you and change your e-mail account. If you sent them money, note the day amd time they called and try finding the phone number in your call history. You can ask your phone provider to help. Then, together with the address/way you sent them money, take the information to the police and file a complaint. The police department will guide you to how this complaint is handled.

Thanks for sharing.

[remlod]

Received a text message from "Chase Bank" telling me my debit card has been frozen due to suspicious activity and I should call a number listed to verify.

Called the number and got a response identical to the legit number.  When the electronic system asked for my SSN I hung up and called the number I had listed for Chase.

Got the same introduction and pressed 0 to get a human.

Explained what had just happened and discovered my Debit Card was not frozen and there had been no activity since the last transaction several days before.

At the suggestion of the Chase Rep I deleted the text message, did not record the requested phone number.

These scammers have duplicated the legitimate Chase phone protocol and are obviously phishing for SSN's.

DO NOT give your SSN to anyone that calls you.  Hang up and call a trusted number to verify who you are speaking to.

[abmicro839]

Watch out for fraudulent donation scams. You will hear or read about a tear jearking story on an online site to try to get you to donate. Sometimes it is via phone call. These scams run amuck after a disaster (like in Florida and Texas, and the recent California wildfires.)

Only donate to well established organizations like the Red Cross. OK, organizations have an administration expense, buy at least you know the donation will go to your cause and it is tax deductable.

[kathytwoponies]

Red Cross has hundreds and hundreds of volunteers. The administrative costs include storage of emergency supplies and training. I see folks ding larger organizations all the time. Now a cancer organization that only spends 4% of the take on research is suspect. (There is one, but you can double check any legitimate charity on Charity Navigator). Most take a reasonable percent to make things happen. Red Cross is reputable, that's why I volunteered there to help with the fire emergency shelter and the fire prevention activities in my town.

[EricR484742]

My grandfather worked for the Red Cross back in the 50's as their advertising rep. Thought u might enjoy this ad!

[GailL1]

@abmicro839

Although the deductions are NOT tax deductible usually, sometimes news cast or local newspapers might run a story about a person or family who need a "hand up" and they or some other entity have established a GoFundMe account.

After checking out the story, people can make donations to these specific GoFundMe account.

This is just another way of helping a person or family - remember banks use to set up accounts for them where donations could be made.  This is just the 21st century way.

[abmicro839]

No end to the robocalls from the "IRS". Answering one of these robocalls will pass you to somebody with a foreign accent, usually from India, saying taxes are overdue and you owe money that must be paid immediately via western union, money order, or iTunes cards.

I sometimes call back and give them fake answers to waste the fraudsters time. They always hang up and dont call me for a long time after that.

[octavia84]

I love the idea of giving false information. What I did one time is I talked about God, Salvation through Jesus and the importance of pro-life. The caller simply said thank you and hung up. 

But the best response is to simply say, and clearly, "Do not call this number. Take me off your list." Then hang up. The longer you talk and leave the line open, the more points your number gets and the more money they can get for your info. JHU! Just hang up!

[abmicro839]

No end to the Craigslist shipping scam. You sell something on craigslist. You get a buyer who will send you a money order for the goods.  (Money order will absolutely be fake.) A day or 2 later, he will ask you to western union some money so he can use his shipping company. Money order will bounce a few days later, but usually after the seller has already sent the fraudster some western union money.

[abmicro839]

Long time ago when I was single, went on a dating site and wrote to a gal and gave her my email contact. She sent a reply that looked fake, so I replied that it was fraud and please dont send me any more emails. I continued to get an email every month as if I had replied to all her messages in a positive way. Each message had a little more info about "her" with a new picture of "her". The final email asked me to western union some money to help "her" buy an airline ticket to meet me.

Clearly the emails were sent in automatically every month and the listing probably wasnt even a woman. Singles beware. The worst scams are on the online singles sites.

[se5769]

 This scam was new to me. I had applied for a position with Uber online and evidently all my information went out to every week website in the world offering part time employment. I get a call from someone saying they represent Nike and that they needed a mystery shopper in our area and after much back-and-forth it sounded legit I went for it. They were supposed they were to send me  The cost of the products I was to buy from Nike and also I was to go to Walmart and purchase a money gram and review the attendant at money gram. A week later a certified check arrived at my house by FedEx for $2950.50. I couldn’t figure out how the amount of money was correct so I got suspicious and I called the bank that the check  was issued on. The check was fraudulent. The whole thing was fraudulent. They were very professional except they would not talk to me on the phone which made me very suspicious. The scam is very well put together so be very careful if you get that call. You should be wary of pretty much any mystery shopper deal that’s out there. After all this happened I googled mystery shopper scams and was surprised to find that there are hundreds out there. Fair Warning.

[se5769]

 This scam was new to me. I had applied for a position with Uber online and evidently all my information went out to every week website in the world offering part time employment. I get a call from someone saying they represent a Nike and that they needed a mystery shopper in our area and after much back-and-forth it sounded legit I went for it. They were supposed they were to send me  The cost of the products I was to buy from Nike and also I was to go to Walmart and purchase a money gram and review the attendant at money gram. A week later a certified check arrived at my house by FedEx for $2950.50. I couldn’t figure out how the amount of money was correct so I got suspicious and I called the bank that the check  was issued on. The check was fraudulent. The whole thing was fraudulent. They were very professional except they would not talk to me on the phone which made me very suspicious. The scam is one very well put together so be very careful if you get that call. You should be wary of pretty much any mystery shopper deal that’s out there. After all this happened I googled mystery shopper scams and was surprised to find that there are hundreds out there. Fair Warning.

[GailL1]

@se5769

Always remember this:

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is the secure version of HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website that you are connected to. The 'S' at the end of HTTPS stands for 'Secure'. It means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted. HTTPS is often used to protect highly confidential online transactions like online banking and online shopping order forms.

Web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome also display a padlock icon in the address bar to visually indicate that a HTTPS connection is in effect.

https://www.instantssl.com/ssl-certificate-products/https.html

You should be able to check this BEFORE entering any sensitive info.

[a572886p]

Looking for a apartment in Los Angeles on Craigslist,  I responded to 2 different listings.   One in Santa Monica and another in San Fernando Valley.  They were reasonable,  allowed cats, had parking and sounded great.  Both sent replies to me, one from a man, the other a woman.   Both people had throat cancer, loved their home, and both verbatim said the exact same things about 2 different listings.   And yes drive by but don't contact the tenants.  Which is odd because they indicated that it was their home so the occupant would be them.  I also looked into renting a mobile home in a senior park prior to this and got a very similar response except that man was a missionary moving to Texas for biblical study.  The wording was close to the above emails.  The photo later turned out to be of a mobile home for sale by ReMax.  This was a total scam.  

[lauriee581631]

AUSLOGICS!  Supposed to be from HP, and Microsoft!  IT has all this stuff in it, like boost speed, and clean up files.  BULL!  Don't get taken like I did!  I paid $99.00 for a year.  Only had it for a month!  I tried calling the number and talked to everyone I could talk to!  THIS is one pissed off **bleep**!  Don't fall for it!  God help me, I have been through this so many times, YOU would think I'd know!  But all this new technology is overwhelming to someone my age!  Good luck all you people that do this all the time!

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@AARPLynne wrote:

Spotted a scam?  Tell us about it.  Our scam-tracking map gives you information about the latest scams targeting people in your state.  You’ll also find first-hand accounts from scam-spotters who are sharing their experiences so you know how to protect yourself and your family. Go to the Scam-Taking Map>>

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