Fraudulent Notifications

From the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)

The IC3 continues to receive reports of letters and emails being distributed pursuant to prize sweepstakes or lottery schemes. These schemes use counterfeit checks that bear legitimate-looking logos of various financial institutions to fool victims into sending money to the fraudsters.

Fraudsters tell victims they won a sweepstakes or lottery, but to receive a lump sum payout, they must pay the taxes and processing fees upfront. Fraudsters direct individuals to call a telephone number to initiate a letter of instructions. The letter alleges that the victim may elect to take an advance on the winnings to make the required upfront payment. The letter includes a check in the amount of the alleged taxes and fees, along with processing instructions. Ultimately, victims believe they are using the advance to make the required upfront payment, but in reality they are falling prey to the scheme.

The victim deposits the check into their own bank, which credits the account for the amount of the check before the check clears. The victim immediately withdraws the money and wires it to the fraudsters. Afterwards, the check proves to be counterfeit and the bank pulls the respective funds from the victim's account, leaving the victim liable for the amount of the counterfeit check plus any additional fees the bank may charge.

Persons may fall victim to this scheme due to the allure of easy money and the apparent legitimacy of the check the fraudsters include in the letter of instruction. The alleged cash prizes and locations of the financial institutions vary.

Tips to avoid being scammed:

• A federal statute prohibits mailing lottery tickets, advertisements, or payments to purchase tickets in a foreign lottery.

• Be leery if you do not remember entering a lottery or sweepstakes.

• Beware of lotteries or sweepstakes that charge a fee prior to delivering your prize.

• Be wary of demands to send additional money as a requirement to be eligible for future winnings.

If you have been a victim of this type of scam or any other cyber crime, you can report it to the IC3 at: www.IC3.gov. The IC3 complaint database links complaints for potential referral to law enforcement for case consideration. Complaint information is also used to identify emerging trends and patterns to alert the public to new criminal schemes.

Holiday Tips

Here are some tips from the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) you can use to avoid becoming a victim of cyber fraud:

• Do not respond to unsolicited (spam) email.
• Do not click on links contained within an unsolicited email.
• Be cautious of email claiming to contain pictures in attached files, as the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from known senders. Scan the attachments for viruses if possible.
• Avoid filling out forms contained in email messages that ask for personal information.
• Always compare the link in the email with the link to which you are directed and determine if they match and will lead you to a legitimate site.
• Log directly onto the official web site for the business identified in the email, instead of "linking" to it from an unsolicited email. If the email appears to be from your bank, credit card issuer, or other company you deal with frequently, your statements or official correspondence from the business will provide the proper contact information.
• Contact the actual business that supposedly sent the email to verify if the email is genuine.
• If you are asked to act quickly, or there is an emergency, it may be a scam. Fraudsters create a sense of urgency to get you to act quickly.
• Verify any requests for personal information from any business or financial institution by contacting them using the main contact information.
• Remember if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Secret Santa Fundraiser

Make Christmas special for a young child this year . . . be a Secret Santa!

Secret Santa Fundraiser


We were hit with our Counterfeit Cashier's Check Scam just before the holidays in 2002, and for a while we did not know where we were going to find the money to provide a magical Christmas for our then 2 and 9 year old children. Because of that, we created the Secret Santa Program, which allows you to donate money or gifts for a family who has recently been impacted by scams, and have young children.

We have made it easy for you to help out with this.  There are several ways you can donate
On Facebook, we have a Cause Page
Or go to our Donations Page to donate by PayPal
Or use our new GiveMN Fundraiser Page

Take a minute to remember others

With Thanksgiving over, and the Christmas shopping season in full swing we at Scam Victims United are asking you to remember others this year.  You can do this by sponsoring a family who has recently been hit with a counterfeit cashier's check scam, and make sure that the young children in that family still wake up with gifts under the tree.  We call this our Secret Santa Program, and if you are interested in being a part of it please contact Shawn. 

You can also help out by supporting Scam Victims United with a donation as small as the cost of a cup of coffee. 

Holidays ~ Fraudulent Classified Ads and Auction Sales

It seems like every year at the holidays the amount of crime goes up, and that is the same in the world of internet crime.  The Internet Crime Complaint Center put out a warning about some things to be on the look out for, and I am going to share one with you each day.

Fraudulent Classified Ads and Auction Sales

If you are one of those people who cannot stand the crouds at the malls and want to do all of your holiday shopping online, you need to watch out for fraudulent classifed ads and auction sales. 

Here is the advice that the IC3 offers

Internet criminals post classified ads and auctions for products they do not have, and make the scam work by using stolen credit cards. Fraudsters receive an order from a victim, charge the victim's credit card for the amount of the order, then use a separate, stolen credit card for the actual purchase. They pocket the purchase price obtained from the victim's credit card and have the merchant ship the item directly to the victim. Consequently, an item purchased from an online auction but received directly from the merchant is a strong indication of fraud. Victims of such a scam not only lose the money paid to the fraudster, but may be liable for receiving stolen goods.

Shoppers may help avoid these scams by using caution and not providing financial information directly to the seller, as fraudulent sellers will use this information to purchase items for their schemes. Always use a legitimate payment service to ensure a safe, legitimate purchase.

As for product delivery, fraudsters posing as legitimate delivery services offer reduced or free shipping to customers through auction sites. They perpetuate this scam by providing fake shipping labels to the victim. The fraudsters do not pay for delivery of the packages; therefore, delivery service providers intercept the packages for nonpayment and the victim loses the money paid for the purchase of the product.

Diligently check each seller's rating and feedback along with their number of sales and the dates on which feedback was posted. Be wary of a seller with 100% positive feedback, with a low total number of feedback postings, or with all feedback posted around the same date and time.

Congratulations IC3!

On November 9th, 2010 the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) logged it's 2 millionth customer!  This is an amazing number, especially when you consider that not all scams and fraud are even reported.

This is a good thing, since it means that people are reporting the scams, which will give the FBI, National While Collar Crime Center and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (the agencies that partnered together to form the IC3) more information to try and go after these people and help warn people about these scams.

The IC3 receives, develops, and refers cyber crime complaints to local, state, federal, and international law enforcement agencies. The IC3 gives cyber crime victims a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities of suspected criminal or civil violations.

Since its inception, the IC3 has referred 757,016 criminal complaints to law enforcement around the globe. The majority of referrals involved fraud in which the complainant incurred a financial loss. The total reported loss from these referrals is approximately $1.7 billion, with a median reported loss of more than $500 per complaint.*

Frustration, confusion, anger . . . the feelings of a scam victim

I just finished answering an email to a scam victim, and we were talking about the different feelings and emotions that come over a person who is a scam victim.  I wanted to share my email to that victim with you.  I don't really need to know the background on their story to understand my response to them.

I can relate to your frustration . . . I have been there!  Eight years ago at this time we were fighting our battle, and every time that I read the story of another person becoming a victim I am taken right back to the place I was when I found out that we lost thousands of dollars to this scam.  It puts you on an emotional roller coaster that you did not ask to get on . . . you were just thrown onto it. 

 At the time, I did not want to hear anyone tell me that our case would not be investigated and that the criminal would not be caught.  That is part of the reason that I started our website . . . I needed to shout our story out to the world.  I needed to feel like someone heard me.  Then, as the years passed I started to learn how things work . . . the big picture . . . and it really disgusted me that so many saw this as the victim's problem.  WHY!?!?!  If someone would have broken into my house with a gun, would it still have been my problem and not a legal problem?  If I went to the bank and was told that a loan would have a certain interest rate, and I later found out that it actually had another would that be my problem?  So why is it that the bank can tell me one thing (the check is good) but when it comes back that it is counterfeit THAT is my problem and not an error that THEY need to resolve?

 I have been in the place where I feel like I am going crazy over this topic too.  Maybe that is why I felt like our website needed to have a message board also, so that people can share their stories and we can all help each other heal.  Yes, we have to move on, but I feel that being a scam victim changes us so that we move on but it is always a part of us, and those of us that feel the need to help others have to share our story in order to warn others.

 It is the emails from people like you that remind me why we did what we did . . . creating the website, telling our story, trying to bring awareness and attention to these scams.  I think that we have made some progress over the years, but there is still so much that needs to be done.  

If you agree with us that more needs to be done to raise awareness about scams and fraud, I encourage you to contact your law makers and ask them to create laws that will protect people from these scams.  Make the banks liable when they tell the banking customer that the checks are good, clear or verified.  Not only can you write your own letter, you can sign our petition . . . make YOUR voice heard!

Massive Make-a-Wish Phone Scam Stealing Millions From American Elderly

From our friends at ScamNot.org

(This is from the Federal Citizen Information Center and is an article done by 20/20)

A massive phone scam exploiting the good name of the Make-A-Wish Foundation has siphoned more than $20 million from unsuspecting Americans and has been escalating in recent months. Authorities say it is fast becoming one of the ugliest telemarketing schemes to target the elderly in years.

Swindlers pretending to be calling from such government agencies as the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Trade Commission have put a new twist on an old con. They are hiding offshore, thousands of miles away, but they're using internet phone technology to disguise their location. Victims see a 202 area code on their phones when the calls come in, and dial seemingly authentic U.S. phone numbers to call the scammers back. "Unlike the standard telemarketing frauds . these weren't people hiding behind a phone number you couldn't call -- a voice you couldn't recreate. These were people who left telephone numbers and would talk to you," said the Make-A-Wish Foundation, who became alarmed when they started hearing from multiple victims a week about the fraudulent calls.

One team of con artists spoke with a senior citizen who fell for their scam, the owner of a Virginia modeling studio. They called her almost every day for more than a month. Eventually, they had persuaded her to send more than $300,000 through Western Union and Moneygram in what she thought were luxury taxes and insurance fees on the $1.1 million prize they promised would be arriving any day.

"She said, we've been trying to reach you.' Very, very warm. Very kind. 'There is money here for you . it is sitting here on my desk. And I am just determined this money is yours. And I just want to help you get it,'" victim recalled.

During a six-month investigation, ABC News obtained never-before published recordings of the phone calls and tracked down two fugitives who have been hiding in Costa Rica. The two men have been indicted in the scheme but avoided extradition because they also held Costa Rican citizenship.

The scammers allegedly set up dozens of boiler rooms so scammers could call into U.S. homes claiming to be awarding sweepstakes winnings from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The scammers made their money by convincing the victims to pay "luxury taxes" or "insurance" in advance on winnings they will never receive.

Boiler Room Raid

Federal prosecutors have alleged that the scammers reaped millions installing internet phone lines in the illegal call centers.

Federal officials thought they had extinguished the scam in 2006 when they conducted a dramatic raid on 16 boiler rooms in the Costa Rican capital of San Jose.

But U.S. authorities have marveled at the scale of the scam that has regenerated - believed to be the product of the Costa Rican citizens who remained free after the 2006 raid. And they say the potency of the swindle remains breathtaking. One early victim in Florida wired more than $800,000 to Costa Rica on the promise of a million-dollar sweepstakes check that would never arrive.

But among those most alarmed have been the officials who lead the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which relies on the trust of the public for its funding. Earlier this year, the non profit organization posted a fraud alert on its website.

"These people around hiding offshore -- willingly destroying people's lives by taking every nickel they can suck out of them. And they're using the good name of the Make-A-Wish Foundation to do it.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have set up a hotline for victims to call to report having been ripped off. It is 1-866-DHS-2ICE. The Federal Trade Commission has posted information about the scams and advice for victims on two special web pages here and here and has also been compiling a list of complaints for law enforcement agencies to pursue.

To read the complete story and hear the taped recordings click here

Scam Targeted Holocaust Survivors’ Fund

The title of this story sucked me in . . . Scam Targeted Holocaust Survivors’ Fund
I found this on the FBI site.  Here is the story in full.


For nearly six decades, a not-for-profit corporation known as The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany—or the Claims Conference—has been overseeing German government funds that assist Holocaust survivors.
So you can imagine our surprise and concern when we uncovered evidence that it had been the victim of fraud.
This afternoon at a New York City press conference, we announced that six corrupt Claims Conference employees in its Manhattan office—along with 11 other conspirators—have been charged in a decade-long scheme to defraud the organization and legitimate Holocaust victims out of more than $42 million.
The Claims Conference supervises several funds and processes thousands of applications a year. The two funds allegedly targeted for fraud were:

• The Article 2 Fund, which makes monthly payments of $411 to survivors of Nazi persecution who make less than $16,000 a year and who either lived in hiding or a Jewish ghetto for 18 months or were incarcerated for at least six months in a concentration or forced labor camp; and
• The Hardship Fund, which makes a one-time payment of approximately $3,600 to survivors forced to evacuate their hometowns and become refugees.

Applications by persons living in the U.S. are made to the Claims Conference’s office in Manhattan, usually by mail. The applicants provide identification documents, along with information about their family and experiences escaping Nazi persecution. Caseworkers with the Claims Conference verify an applicant’s history, often by checking external databases and archives, and sometimes through a personal interview. If approved for payment, a check is mailed to the applicant or electronically deposited into a bank account.

	Processing fingerprints during this morning’s arrests.

Claims Conference officials became suspicious of possible fraudulent activity within their organization in December 2009 and immediately contacted law enforcement. Our New York office began an investigation, with the full cooperation of the Claims Conference.
According to the criminal complaint filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York, here’s how the scheme generally worked:

• Driven by crooked Claims Conference employees, former employees and other conspirators would recruit people—some unwitting—who weren’t eligible for the program (mostly individuals of the Jewish faith in the Russian immigrant community) to take part in the fraud.
• To make it appear that applicants were eligible, identification documents were often altered (for example, a birth date was changed to make it appear that applicants were born during or before World War II) and fake Nazi persecution stories were often made up.
• Fraudulent applications were reviewed and approved by corrupt Claims Conference employees.
• Once the applicants received their money, they kept a portion but were instructed to pay certain “fees” using the rest—which of course ended up in the pockets of the conspirators. These “fees” were usually paid in the form of cash or money order.

Among those charged in the scheme are the former director of the Article 2 and Hardship Funds, other past and present Claims Conference employees, two law firm employees, a notary/document forger, and several other middlemen.
New York Assistant Director in Charge Janice Fedarcyk said that the victims of this scheme were “those who had already suffered at the hands of Nazi persecution only to have their experiences exploited again—this brazen miscarriage of the compensation program is, in its own way, a kind of crime against humanity.”

LoveFraud ~ Raising Awareness

I wanted to share something from the Love Fraud blog with all of you . . .

I believe that raising awareness of sociopaths is one of the best things we can do to improve our world. Sociopaths are probably responsible for most of the ills in our society: crime, violence, neglect, abuse. Sociopaths with political power start wars. Sociopaths with economic power exploit workers, defile the environment, ruin companies and defraud customers and shareholders. Sociopathic parents cause untold pain for their children. Sociopaths who portray themselves as religious leaders cause incredible spiritual damage. The ways in which they wreak havoc appear to be limitless.

I agree with Donna, of LoveFraud.com

She is asking for people to take things to the next level, and she outlines her ideas and goals in a recent blog post.  Just like her, we at ScamVictimsUnited.com are looking to make a change.  We have a petition where we are asking law makers to do the right thing and change the laws to protect consumers.

Internet Dating

Dating is hard . . . now add the internet to that and you can really complicate things. It is much easier for people to not be totally honest about who they are when they are just contacting you over the internet.

This is why you need to be very careful as to who you give your heart to, especially when it comes to the internet.

Here are a couple of sites that talk more about Internet Dating and Romance Scams.
http://alanprince.wordpress.com/
http://datescam.co.uk/frauduk/

Take this quiz!

Check out your scam IQ with this quiz from the United States Postal Inspectors site at http://www.deliveringtrust.com/index.php

You can also learn more about common scams, and look at the top 10 ways to prevent fraud.

BP oil spill scam email

With every disaster, there is a new scam email to go along with it.  I was surprised when I did not see one just after the big BP oil spill, but I finally had the email show up in my inbox.  Here it is.

 

RE: BP Oil Spill Compensational Fund Promotions


British Petrochemical (BP) p.l.c.
International Headquarters
1 St James's Square
London, SW1Y 4PD
UK


Reference Number: 25512560/30

BP is a global group of energy and petrochemical companies. With 104,000 employees in more than 110 countries, we play a key role in helping to meet the world’s growing demand for energy in economically, environmentally and socially responsible ways. You must have seen and read in the media about the devastating oil spill that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, we like to state emphatically, that BP is doing everything we can to make things right. We feel a great burden and responsibility for the oil spill that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, Our core values of honesty, integrity and respect for people have formed the basis of our General Business Principles for 30 years and remain as important as ever. We are convinced that our short- and long-term business success depends on finding environmentally and socially responsible ways to help meet the world’s future energy needs.

To show our love and regard for the inhabitants of this beautiful word that gives us the mineral resources in which our organization derives its great financial capital base, the Department of International Awareness/Promotions of BP is giving away £450,000.00 GBP as a commiserative compensational fund to the lucky winner in or promotional exercise. In line with that, we in the Department of International Awareness/Promotions wish to congratulate you on the selection of your email id from our computerized balloting system as the lucky winner in our Oil Spill Compensational Fund Promotions.

This makes you the proud winner of cash prize of £450,000.00 GBPs (Four Hundred and Fifty Thousand Great British Pounds). In order to redeem your prize, send the below listed details to the given email address: bp_p.l.c@w.cn


1.) Full Name:
2.) Current Address:
3.) Country:
4.) Age:
5.) Sex:
6.) Occupation:
7.) Phone Number:
8.) Reference Number: 25512560/30


Your email will be attended to by Mr. David Anderson, who is Head of International Awareness/Promotions Department in our London Head Office. Once again you are reminded to send the requested details to us for acknowledgment, through the given email address: bp_p.l.c@w.cn or just simply click reply to and proceed in the sending of the above requested details.


Once Again Congratulations!!


London Head Office
British Petrochemical (BP) p.l.c.
Summed up by two words 'beyond petroleum'

Foreclosure Rap

I found this on another blog and had to share it with all of you.