June 2008 Archives

Whenever there's something new and unknown on the horizon, you can count on scammers to cash in on the confusion. That's what's happening right now with the planned switch-off of analog TV transmissions next year.

In this week's round up of scam headlines, we show how rip-off merchants are four-times overcharging for digital TV converters. Meanwhile, other con artists have been using scare stories about the Iraq war and a fire on the Statue of Liberty to fool their victims.

In our collection of 8 new scams this week, we've also uncovered a cunning phony sting on convenience stores and two interesting variations of established frauds -- the mystery shopper and domain name scams.

As if they're determined to prove they have no conscience at all, scammers love to hit their victims when they're already down and out. So we weren't surprised to pick up news reports from across the Midwest this week where evil tricksters are preying on victims of the floods.

Another favorite ruse is to cash-in on people who do have a conscience by passing themselves off as charity workers. Charity cons are commonplace but we were shocked to discover how young the scammers are these days -- in one case, a girl of 12.

In fact, we've got news of two charity scams, two new phishing scams and a clutch of other tricks in this week's Scamlines round-up. In total, we've got eight new scams to report -- plus news of a hoax to watch out for.

Get the lowdown and be prepared for when these scammers turn up in your town -- as they surely will.

Sometimes, crooks go to elaborate lengths to make their scams seem more believable, as the first two of the incidents reported in this week's Scamlines demonstrate.

Our trawl through the headlines also turned up two versions of one of the most basic scams that still claims scores of victims every day -- selling forged or non-existent tickets -- as well as three new variations of phishing tricks.

And we've uncovered a phony betting tip alert, plus a new outbreak of data "kidnapping." In all, we've nine new scams to warn you about. They happened all over the world, but remember, your city could be next on the criminals' hit list.

Scams that operate just inside the framework of the law feature in this week's Scamlines roundup. We've two cases -- one in Canada, another in Australia -- where legitimate companies try to fool victims into paying for something they don't really want.

We also have the lowdown on a fascinating land fraud in Japan that could just as easily happen in any other country and news of a new outbreak of a nasty and costly scam we've reported on before -- fraudulent online escrow funds.

But it's not all bad news. Investigators announce they've busted a huge, international ring of scammers believed responsible for thousands of phishing/identity theft attacks in the US.

There's a distinctly British flavor to this week's round-up of the latest scam headlines, with new frauds and tricks turning up in various parts of the UK and beyond. Of course, many of these cons are familiar to readers in the US and elsewhere because scams know no boundaries. If they haven't arrived in your town yet, you can be sure they will!

Keeping up the international flavor, we've also uncovered a cheeky traffic ticket scam in South Africa. And picking up on one of the British headlines, we've a spate of distraction burglary scams to tell you about, plus a new tax con, and a wedding gift scam involving a famous celebrity.

As you can tell, we've got lots of scam news for you this week, so let's get started!