August 2008 Archives

Nobody follows the news more closely than scammers. Special events, reports of tragedies and other incidents fire up the criminal mind. It seems that for every news story there's a matching scam -- a plausible opportunity to rip-off the public.

In this week's round-up of the scam headlines, we show how three news items are being exploited to try to con people either out of money or their confidential information.

We also have the lowdown on two bare-faced cons where the criminals just ask victims to leave their money for collection outside their homes. Plus, we've news of a big phishing attack masquerading as a Hotmail security alert and a con-trick that offers you a driver's license that can never be suspended.

Two large-scale global scams have hit the headlines during the past couple of weeks, underlining the scale of card card number theft and Internet fraud.

First, we have the disclosure that tens of millions of debit and credit card numbers have been stolen by an international gang and used to withdraw huge sums of money.

Second, after ripping off victims to the tune of millions of dollars for bogus, non-existent tickets to the Beijing Olympic Games, scammers are still hard at it trying to exploit the global popularity of the event to their advantage.

Scamlines readers won't have fallen for the tickets scam because we warned about it long ago. Now we're updating you with news of their latest, insidious tricks.

Also among this week's round up of the scam headlines, we have reports of tricksters who claim they've found missing persons and the story of a restaurant owner who handed over $4,000 cash to a man in a parking lot and never saw him again.

Spates of utility company scams and investment cons dominate this week's roundup of the scam headlines.

Sometimes the scammers play on victims' fears; other times they target their ignorance. Sometimes they're after money; other times they want personal financial details they can use elsewhere.

We also have a sad story of how a couple, desperate to be Mom and Dad, were tricked into paying for a phantom pregnancy, and the tale of a bogus wastepaper collector whose favorite charity was his back pocket.

A huge new wave of bank-related phishing scams is sweeping through North America and Europe, claiming thousands of victims.

Mostly, the scams are the familiar sort where victims get an email or phone message, with a link to a bogus website where they're asked to provide personal financial details.

What is unusual is the scale of the outbreak, with scores of local communities being targeted, all within the past couple of weeks. It's not known if the individual attacks are connected with each other.

In one case, scammers are trying a new multi-bank approach that experts fear could lead to a massive haul of stolen identities and financial losses of over $1M.

We also have news of two new prizewinner-type cons, a scam to trick people into paying for making benefits claims, and the story of the hoaxer who claimed he was Frank Sinatra's grandson!