October 2008 Archives

Confusion is a scammer's best friend. They prey on seniors and other vulnerable people who may not be fully switched on to what's happening around them.

For evidence, in this week's roundup of the scam headlines we take the lid off the global scale of so-called grandparent scams, and we show how crooks are also using the current banking crisis as a lever for crime.

We also have reports of a phony Microsoft security update, a new prize-winning trick linked to "miracle cure" pills and a bogus credit con using doctored gift cards.

And then there's the bogus book-seller who tried to scam a police chief's wife.

Maybe it's because we're almost at Halloween that our weekly search through the scam headlines turned up a couple of interesting stories about people who've passed over to the other side.

But there's more scary stuff from the living too. We report on two recent home rental scams, including a couple of incidents where owners return from vacation to find renters have moved in!

We also have news of an attack on 10,000 users of a social networking service, a new trick for bilking car renters -- and a $236m judgment against spammers.

Today we begin with a really low scam from people whose homes are in foreclosure. We also have a couple new variations of long-practiced scams and news of how a group of would-be money savers were tricked into paying a fortune for groceries and a supposedly free refrigerator.

Plus, we've the story of the Florida snake-charmers who spray their "snowbird" victims then rob them.

It's no surprise that identity theft is the number one fear of most Americans. As this week's roundup of the scam headlines shows, ID thieves are everywhere and they don't care about their targets -- even when these victims are already down on their luck.

We also bring you news of a new version of a scam known as "clickjacking", which all web browsers are vulnerable to, plus a "clever" scam for getting someone else to pay for cell phone credits.

And then there's the real dirty distraction trick which robbed a customer of $10,000 -- while he was in the bank!