Oct
6
Complaint Boards Are Chalked Full Of Complaints Related To ID Theft Scams, Don’t You Become A Victim
Filed Under Internet | Leave a Comment
Lionheart Assurance Solutions asked:
Putting measures into place to avoid an identity theft scam at your business probably does not cross your mind very much, if at all, especially if you consider your business to be a quote-unquote small business; however, complaint boards all over the Internet are packed full of complaints related to identity theft and fraud. If you think crooks only target individuals or large corporations, then think again. In reality, even small businesses can be the target of identity fraud. People can use your business identity or secure your list of customers in order to rip off the public or perform other criminal activities both online and offline. Here are some ways in which you can protect your business and your customers from such scams, frauds and ripoffs.
Getting to know how criminals operate is a good way on how to avoid identity theft fraud at your business. Although the most publicized cases of corporate identity thefts being reported are about crooks stealing customer information from the database of large companies, hacking is not the only threat to your business. In fact, cheating and getting access from inside your system is also a big headache. Some online scam artists will try to rip off your customers by pretending to be representatives of your company or even phish information or identities of your present employees to get to you. There are things that criminals can do to twist the arms of your employees, even your most trusted ones, just to squeeze the information they want regarding you, your customers and your business.
So, what can you do on how to avoid identity theft fraud at your business? Make sure that you invest in good software that will prevent viruses, malwares and spywares from entering your company’s computer database. You need such security measures to ensure that you are protected from outside hackers and ripoffs. In order to protect yourself from the inside, you need to be more careful with the people you hire. Also, take the time to inform your employees about the growing threat of identity theft fraud and tell them how they can detect criminals trying to phish information from them. In addition, it is important that you do not allow personal emails, external messaging applications and other personal activities on your company’s computer network. Perhaps if your employees understand how these things are threatening, they won’t feel as if you are attempting to stifle them personally.
Financial liability is one of the biggest impacts of being a victim of corporate identity theft. To protect yourself from financial repercussions and scams, you should find an assurance agency that will help cover loses and other related expenses in case problems regarding hacking and identity theft arise.
ROLANDO
Putting measures into place to avoid an identity theft scam at your business probably does not cross your mind very much, if at all, especially if you consider your business to be a quote-unquote small business; however, complaint boards all over the Internet are packed full of complaints related to identity theft and fraud. If you think crooks only target individuals or large corporations, then think again. In reality, even small businesses can be the target of identity fraud. People can use your business identity or secure your list of customers in order to rip off the public or perform other criminal activities both online and offline. Here are some ways in which you can protect your business and your customers from such scams, frauds and ripoffs.
Getting to know how criminals operate is a good way on how to avoid identity theft fraud at your business. Although the most publicized cases of corporate identity thefts being reported are about crooks stealing customer information from the database of large companies, hacking is not the only threat to your business. In fact, cheating and getting access from inside your system is also a big headache. Some online scam artists will try to rip off your customers by pretending to be representatives of your company or even phish information or identities of your present employees to get to you. There are things that criminals can do to twist the arms of your employees, even your most trusted ones, just to squeeze the information they want regarding you, your customers and your business.
So, what can you do on how to avoid identity theft fraud at your business? Make sure that you invest in good software that will prevent viruses, malwares and spywares from entering your company’s computer database. You need such security measures to ensure that you are protected from outside hackers and ripoffs. In order to protect yourself from the inside, you need to be more careful with the people you hire. Also, take the time to inform your employees about the growing threat of identity theft fraud and tell them how they can detect criminals trying to phish information from them. In addition, it is important that you do not allow personal emails, external messaging applications and other personal activities on your company’s computer network. Perhaps if your employees understand how these things are threatening, they won’t feel as if you are attempting to stifle them personally.
Financial liability is one of the biggest impacts of being a victim of corporate identity theft. To protect yourself from financial repercussions and scams, you should find an assurance agency that will help cover loses and other related expenses in case problems regarding hacking and identity theft arise.
ROLANDO
Aug
21
How to Report a Case of EBay Fraud
Filed Under Internet | Leave a Comment
Michael Ford asked:
eBay is a wonderful and obviously very popular place to buy and sell items. However, there are times when fraud does occur. If this happens to you, you might wonder what your next step should be, or if you have any recourse.
Once you have determined that you are dealing with a case of fraud, you may wonder, who can you turn to?
The FBI or attorney general’s office in your state is unlikely to be helpful unless the case involves a large amount of money, say for over $100,000. Local law enforcement will not be helpful unless the other party is in the same state.
The Better Business Bureau is not a government organization. They collect money from businesses listed on their sites. They will not investigate and will never recover any money for you.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will allow you to file a complaint online at ftc.gov; however, this information is kept for statistical reasons and no one will investigate your case.
What you should do is immediately file a fraud report at the Auction-Safety organization website. Filing a report there will give you more specific information on what you should do next and who you should contact next.
If you paid by PayPal then you should file for a payment reversal as soon as you suspect something is not right. If it turns out there was a mistake or misunderstanding, you can always cancel the reversal at PayPal or resend the payment. If you paid by credit card, you should have at least 30 days to file a complaint and recover your money.
If your eBay or PayPal account has been compromised (unusual transfers to/from PayPal, auctions posted using your account or strange emails from eBay) you should immediately change both your eBay and PayPal passwords, then contact both companies.
After reporting the fraud, or even if you have traded safely and successfully, it is important to remain vigilant since personal information gathered during an eBay transaction can be used later in a case of “real world” fraud.
Both eBay buyers and sellers should be very careful of any telemarketers or unusual postal mail or emails they receive after an auction transaction. Scammers may offer inexpensive items for sale on eBay to collect buyer information, or they may buy inexpensive items from sellers for the purpose of collecting the seller’s personal address and phone number. The scammer now has a name, address, and phone number associated with an eBay ID.
A scammer can then send customized emails that look exactly like real eBay emails and include your name to make them look authentic. They could also use various telemarketing tricks by calling your phone number and pretending to be a company you know or to have something of interest to you now that they know your auction interests. They will say your name and address to ‘verify’ they are legitimate.
Of course, they will never say that they obtained your information from an auction and will try to obtain more information from you, such as personal financial information or credit card numbers.
If your Caller ID shows “Out Of Area” or “Unavailable” it means the caller is intentionally hiding who they are and you should never trust anything they say.
To protect yourself from such “after eBay real-world” fraud attempts, make sure you have registered your phone number at the government site DoNotCall.gov. This is a listing of phone numbers that telemarketers are legally prohibited from calling. If you sign up on this list and a telemarketer calls you, then you know they are trying to scam you because honest telemarketers will not call numbers on the Do Not Call list. You can report violations of the Do Not Call list because that is a federal crime.
TYSON
eBay is a wonderful and obviously very popular place to buy and sell items. However, there are times when fraud does occur. If this happens to you, you might wonder what your next step should be, or if you have any recourse.
Once you have determined that you are dealing with a case of fraud, you may wonder, who can you turn to?
The FBI or attorney general’s office in your state is unlikely to be helpful unless the case involves a large amount of money, say for over $100,000. Local law enforcement will not be helpful unless the other party is in the same state.
The Better Business Bureau is not a government organization. They collect money from businesses listed on their sites. They will not investigate and will never recover any money for you.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will allow you to file a complaint online at ftc.gov; however, this information is kept for statistical reasons and no one will investigate your case.
What you should do is immediately file a fraud report at the Auction-Safety organization website. Filing a report there will give you more specific information on what you should do next and who you should contact next.
If you paid by PayPal then you should file for a payment reversal as soon as you suspect something is not right. If it turns out there was a mistake or misunderstanding, you can always cancel the reversal at PayPal or resend the payment. If you paid by credit card, you should have at least 30 days to file a complaint and recover your money.
If your eBay or PayPal account has been compromised (unusual transfers to/from PayPal, auctions posted using your account or strange emails from eBay) you should immediately change both your eBay and PayPal passwords, then contact both companies.
After reporting the fraud, or even if you have traded safely and successfully, it is important to remain vigilant since personal information gathered during an eBay transaction can be used later in a case of “real world” fraud.
Both eBay buyers and sellers should be very careful of any telemarketers or unusual postal mail or emails they receive after an auction transaction. Scammers may offer inexpensive items for sale on eBay to collect buyer information, or they may buy inexpensive items from sellers for the purpose of collecting the seller’s personal address and phone number. The scammer now has a name, address, and phone number associated with an eBay ID.
A scammer can then send customized emails that look exactly like real eBay emails and include your name to make them look authentic. They could also use various telemarketing tricks by calling your phone number and pretending to be a company you know or to have something of interest to you now that they know your auction interests. They will say your name and address to ‘verify’ they are legitimate.
Of course, they will never say that they obtained your information from an auction and will try to obtain more information from you, such as personal financial information or credit card numbers.
If your Caller ID shows “Out Of Area” or “Unavailable” it means the caller is intentionally hiding who they are and you should never trust anything they say.
To protect yourself from such “after eBay real-world” fraud attempts, make sure you have registered your phone number at the government site DoNotCall.gov. This is a listing of phone numbers that telemarketers are legally prohibited from calling. If you sign up on this list and a telemarketer calls you, then you know they are trying to scam you because honest telemarketers will not call numbers on the Do Not Call list. You can report violations of the Do Not Call list because that is a federal crime.
TYSON