Nate's Computer Services » scams

More Scams

admin — Fri, 13 May 2011 20:10:17 +0000

Fraud in Pequot Lakes

http://brainerddispatch.com/news/2011-05-12/fraud-strikes-pequot-residents

Be Alert for Scams

http://brainerddispatch.com/news/2011-04-14/people-need-be-alert-potential-scams

I have also recently heard of a person that was Slammed- local telephone got switched without knowing and telephone got shut off.

Info on phone fraud http://www.ag.state.mn.us/Consumer/Phone/PhoneHnbk/PhoneHnbk_3.asp#PhoneFraud

My issues with Photo Piracy

admin — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 08:39:59 +0000

Back in April 5, 2008 I took a photo of an overpass and its landscaping work in Onamia MN since a customer recommended me to take it because of the good landscaping example (erosion control). At the time, I was trying to take photos almost daily and pick out the best photo of the day and post it on Flickr.

Later on I found out it was used in propaganda by Senators Tom Coburn and John McCain without my permission. They used it on a report against bike trails. They did credit the photo, but not properly. It was an insult to my hometown, and a transportation option I and many others enjoy. It had misleading information including information about our representative in congress. Also At the same time I found out about an inline skater killed crossing a road while on a trail near me.

The whole situation bothered me quite a bit, but I am not getting a lawyer for it since I cannot afford one. I am glad for the Flickr user who pointed this out, I’m sure there are many others that have misused my photos but not to this extent. Later, I never renewed my Flickr pro account (there wasn’t much pro about it).

It has not stopped me from taking photos, but I have been slower to post them on the web.

Untrusted Advertising for small businesses

admin — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 07:40:02 +0000

1st if you get a call with caller id blocked or unfamiliar area code (especially if you mainly deal with people locally) you may want to ignore the phone call and let it go to voice mail.

If you get a phone call for advertising check:

Have you heard of this company or used this product? If you haven’t then it is likely not good for your business.
Do they force you to make a decision on the phone, or even automatically sign you up? Don’t trust them
If you don’t trust them say no (or no thanks) and hang up. If they call again don’t answer.

Examples of advertising that does not usually work well:

Print advertising that is self distributed or limited distribution(such as given away at businesses), These can be maps, magnets, directories, phone book covers, or fliers. If you haven’t seen the product in your hands before then it probably isn’t worth it.
online advertising that you have not heard of(online only yellow pages). If you haven’t heard of them, or any one you know has heard of them then it probably isn’t worth it.
very short radio or cable tv spots. Not very many people will remember a 10 second or less ad run twice.

Make sure if you are planning on advertising online you have seen the site if you are planning on advertising. My company offers online only advertising, and there are businesses that have seen successful results from it. If you are planning on advertising online you may even want to sign up online there are many now that are self serve. be sure that they have a good reputation.

Phone verification after ordering item online

admin — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 07:01:06 +0000

Be weary of phone verifications after order is placed, they may try to sell you additional items. Sometimes it is necessary, or additional products may be necessary, but normally it isn’t. If the additional products were necessary they should have told you that on the web.

Be very weary of phone calls saying your credit card was declined in an order. They may be trying to increase the order amount or get your number to hold on to.

Be careful about giving your credit card number or account number out in a public place or written on paper.

Stolen web mail address

admin — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 05:59:08 +0000

It is becoming more and more common for email addresses especially free web mail addresses to get stolen by another person. Those addresses are then used for spam or fraud such as phishing schemes.
Targeted accounts include hotmail.com, msn.com, live.com, yahoo.com and gmail.com. Sometimes if you are lucky you might be able to get your password back with the forgot my password option or by calling support. Other times you have to start fresh with a new address. Microsoft free accounts are hardest to get back, their paid accounts can be easier to get back.
The thefts sometimes send out spoof emails trying to get passwords and use spoof web sites to get your password. Sometimes they simply guess at your password or your forgot your password secret question.

To try to avoid getting your email stolen:

Make you’re password hard to guess. Use special characters or punctuation, lower case and capital letters, and numbers.
Avoid single word passwords
Make sure your forgot your password option is something only you know and cannot be easily guessed.
Use different passwords at different sites.
Be careful where you enter your password.
If you have your own computer, try to have both your email, and contacts backed up locally on your computer so you can be up and running if you need a new account.
Check your email often to make sure it is working.

Be Careful and Good Luck!

Web Site About Fraud

admin — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 10:21:10 +0000

I recently received a pamphlet about fraud from the US Postal Inspection Service in the mail. In case you may have missed it they have set up a web site http://www.deliveringtrust.com/ .

Thoughts on Forwards

admin — Thu, 13 May 2010 09:56:02 +0000

There is one thing that bothers me more than junk email (spam) when it comes to email. Misuse of forwards FWD FW.

Email Forwards are usually sent by people you know and trust. However many times the information in forwards is not trustworthy and may not even be what your friend or relative actually thinks.
Many forwards I get have completely made up information, that can be easily be found to be false or partially false with just a little fact checking.
I have found an interesting and useful urban legends web site that deals with some of these http://www.snopes.com
Even though an email may be true at one time, parts can be changed to make it at least partially untrue.
Some forwards have very controversial information or opinions – many anonymous or miscredited.
Some forwards say you have to forward to so many people or say that you have to give it back to show you’re really a friend. This can be a good way to spread annoying emails. Do you really have to reply to a forward, that they didn’t write, to show you are a friend? Some of these emails say you’ll get something free for sending so many – I have never found that to be true.
Some forwards are fill in the blank and forward. This might be giving too much information out.
Some forwards have copyrighted text and images that might be illegally redistributed.
One misuse of forwards is redistributing a private conversation. This can be very hurtful to some people.
Another misuse related to forwarding is telling everyone to write to one particular person, which can overwhelm someone.
Many forwards are basically chain letters. Chain letters are of course illegal to send in the US Mail. Email is still fairly unregulated (or hard to regulate) and unsecured. I would advise people to avoid sending these forwarded emails.
After a while the people that send me forwards, I usually ask them to stop sending it.

Scams, Solicitation, and Phishing

admin — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 06:27:05 +0000

There are many scams, unwanted solicitations, and phishing schemes.
They can be found on the web, come in your email, your mail, and on the phone, even to your door. Many times they come from companies or individuals you haven’t heard of. Sometimes they are from well known companies and organizations.
My personal Examples of unknown company:
- Non-local Advertising Companies: I received a phone call saying it was from Crow Wing County. Turned out it was a company that called itself Universal Adcom/ Premier Impressions calling from another state. I fell for this. There was an actual product, but there was limited distribution, so there were no results. They were very hard to deal with and very pushy. It was hard to cancel and they kept calling me many times after canceling.
- I dealt with several other non-local advertising companies that had similar situations and no results, however they were easy to cancel. I will no longer deal with them.
- Things I learned:
  - Beware when caller id is blocked.
  - Don’t answer or answer and be very cautious.
  - Beware of businesses that you haven’t heard of and are not local.
  - Don’t do a deal with someone that forces a deal done the same day.
  - Say no thanks Hang up.
  - If they call back consider calling the police.
My personal example of problems from well known companies/organizations:
- The Better Business Bureau in the Twin Cities solicited me about joining. I had a person from there that said I needed to join telling me a story about how someone got killed. There was some miscommunication that she thought I had an employee, so she also quoted me a higher price to join. She kept calling me to join later a couple times. Later another nicer person from there called about joining but the bad thing from before and the price still high made it a no go.
- Beware of Introductory prices for Internet, Cable and Telephone. Many times bills go up in price, sometimes more than double.
- Beware of Free (especially mail offers)
- Beware of contracts for Internet, Cable mobile/land line phone. Sometimes a may be cheaper to pay out of a mobile phone contract then to continue with that company. Many times people buy more phone minutes than they actually use, costing them money.
Internet Scams:
- Fake antiviruses, Fake Antispyware. Utilities that aren’t needed.
- File sharing – people share files that are actually trojans, and spyware that may look like music or video
- Work at home, and other easy money – There actually are some people that work at home, but there are many schemes on the internet, in newspapers, and on TV
- Beware of the content you go to: Porn Sites and Illegal file sharing sites are some examples of sites that cause more trouble than just what they are.
Email/mail/phone/text scams:
- Taking care of money/Nigerian/out of country letter
- Lottery winning
- Bank account frozen/verifications – Banks hardly ever do this. These are almost always scams.
- Certain forwards from people you know may also be scams.
- Fake invoices/bills
Avoid publicly posting/submitting personal information, if possible. Telephone numbers and addresses can be used to send solicitations. Social Security number, and credit/debit card/bank number be very careful who you give to and if given on the internet make sure it is a secure connection. Birth date with year should be careful too.
Make sure your email provider/email program has a good spam and phishing filter.
Look at web addresses and names carefully
Look for misspellings in names, addresses and content
Be very careful about meeting someone. If you do decide to meet, consider meeting in a public place.

There will be more on this topic in the future.