scam (51)
Once again, tax time has rolled around, and though you technically have until April 15th, it’s always best to file a bit earlier…especially if you want to avoid setting yourself up for ID theft.
How Could Filing Taxes Compromise Your Identity?
Here’s how you could become a victim of ID theft just by filing your taxes: the first method is that a thief uses your Social Security number to file taxes, and then they steal your refund. The second method that they use is they take your Social Security nu
Hackers are making a lot of money thanks to phishing attacks these days, and now they are also focusing on gift card scams. One of the most notorious scam groups, Scarlet Widow, which is out of Nigeria, has been boosting its efforts to scam people with gift cards since 2015. This group generally focuses on people in the UK and US and also is known for tax scams, romance scams, and rental cons.
Are you at risk of getting scammed by Scarlet Widow? The group generally focuses on medium to large US b
Approximately 885 million digital documents have been exposed from mortgage deals that date back to 2003. First American Financial Corp is a provider of title insurance, as well as other services for the mortgage and real estate industries, and it allowed millions of records to be exposed according to one report.
The exposure is likely to put a variety of bank account statements and account numbers at risk, as well as Social Security numbers, tax records, wire transaction receipts, mortgage recor
One of the biggest threats that taxpayers are facing these days is an aggressive scam where criminals call victims and pretend to be IRS agents. The goal? To steal money.
All year but especially during tax filing season, the IRS will see a big surge in the number of scam calls, which tell victims that they will be arrested, deported, or have their driver’s license revoked if they don’t pay a fake tax bill.
How the Scams Work
These scammers make calls to people and claim to be from the IRS. They inf
Riviera Beach, a city in Florida, has agreed to pay a $600,000 ransom to hackers who attacked its network.
This week, the City Council voted to pay the demands after coming up with no other option to meet the demands of the hackers. It seems that the hackers got access to the system when a staff member clicked on a link in an email, which uploaded malware to the network. The malware disabled the city’s email system, direct deposit payroll system and 911 dispatch system.
According to Rose Anne Brow
WTH Facebook? Generally, I don’t have a problem giving out my SSN. That might seem contrary to the advice I give, but frankly, our SSNs are everywhere and if my insurance company needs it, I’ll generally just question them on it, maybe resist a bit, and if they insist, and I need that insurance policy, I’ll cough it up.
My identity in regards to “new account fraud” is protected via a credit freeze and I also have identity theft protection in place. So between the two, I’m pretty locked down. This
I put an ad on Craigslist to sell a refrigerator that I no longer need. Within a few minutes I’m happy to report Micheal responded to buy it!
SCAMMER: Hi am Micheal I like to ask if this item is till available for sale and what the present condition it.
ME: Still for sale, someone is interested tho, its like new, 5 months.
SCAMMER: Thanks for the information Joshua I am interested in buying and closing this deal before anybody else the easiest mode of payment for me is by sending you a cashier c
When you think of a cybercriminal, you probably picture someone in a black hoodie in a dark room on the dark web, but most cybercriminals are out there in plain sight, including on Facebook.
Talos, a cybersecurity firm, found that people can easily join Facebook groups, and then participate in cybercrime including buying and selling credit card info, obtaining spamming tools, or even getting account logins and passwords. All in all, these groups have almost 400,000 members.
Though that does sound
Evaldas Rimasauskas, a Lithuanian man, became very rich. How? He is a criminal who used his lying skills to get more than $100 million from companies such as Facebook and Google between 2013 and 2015.
He’s now in jail, but during his trial, Rimasauskas admitted that he was guilty of several crimes including money laundering, wire fraud and identity theft. According to court records, Rimasauskas created a Latvian company called Quanta Computer Incorporated, which was the same name as a computer ha
Do you fancy yourself a spy and wondering how you can monitor someone else’s cell phone? You won’t get that information here, but there is some good info on cell phone monitoring if you keep reading:
The Legalities of Tracking Cell Phones
Generally, it is not legal to monitor a cell phone that does not belong to you. However, generally speaking, and THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE, if the account is under your name or if you have written permission from the person who owns the phone, you can track it.
Why
Humans have evolved a new body part: the cell phone. One day it will be part of anatomical illustrations of the body in health and medical books probably an appendage on your head. I’m not a Dr. so don’t quote me.
For now, we have to figure out a way to keep this appendage juiced up without being lured into a data-sucking battery-charge station.
There’s even a name for this kind of crime: juice jacking. The kiosk is designed to appear like a legitimate battery charging station, when in fact, it wi
So maybe Christmas now means the very predictable gift card swap, but hey, who can’t use a gift card? But beware, there are a ton of scams. This includes physical, not just digital, gift cards.
Regardless of who gave you the card, you should always practice security measures. Below are two common ways that fraudsters operate.
Transform Gift Card to Cash Twice.
If someone gives you a $200 gift card to an electronics store and then it’s stolen, you technically have lost money, as this is the same as
Have you ever used Facebook to sign onto another site? Many of us do this pretty blindly simply because it is very convenient. But, this convenience could come at a cost.
You know the drill. You go to a website and it says “Log In With Facebook.” or Google. Usually, it just takes a couple of clicks and no logging in with other usernames or passwords. However, when you do this, Facebook essentially becomes your online identity. This means that anyone who knows these credentials have access to your
Where should you live in the world? What Game of Thrones family are you in? What is the food that best describes your personality? All of these answers are given and found by doing quizzes on Facebook. You have surely seen them if you use Facebook, and have may have taken these quizzes, but you definitely might want to consider stopping. If you have ever used one of these quizzes, you have probably given these third-party apps permission to access some of your personal data. Not only does this a
If you are thinking of jumping onto the Bitcoin bandwagon, or any type of cryptocurrency, you have to make sure that you are watching out for scams. There are a ton of them out there, including the following:
Fake Bitcoin Exchanges
You have to use a Bitcoin exchange if you want to buy or sell Bitcoins, but not all of them are legitimate. Instead, many of them are created for the sole purpose of taking people’s money. Only use well-known exchanges.
Ponzi Schemes
Bitcoins are not exempt from Ponzi sch
Do you have employees who bring mobile phones to work and use those devices on the corporate network? Do they store company data on these “Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD)”?? Does your company have a policy in place for this?
First, the moment a person brings in their personal phone to work, there is a fusion of personal and business tasks that occur. And, equally as bad, company issued devices are used for personal use as much, if not more than the employees own devices. Not sure you believe this?
You might have heard about all of the scams out there, and think that you are pretty scam savvy. But, the truth is, most of us aren’t, and even a simple phone call could get you caught up in a big scam.
One such scam occurs when criminals call random phone numbers and ask questions, such as “Can you hear me?” When you say “yes,” they record it. They then bill you for a service or product, and when you try to fight it, they say…but you said ‘Yes.’ Not only does this happen with private numbers, it
