If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
Prize Offerings: You usually have to do something to get your "free" prize. Attend a sales presentation, buy something or give out a credit card number. The prizes are generally worthless.
Travel Packages: "Free" or low-cost vacations can end up costing a bundle in hidden costs, or may never happen. You may pay a high price for some part of the package like airfare. The total cost may run twice what you would expect to pay or what you were led to believe.
Investments: People lose millions of dollars to "get rich quick" schemes that promise high returns with little or no risk. These can include gemstones, rare coins, oil and gas leases, precious metals, art and other investments. As a rule, these are worthless.
Charities: Con artists often label phone charities with names that sound like better-known, reputable organizations. They will not send you written information or wait for you to check them out with watchdog groups.
Recovery Scams: Be careful not to lose more money in this common practice. Some cons will try and help you "recover" your losses from the last con!
Home Improvement Scams: Cons may say they were driving by your house and noticed that repairs are urgently needed. Another ruse is to come to your door and say they are there to check for termites because your neighbor has them. They will report that you've got a bad "bug" problem and charge you thousands of dollars -- plus while you are out, they burglarize your home.
Friendship Scams: Cons set up dating services that don't materialize. Social "get-togethers" that never happen.
Bank Related Scams:
- The "Bank Examiner" scam involves getting you to help catch a "bad" bank teller by pulling out your savings to see if he/she is honest. When you hand your money over to the con, you never see him or your money again.
- The "Pigeon Drop" involves usually 2 or 3 cons. One con will convince you they have found a bag containing lots of money. A second con happens along and the three of you discuss what to do. You go to a third con (who plays the role of an "attorney") whose advice is to have the three of you put up equal good-faith shares of money and then after no one claims the bag, the three of you will get to share it.
Both of these scams are very old and yet, they are used over and over every year. Any scheme requiring you to remove cash or property from accounts or safe deposit boxes should be checked out with police.
The newest bank related scam involves the victim receiving a letter or email insisting that the person immediately verify all of their personal information, including pin numbers and passwords, or their account will be closed and their money frozen. This scam is nothing more than Identity Theft.
Postal Scams: Chain letters, magazine subscriptions, unordered goods and other offers are all used in the United States every day. Check carefully; read the fine print! Checks, ATM and credit cards are stolen out of mailboxes, cars, etc. and altered frequently. New photos may be pasted in. Outgoing checks are stolen, washed or otherwise altered, and cashed by thieves regularly. Use secure mailboxes!
Vitamins, Health Products, Miracle Cures, Psychic or Long-distance healing: The sales pitch also may include a prize offer. Too often, these are worthless scams.
Phone Fraud: Telephone con artists spend a lot of time polishing their lines to get you to buy. You may hear:
- You must act now or the offer won't be good.
- You have won a "free" gift, vacation or prize. But you pay for "postage and handling" or other charges.
- You must send money, give a credit card or bank account number or have a check picked up by courier before you have had a chance to consider the offer carefully.
- You do not need to check out the company with anyone including your family, lawyer, accountant, local BBB or consumer protection agency.
- You do not need any written information about their company or their references.
- You can not afford to miss this "high profit" no risk offer.
- Another twist on phone fraud involves hidden long distance phone costs.
- Advertisements may entice you to call for details on "work at home" schemes or too-good-to-be-true opportunities, or a mysterious message may be left on your answering machine saying that a relative was critically injured and that you should call the "hospital" at a particular phone number. In these cases the scam is in the phone charge; when you call you will be placed on hold, listening to recorded music or messages while your bill rises.
- The most sophisticated versions will reroute a 1-800 number to another number that is not toll free, without your knowing it. You may think you're calling Portland when you are really calling Mondovia! To keep you on the line an attendant will occasionally pick up the line, clarify who you were calling for, and then put you back on hold.
Deceased Relatives: Some con artists read the obituaries, then follow up with a call or visit to survivors. They then suggest that the deceased had almost finished paying for a "gift bible" that was to be a gift for the survivor -- and there's only another $50 due.
Senior-Specific Scams: Hearing aid scams
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