Happy thanksgiving to all. Yes! it is turkey day here in Texas and Cowboys and Chiefs play on fox at 3:30 this afternoon, great game it is. I hope I can touch on all the points I want to make before the game starts.
Please be aware that it is the season (christmas) and the scammers and con artists will be out in full force. Hell, they’re out already. I have noticed a three fold increase in phishing scam with fake notices for subscriptions due and payable. Most of these phishing emails are semblance of some of my annual subscriptions, such as AVG and other security apps on my PC, others e-mails will refer to an order you have place and they will provide order number in such a way it will looks like a legitimate request from a legitimate source, but it’s not. First, be wary of any e-mails requesting or providing you links site to click on to solve problems. The best advice I can give is to check and see just who sent the e-mail on the address bar. The email might come with the Logo of apps or websites you subscribe to, it may say it’s from Microsoft, ,Maleware or AVG, but when you search for the real sender of the message you will find an address which has nothing to do with the company the scammer proports to represent. Also I have been getting quite a few messages from Paypal wanting me to confirm purchases. I have no Paypal account and all I do is click the spam button and move on….Never open the e-mails or if you do, just read it and use your own best judgement as to how you want to proceed
I would like to point out that are are many government websites which provide advice and information covering the whole range of scams and frauds being used online. You have a wide range of branches of government which give reports, podcasts and information which is available to the public. They include the FBI, FTC, FCC, HHS and internet crime complaint center and the treasury’s office of inspector general to name a few. We are including information about the various types of scams and fraud going on and I take no credit for that info. It is a reprint of info provided by various US government agencies but I recommend that you save it for reference in the future and includes the websites names and contact information so might be of use in the future. I just want to say, you may feel like the government is not doing enough but the scam and fraud industry is so vast that I do not know how they got as much as they do. For your information, the FBI and Treasury department made a six figure recovery of funds for me from what I would call a semi romance/business fraud. I have been a victim of online fraud, and it is one of the reasons I created some unique tools to help you stay safe and track scammers, and to get them reported to law enforcements. This website and it’s sister sites Scamcatcherapp and Burstpixel which are both subscription sites will stop scams. I think I will have my turkey dinner now and watch the game and then address the various romance scams that I have been the one on the receiving end.
Read: Scammers Love December (II) by Mike Ramos
