BREAKING NEWS-FBI warns of ever increasing scams
Sometimes our news agencies fail to report things that affect
many of us directly and because the information is not shared, many more are
taken advantage of. This has certainly
been the case during this economic turn-down and with so many struggling to
make ends meet. A few that I thought
would be of good use to know are taken from the alert email received from the
Federal Bureau of Investigation Internet Crime Complaint Center or IC3.
The IC3 continues to receive reports of counterfeit check schemes
targeting U.S. law firms. The scammers contact lawyers via e-mail, claiming to
be overseas and requesting legal representation in collecting a debt from third
parties located in the U.S. The law firms receive a retainer agreement and a
check payable to the law firm. The firms are instructed to deposit the check,
take out retainer fees, and wire the remaining funds to banks in China, Korea,
Ireland, or Canada. After the funds are wired overseas, the checks are
determined to be counterfeit.
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) continues to receive
complaints from victims of payday loan telephone collection scams. As previously
reported in December 2010, the typical payday loan scam involves a caller who
claims the victim is delinquent on a payday loan and must make payment to avoid
legal consequences. Callers pose as
representatives of the FBI, “Federal Legislative Department,” various law
firms, or other legitimate-sounding agencies and claim to be collecting debts
for companies such as United Cash Advance, U.S. Cash Advance, U.S. Cash Net, or
other Internet check-cashing services. The fraudsters relentlessly call the
victim’s home, cell phone, and place of employment in attempts to obtain
payment. The callers refuse to provide information regarding the alleged payday
loan or any documentation and become verbally abusive when questioned.
Having personally been victimized by fraudsters in a
similar manner, I feel that this kind of information should be more widely disseminated
in order to help save the well-being and reputation of businesses and people
who play by the rules, try very hard to do the right thing but still cannot
seem to get a break.
Comments
Post a Comment