Scam Alerts

Did you ever get an email that seemed legit, but it asked you to click a link or give up some personal information? Well, if you play massive multiplayer online games, be warned: phishers are looking for ways to get those emails into your inbox. Here’s how it goes: You get an email warning your account is about to be suspended. The reason? The email says “you tried to sell your in-game character or virtual goods for real money.” It claims the...

Phone scammers spend their days making trouble. They waste our time, tie up our phone lines and harass us with ugly language. Some do much, much worse. The FTC has heard from people who got calls from scammers saying, “I’ve kidnapped your relative,” and naming a brother, sister, child or parent. “Send ransom immediately by wire transfer or prepaid card,” they say, “or something bad will happen.” They’re lying. They didn’t kidnap anyone, but they...

Recently, I told you about the new credit and debit chip cards designed to reduce fraud, including counterfeiting. Now, I'm reporting on scammers who are trying to take advantage of the millions of consumers who haven't yet received a chip card. Here's what’s happening: Scammers are emailing people, posing as their card issuer. The scammers claim that in order to issue a new chip card, you need to update your account by confirming some personal...

It’s been a year of weather woes, with South Carolina being the latest victim – floods have swept across much of the state. You can be sure it’s only a matter of time before scammers come calling to wreak a different type of devastation. Here are some ways to arm yourself against scammers who use weather emergencies to cheat people: Be skeptical if someone promises immediate clean-up. It won’t save time or money if you hire someone without the...

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ve heard us say repeatedly to report scams to the FTC. If you report scams to us, we can bring the kinds of cases that shut down the scammers. But there’s another place to report international scams, too: econsumer.gov. Maybe you’ve done business with an overseas company that hasn’t lived up to its end of the deal. Perhaps you got “winning” lottery notices from another country, or got asked to send...

Scammers are big on hiding behind fake names and titles. Some pretend to work in government or law enforcement to sound more credible. In fact, we’ve heard from hundreds of people who got calls from fake ‘court officials’ about jury duty. In the calls, fraudsters claimed to be court officers, accused people of skipping jury duty and said they had to pay a fine immediately or face arrest. If you get a call like that, hang up. That’s not a real...

Growing up, we all learned that money doesn’t grow on trees. Here’s another hard truth: the federal government is not giving away thousands of dollars in grants to people who pay their taxes on time, have no criminal records, never declared bankruptcy or were ‘selected in a demographic survey.’ Anyone who claims you’ll get ‘free money’ for those reasons is trying to scam you. The scam starts with a call from a ‘ spoofed’ phone number that seems...

People who’ve recently arrived in the US have a lot of adjustments to make. For many refugees and immigrants, and some of the social services groups who help them, the basics come first: figuring out language, food, shelter, and work. Understanding how to avoid fraud isn’t high on the list – until a scam finds a recent arrival. That’s why the FTC has created new materials to help refugees and immigrants spot, avoid and report scams. We worked...

Calling people and pushing them to pay debts they don’t really owe? Posing as law enforcement and fake government agencies like the “Federal Crime Unit of the Department of Justice”? Threatening to sue or arrest people — or tell their family and employers about a debt? Reciting people’s Social Security and bank account numbers to seem legit? Yup, this fake debt collection scheme did it all, illegally collecting more than $5.2 million in fake...

Are you a nanny or caregiver who lists your services on sites like care.com, sittercity.com, or craigslist.com? A few months ago, we warned about a scam that targets caregivers like you. Here’s a reminder: a con artist emails or texts an offer to hire you. The scammer also sends you a check and asks you to deposit it, keep some money for your services, and send the rest to someone else to — supposedly — pay for special items or medical equipment...