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Computer & Internet Scams
The Internet Fraud Complaint Center
The Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C).
IFCC's mission is to address fraud committed over the Internet. For victims of Internet fraud, IFCC provides a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities of a suspected criminal or civil violation. For law enforcement and regulatory agencies at all levels, IFCC offers a central repository for complaints related to Internet fraud, works to quantify fraud patterns, and provides timely statistical data of current fraud trends.
IFCC Internet Fraud Complaint Center
http://www.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp
National White Color Crime Center
www.nw3c.org
Federal Bureau of Investigation
www.fbi.gov
Scams to Avoid
Scams to Avoid
Scams to Avoid
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Possible PayPal® Phishing Scam
March 8, 2005 this website received an e-mail from someone representing him or her-self as a security person from PayPal, and the site managers were asked to click on a link to verify account information.
AOL® flagged and prevented what may have been a false transaction known as a Phishing Scam. As it turned out, it was a SCAM as verified by the REAL PayPal security.
Be aware!
(Phishing, pronounced fishing, for accounting information)
Scams to Avoid
Scams to Avoid
Scams to Avoid
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Phony Hallmark 'Pick Up Your E-Card' Scam
E-Mail Attachment Contains a Trojan Horse (Virus) That Leads to an AOL Billing Scam
A new scam spreading on the Internet is trickier than most Phishing scams. The scam starts with a phony e-mail purporting to come from Hallmark (or other e-card services like Blue Mountain) and asking you to download an attachment in order to pick up an e-card. The attachment is not an e-card; it is a Trojan horse.
If you download the attachment, the Trojan horse will wait for you to sign on to AOL. When you do, it will present a pop-up that resembles an AOL form and asks you to verify/update your AOL billing information and provide credit card, checking and Social Security numbers. Both the Hallmark e-mail and the pop-up are part of this scam and are not from Hallmark or AOL.
Scams to Avoid
Scams to Avoid
Scams to Avoid
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You have been charged
This Internet scam has taken millions from unsuspecting e-mail users. The user receives an e-mail stating that his or her credit card has been charged for Viagra or some other item.
It goes on to say that if the charge is not yours, that you should call an 800 or 888 number to cancel the order. When you call you will be asked for your charge card number. You give the card number thinking the order will be cancelled and the 'crooks' now charge up a storm on your card.
Save your money, never give out your credit card or bank account numbers on the Internet unless you contacted a legitimate company that you know. (Sears, your bank, etc.)
Scams to Avoid
Scams to Avoid
Scams to Avoid
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Internet Auctions
E-Bay and others are usually well controlled, but there is always the one person that sells you something, collects your money, and then does not deliver the goods or if he or she does deliver, it is broken, not the advertised item, a substitute, or not warranted.
Page-Jacking and Mouse-Trapping
Page-jacking and mouse-trapping are recent techniques used by scammers to divert internet users from their intended web destination (page-jacking) to the scammers site from which the user is unable to leave using their browsers back, forward or even close buttons (mouse-trapping.)
Typically, scammers make digital copies of web pages, and insert a change in the web page to redirect users intending to go to that site to another site, often a pornographic site. The scammers would submit the copied pages to search engines, and this page would be displayed in search results. The user clicks to view the page, and is redirected to the unwanted page.
The offending site has been programmed to redirect the user to another site. When the user clicks on the back button, they are taken back to the initial page, and then redirected to the other offending site. This creates a loop (mouse-trapping), which the user will be unable to break using their back, forward or close buttons.
The scammers make money by increasing the advertising revenue at their site, since the scammer is paid for each visitor to the site. Each redirection counts as a ?hit' to the site, and more money for the scammer.
The scammer may also be paid a referral fee from other sites. In this situation, the other offending site would pay the scammer for each visitor.
The apparent increase in site traffic allows the scammer to charge premium-advertising rates.
As these sites are typically pornographic in nature, it is not just the revenue the consumer has to be worried about, but also the fact that Children can easily be exposed to offending materials.
Page-jacking and Mouse-trapping is illegal under the Federal Trade Commission Act.(Unknown source for this copyrighted information)
Scams to Avoid
Scams to Avoid
Scams to Avoid
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International Modem Dialing
Most consumers connect to the Internet using a modem calling a local telephone number. Some web sites, normally containing adult content, use International dialing to trick consumers into paying to view content on their web site.Often, these sites are referred to as 'free' and advertise that 'no credit card is needed.' They then prompt the user to download a 'viewer' or 'dialer' to allow them to view the content. Once the program is downloaded, it disconnects the computer from the Internet, and proceeds to dial an international long distance number, charging between $2 and $7 per minute, whatever the company has set as the price.
The user may not realize what has happened, as often, the international dialing will occur in the background on the computer, and it appears that the site they are trying to load is very slow. The program can even turn the sound of the computer off, so the user will not hear it dialing.Once the user has finished viewing the content of the site, they can continue to surf the Internet while still connected via the international number. The user can remain connected for as long as his computer is on, which could be hours.
The dialer programs can even bypass international calling blocks.(Unknown source for this copyrighted information)
Scams to Avoid
Scams to Avoid
Scams to Avoid
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Credit Card Use - Trial Period / Free Web Sites
Many adult Internet websites offer free viewing of content, as soon as a user can verify their age by providing credit card details. This can be in the form of a trial period, or free website viewing. At the end of any trial period, the consumer will be billed for membership to the adult website.Users that view free websites may be billed on their card even though they thought they were simply verifying their age to view the content.
Many of these charges are small monthly amounts, billed on the credit card statement in a name that is obviously adult in nature. Most consumers are too embarrassed to report the fraudulent use of the card, or the amount is so small they don't bother to contest the charges.
While the amounts may be small, the fraudster bill thousands of cards to make this a worthwhile scam.(Unknown source for this copyrighted information)
Scams to Avoid
Scams to Avoid
Scams to Avoid
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Domain Name Expiration Notice
This is a common scam in that a company NOT associated with your Internet Domain Name (Website name, if you own one) sends you what appears to be a billing notice that your domain name is due to expire and you should re-register now, through them.
One such company, although legal and if you read the print, very legit is Liberty Names of America, 1623 Military Rd PMB 663, Niagara Fall, New York, 14304-9988. To our way of thinking this company is attempting, or hopeful that you will think that they are the company that is in charge of registering Internet Website Names and that you will send them the money.
Note that many Internet hosting companies such as Gate.com and WinSave.com, will include in the hosting charges an option to automatically renew your domain name as it becomes due, and usually for a lower cost, therefore be sure that you are not duplicating the name renewal.
Another company to question is Listingcorp.com that sends out millions of $47.50 billing statements in an attempt to solicit business. Their fine print states that "This is not a bill. This is a solicitation.", but the mailing looks official and makes it appear that if you do not mail the money that you will not be registered and may lose your website's domain name. Contact your states Attorney General if you receive this type of solicitation.
Pornographic Hijacking
Websites have been lost to Pornographic website owners due to this borderline practice, in that the unsuspecting owners of a website (Including some county governments - Bucks County, Pa for one) sent money to a third party company, only to find that their website was not registered to them, but instead to a pornographic site.
Scams to Avoid
Scams to Avoid
Scams to Avoid
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I will destroy you - Websites
This is not your ordinary scam as it does not involve obtaining money from you, but is does cost you time and money in 'cleaning up the mess'.
The website is a music website that claims that you can download the lyrics to hundreds of popular songs. You click on the site and are immediately faced with popup after popup and when you delete or close one, a dozen more popup. The problem is that the website owner's deliberately programmed the site to 'contaminate' your computer with pop-ups, advertisements, viruses, etc. Each time you attempt to exit the site you are downloaded more and more 'junk'.
It took us almost eight hours to clean up our computers after one such episode with Stlyric.com.
Scams to Avoid
Scams to Avoid
Scams to Avoid
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You may link to this site by permission. Tuesday November 20, 2007
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