Spear phishing scammers want more from you For more information visit the FTC website here “I’m calling from [pick any bank]. Someone’s been using your debit card ending in 2345 at [pick any retailer]. I’ll need to verify your Social Security number — which ends in 8190, right? — and full debit card information [...]
With the summer travel season in high gear, the FTC is warning drivers about skimming scams at the pump. (Full Story found here.) Skimmers are illegal card readers attached to payment terminals. These card readers grab data off a credit or debit card’s magnetic stripe without your knowledge. Criminals sell the stolen data or [...]
Avoiding tech support scams: You’re working on your computer when, suddenly, a message pops up on the screen: “Virus detected! Call now for a free security scan and to repair your device.” That’s a tech support scam. Don’t call, text, or email. Legit tech support companies don’t operate that way. Scammers pose as big-name [...]
Free credit freezes are coming soon Looking for stronger ways to protect your credit? Thanks to a new federal law, soon you can get free credit freezes and year-long fraud alerts. Here’s what to look forward to when the law takes effect on September 21st: Free credit freezes What is it? A credit freeze [...]
Don't pay fees to company that promise to lower your car payment or stop a repossession. This is almost always a scam. Never pay upfront for a service like this and make sure to talk to the lender during the process. Our suggestion would be to go to your lender and talk directly to [...]
Change your Twitter password ! Ari Lazarus Consumer Education Specialist, FTC You may have heard the recent news that Twitter discovered a bug that stored passwords “unmasked” in an internal log. What does this mean? If you are a Twitter user, your password could be exposed. Twitter says that there are no signs of [...]
Are you sick of robocalls? Do you want to block them? Here's some information to allow you to do that. If you answer the phone and hear a recorded message instead of a live person, it's a robocall. We’ve seen a significant increase in the number of illegal robocalls because internet-powered phone systems have [...]
Don't bank on that check March 17, 2017 by Lisa Lake Consumer Education Specialist, FTC Scammers know how to design phony checks to make them look legitimate. In fact, the Council of Better Business Bureaus’ just released a list of the most “risky” scams, based on how likely people are to be targeted, how [...]
The price of free software? July 18, 2017 by Amanda Koulousias Attorney, Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, FTC Has your computer been acting strange lately? Maybe your default search engine or other browser settings changed, or you’re getting suspicious warnings about your computer’s performance. Are you are seeing ads that don’t seem to [...]