Amputee loses life savings to Nigerian scammers

A PERTH disabled pensioner has lost her life savings to Nigerian scammers.

Rosa Scaf was told she'd been left an inheritance but only realised it was a scam when it was too late.

Ms Scaf, who’s an amputee and suffers from diabetes, has been left with barely enough money for food and medication.

"I am in debt here. I can’t even buy food to feed myself… I can’t access money anywhere,” she said.

"I have no more money, I have no more friends.”

The 49-year-old fell victim to an online scam and was convinced a wealthy church friend of hers named Bridget had passed away and left her an inheritance.

"Bridget wasn’t poor, she travelled to South Africa 6 or 7 times a year so she had the money,” Ms Scaf recalls.

She was told she'd need to pay thousands to activate an overseas account holding the $1 million left to her.

Ms Scaf says she was emailed a series of documents that appeared legitimate.

"These people are so good at what they do because they come across sounding so genuine,” she said.

Over a period of three months, she transferred almost $40,000 through an online bank account.

It's money she'll never see again.

"It’s left me absolutely and utterly broken,” she said.

Over the past year there have been almost 8000 calls to Consumer Protection, with West Australians having lost over $1.2 million through scams.

The department's David Hillyard says Ms Scaf’s case is being investigated but she’s unlikely to retrieve any of the lost money.

"When the cash is picked up at the point of delivery and in this case Nigeria, it’s gone ... there’s no way of getting it back,” Mr Hillyard said.


Source: http://www.perthnow.com.au/amputee-loses-life-savings-to-nigerian-scammers/story-e6frg4nl-1226295493873

Old ‘Nigerian Lottery’ Scam Gets a New Twist

Prepaid-debit-card providers like to make the argument that their products can be used just like bank accounts, but there’s one major way in which prepaid debit differs from bank-issued cards tied to an account or line of credit: if you get scammed when using the popular prepaid product, you don’t have any legal protection or recourse to get your money back. Which may be why the criminals behind so-called Nigerian 419 scams have incorporated prepaid cards into their con game.

You probably get some variation on this scam in your e-mail inbox occasionally. An unknown sender claims to be connected to a foreign-government agency and informs you that you’ve just won a local lottery. You’re asked to pay what seems like a small amount in comparison to your “winnings” before you can collect. Needless to say, people who fall victim to this scam never see those nonexistent millions — or the money they sent to claim them.

(MORE: 4 Reasons a Prepaid Debit Card Can Cost You Big) 

In law-enforcement terms, these are called advance-fee scams; colloquially, they’re called Nigerian or 419 scams, after the section of the Nigerian legal code that deals with fraud. The names are somewhat inaccurate because these swindles originate from all over the world.

In another version of the fraudulent operation, a would-be victim gets a message from a sender purporting to be a foreign official or royalty. The sender has lost access to his or her fortune, the story goes, and needs your help — and money — to help recover it, after which you’ll be rewarded. Of course, this tale ends just like the lottery swindle: the money and the person who was supposed to make you rich both vanish without a trace.

Con artists have traditionally preferred money-transfer services like Western Union to execute these scams, but some are now moving to prepaid debit products like Green Dot’s MoneyPak card. The company describes MoneyPak as a “cash top-up card.” It’s a prepaid, nonreloadable card that consumers pay cash for at a store and then use to reload a prepaid debit card.

(MORE: 10 Ideas That Are Changing Your Life)

When operating a scam, crooks tell their marks to buy a MoneyPak, then ask for the serial number for “verification.” What the victim doesn’t realize is that this gives the scam artist the information needed to drain the entire balance.

The Consumer Federation of America warns prepaid-card users not to purchase goods online or from an unknown seller via Green Dot’s MoneyPak because there’s no recourse if the seller turns out to be a crook and disappears with the money. Unwitting customers can get a false sense of security if they consider the MoneyPak to function like bank-issued cards. In reality, it’s more like a wire transfer.

“Both of our agencies are noticing that more and more scammers are moving away from seeking payments via wire transfer and instead asking consumers to give them money via MoneyPaks,” said Dana Badgerow, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota, in a statement issued last year. “We feel this is likely due to the fact this form of payment is quite convenient – for both consumers and scammers – and untraceable.”

Green Dot is aware of the problem. Its MoneyPak website home page has a big warning about scams involving the cards. It also inadvertently highlights what consumer advocates say is the biggest problem with prepaid debit: the lack of consumer protection it provides. ”If you give your MoneyPak number to a criminal, Green Dot is not responsible to pay you back,” the website warns. “Your MoneyPak is not a bank account. The funds are not insured against loss.”

Source:  http://moneyland.time.com/2012/03/06/old-nigerian-lottery-scam-gets-a-new-twist/#ixzz1oNznXO8t

Tax scam promises churchgoers 'free money'

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The IRS is cracking down on scammers promising elderly and low-income churchgoers "free money" by urging them to claim fraudulent tax refunds.

The nationwide scheme, which reaches victims through flyers and online advertisements, claims taxpayers can receive non-existent Social Security refunds or other tax rebates and credits for which they don't qualify. The con artists often tell taxpayers that they don't even need the proper paperwork to claim the refunds.

The "free money" plots tend to target people with such low incomes that they aren't required to file taxes, so the victims are caught off guard when they are told they are missing out on lucrative credits and refunds. Once they file the returns for their victims, the promoters collect steep fees for their "services" and run off with the money, the IRS said.

"In the end, the victims discover their claims are rejected or the refund barely exceeds what they paid the promoter. Meanwhile, their money and the promoters are long gone," an IRS spokeswoman said.

Even if a taxpayer hires a preparer to submit a return and has no idea they are part of a scam, they are still legally responsible for the information in their return and will therefore be required to repay any money they receive fraudulently, the IRS said.

One scheme that has been especially rampant this tax season promises senior citizens they can get refunds or stimulus payments based on the American Opportunity Tax Credit, a credit for college students or parents paying tuition and expenses. However, many of the senior citizens claiming the credit haven't seen the inside of a classroom in years, the IRS said. Another variation falsely informs people that they can claim the college credit to offset taxes they've paid on groceries.

The IRS said refund-related tax scams like these spiked last summer and have spread from Virginia and the Southern United States to the Midwest. Generally, they have been less prevalent in the West and Northeast.

Churchgoers are among the most common targets, the IRS said.

IRS: Beware of 'dirty dozen' tax scams

"Promoters are targeting church congregations, exploiting their good intentions and credibility. They build false hopes and charge people good money for bad advice," said an IRS spokeswoman.

Betty Yee, a member of the California Board of Equalization, the government agency in charge of the state's tax administration, said these scams have been showing up in Fresno, Sacramento, Stockton and the San Francisco Bay Area. They have been especially prevalent among ethnic minorities, namely the Southeast Asian community.

Last year, local community churches and organizations reported that scammers were conning residents in Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian and Hmong communities into thinking they were eligible for the Making Work Pay tax -- a payroll credit of up to $400 per worker -- when many of them weren't even working, Yee said.

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/06/pf/taxes/tax_scam_churches/

The Latest Wall Street Scam: Free Beer

It's supposedly an economic truism: there's no such thing as a free lunch. But for some on Wall Street, there are free dinners. And even free beers. 

Fast Company explains how Wall Streeters are using a web-based food delivery service to scam free meals for themselves.

From Fast Company:

A former Morgan Stanley banker recently described his weekend food-ordering ritual at the height of the recession. While pulling Saturday hours, for example, he'd log onto the bank's account on Seamless, the online food-ordering service, and redeem his meal allowance—plus a few allowances from phantom coworkers who weren't actually in the office, allowing him to eat well above his pay grade. Sure, someone could have cross-checked actual office attendence with the online orders, but is such effort worth the investment bank's time?

"If people weren't around, it was totally acceptable to take their allowance, and pool it together when you ordered," the banker recalls. "Almost every weekend I was at the office, I'd have a $90 dinner of steak, lobster, mac & cheese, and calamari."

Many of the Seemless scams described by Fast Company involve calling the restaurant to switch your order. You generally aren’t allowed to order beer on your corporate account. So you place your alcohol-free order on Seemless, then call the restaurant and substitute beer for an equivalently priced order.

One woman describes how she has food delivered to her apartment. She orders it on Seemless to be delivered to the office. Then she calls and switches the delivery location to her home.

No doubt Wall Street firms will be tempted to crack down on this sort of thing. But perhaps they should think twice. Probably no more than three percent of employees engage in this sort of thing. Any crackdown will simply make the lives of the 97 percent rule-followers more difficult. The return on cracking down isn’t worth the cost.

What’s more, these food scams may be helping morale.

From Fast Company:

Small as the abuses might be in terms of Seamless's bottom line, there's no doubt it has a big impact on the morale of employees, who seem to take pride in manipulating money one way or another. According to Seamless's statistics, for example, the highest ordering corporate user placed more than 2,600 orders in 2011.

"There's nothing grosser or more magnificent than eating $25 of delivered Taco Bell under the fluorescent, sober lights of an office building," says one employee. "Do you have any idea how much baja sauce you can get for that money?"

Pinterest users targeted with scams

Pinterest, the pinboard-styled social photo sharing website that got so popular even Mark Zuckerberg opened a profile to see what all the fuss was about, has also caught the attention of online scammers and spammers.

If you are a user of the site, you couldn't help noticing the Starbucks image being re-pinned constantly in the last couple of days, along with the offer of a free gift certificate to anybody who followed the link.

Another bogus offer popping up was that of luxury brand Coach Leatherware supposedly offering wallets and purses for free.

Once the users followed the link, they were taken to a website where they were fist instructed to re-pin the image, and then follow another link to a scam survey site:

"It’s the same attack we’ve seen before, but on a a different social media site. Cybercriminals use names of legitimate brands to convince users to either click a link or visit a particular site," point out Trend Micro researchers. Indeed, scams like this can regularly be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Pinterest has, for now, removed the offending pins, but there is no doubt that the same type of scam with different lures will pop up on the site again - such is the price of popularity and a wide user base.


Source: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=12532

NSP officer speaks about online safety, cyberbullying

YORK – York Middle School students had an important lesson on Friday morning.

At the morning assembly, Nebraska State Patrol Sgt. Jeromy McCoy spoke to the kids about Internet safety and cyberbullying.

McCoy told the kids that there are online predators who will pretend to be someone they’re not in order to get in contact with kids.

“Predators are people who want to do bad things to you or want to get you to do something bad for them,” McCoy said.

Students should beware people online who ask for personal information, talk about inappropriate things or who say they want to meet up with them.

“It’s definitely a warning sign if someone you’ve never met before wants to meet you,” he said. “You should talk to someone, an adult you can trust.”

McCoy said that just recently, he dealt with three 14-year-old girls who were talking to people online and sent pictures of themselves to them. One of the guys was lying about his age and instead of being the 14-year-old boy he told the girl he was, he was a 24-year-old sex offender.

“Unless you know who the person is in real life, I wouldn’t recommend chatting with them or adding them on Facebook because you don’t know who they really are,” McCoy said.

“Anyone worth having as a friend wouldn’t ask you to put yourself at risk.”

Things you put on the Internet have lasting consequences in that it’s out there forever.

McCoy talked about how parents, teachers, colleges, future employers and relatives can get online and see what you post and information and pictures you put up.

“If it’s on the Internet, it’s not private,” McCoy said.

McCoy talked about how there was a bank robbery in Clay Center and the state patrol knew what one of the robbery suspects was wearing during the robbery.

“We went to his Facebook page and in his profile picture, he was wearing the same coat he had on when he committed the robbery,” McCoy said.

McCoy also spoke to the kids about cyberbullying, or bullying someone with technology.

He said that 42 percent of middle schoolers have been bullied in the last 30 days and 90 percent of middle schoolers had been cyberbullied at one time or another.

Cyberbullying is different from bullying in person. With cyberbullying, the bully and the victim have contact all the time, there’s a perception of anonymity, the impact of the bullying is greater because more people can see it or read it and there’s evidence of the bullying to show what is happening.

McCoy showed a video about a boy who killed himself after being constantly bullied and made fun of online.

“That’s how far this goes sometimes,” McCoy said.

“They don’t feel they have an out. You need to be aware of what you say online and how it can affect other people.”

Source: http://www.yorknewstimes.com/news/article_138e6564-64de-11e1-9feb-001871e3ce6c.html

Student Safety in the Age of Facebook

"If one life is saved, then it's worth it."

That is the clichéd argument frequently used to justify banning electronic communications, websites, and other forms of technology in schools. The common belief is that these prohibitions will prevent, among other things, the sexual assault of minors or suicides related to cyberbullying.

But that argument can be turned on its head and also applied to unfettered access. The "one life" saved could be that of the young student who reaches out through e-mail to a teacher for help when pondering suicide, or the child who is found via Facebook after a killer tornado. All of these issues--positive and negative--were stirred up late last year in Missouri when the state legislature attempted a contentious ban on social networking between students and teachers. The resulting dustup illustrated the true nature of online safety: It's complicated.

In 2001, the federal Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) tied funding for reduced-rate internet access for schools and libraries to a number of mandates. One was the implementation of a safety policy that would "address concerns about access to offensive content over the internet on school and library computers." There has been confusion over what exactly would qualify as "technology protection measures," but these policies were developed and implemented before the advent of nearly ubiquitous social media.

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are certainly riding strong waves of popularity at the moment, and already they have caused significant changes in the ways and means by which students and adults communicate with one another. In response, some schools and communities are creating new policies and measures directly targeting its use--both in and out of school. That has some thought leaders in the field troubled.

"While social networking is the technology of the moment, it may not be the technology of the moment in two years or five years or a decade," says Keith R. Krueger, CEO of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). "If you're going to try to regulate or legislate a technology, you're going to have to constantly be updating that law."

Krueger recognizes that, in the heat of an emotional reaction to a child being harmed, it's difficult for policymakers to thoughtfully and methodically review rules. However, when circumstances allow cooler heads to prevail, he proposes all policymakers undertake a careful consideration of how to truly protect students while avoiding unintended consequences that can undermine educational goals.

"As long as there's been technology, the concern is, 'How are we protecting kids?'" Krueger says. "The typical way that we've approached that is that we use technology to filter or protect, create a technology bubble around kids."

He cites Missouri's Amy Hestir Student Protection Act as an example of a safety policy gone wrong. In July 2011, the state enacted the law, which modified a number of statutes designed to protect children from sex offenders. It was named after a woman who testified before the Missouri General Assembly, the state legislature, about sex abuse she experienced at the hands of a teacher when she was a teenager in the 1980s.

The law included a ban on teachers communicating via any "non-work-related internet site [e.g., Facebook] that allows exclusive access with a current or former student." Passed unanimously by the legislature, the ban didn't cause much of a stir until the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Eastern Missouri sued the state on behalf of the Missouri State Teachers Association. An injunction based on a First Amendment challenge temporarily barred enforcement of that provision of the law.

"Missouri is a lesson in [what happens] when we don't get ahead of the curve and we're reacting," Krueger says. "Silly things can be passed with good intentions which may have unintended consequences."

Since then the law has been repealed, but a new law passed in its place requires the state's 522 school districts to implement their own internet policies--including rules for the use of social media--by this March.

Source: http://thejournal.com/articles/2012/03/02/online-safety.aspx