March 16, 2009

It seems to happen more when the economy is in the doldrums and when a lot of folks are struggling financially, con artists try to separate people from the money they do have.

Coastal bend residents are certainly not immune, as our Mike Pesina shows us now in this special report.

You've probably seen and heard them all by now, they started coming in the mail, moved into your desk-top e-mail and soon, they'll wind up on your cell phone. That's right, your cell phone and guess what, it's not going to stop there because as technology grows, so do the methods scam artists use.

Thanks to the internet it's become a global problem, but lets start with the most common, the lottery scam.

You receive a letter stating you've won something, all you have to do is send in a processing fee and it's yours. Well Allen Bligh with the coastal bend Better Business Bureau says, this is the oldest trick in the book but with a new twist.

Bligh says, "In the old days you would get a letter in the mail saying you have won the lottery, but we need you to send six or seven hundred dollars processing fee and that would be it but now the check comes with it. People think it was so real. Its just a real big problem we have a lot of folks a lot of seniors that fall for this."

With computer printers getting better all the time, fake checks are too.
With todays hard times, many folks are getting tempted to cash-in those checks.

Bligh says, "What we say is go ok, go ahead and deposit it and let sit. So when it comes back as counterfeit you just pay it right back. Don't send it off to them. Now what they're going to do is they're going to start calling you. Hey you need to send us the money right away we cant realize, they're going to start doing the urgency bit, to try to get you to send it before you figure out what's happened."

If you''re still receiving this type of letter, just call the Better Business Bureau of the coastal bend and they'll try to find out where it came from.

Bligh says, "We'll tell them, well it sort of depends on what country its out of , if it is Canadian, we can send a complaint to the Better Business Bureau serving the area where this came out of . Now that's one of the big problems. These things, they'll change url's they'll change phone numbers, they'll change where they're at so fast that you cant even find it."

You can also just get throw them away, but carefully.

Bligh says, "Probably the best thing to do is shred it, without any question, shred the thing up cause if you throw it up in the dumpster and somebody gets it and forges your name. You're not going to be in an entire mess a trouble, but you might be in a situation where you've got to explain yourself and, its just like, then that becomes identity theft."

But we'll leave that for another day because the latests trend is the credit card scam.

Bligh says, "What the bad guys are doing, when they steal a credit card, the problem with the credit card is , if you're going to use it in a brick and mortar store , you run the risk that they re going to ask for identification. so how do you get around this. You swipe or purchase blank gift cards , take the information from the credit card and use that on the gift card you put on another amount ad gift cards they don't ask for your identification, so that's a new trend."

So what if this happens to you?

Bligh says, "The laws protect you on the misuse of credit cards so, that's not as bad as these counterfeit check thing for you but you still have to make the claim."

How about when you write a check?

Bligh says, "They take that check thats made out to CPL has your signature on it , its your check , they wash off the amount and the to thats where it becomes check washing. And they put in their name and stuff and they go and now you've got a mess."

In todays fast pase'd credit card business, Mr. Bligh says "use caution at the bar" or even the restaurant, because we're in such a hurry, we don't always know what we're puttting away in our wallets.

Bligh says, "So what you get back is a stolen card or one that's expired and the waitress or whoever planted the situation has got your card using it without you even thinking about it, because you don't even know it's missing."

He also suggest caution, when placing your card down on the counter, as the person behind you could be using their cellphone to take a picture it. Seaking of cellphones, tomorrow, we'll look at how scam artists are using latest technology and what's new for tomorrow's scams.