If you have never in your life been exposed to some sort of scam, you are a very lucky person or you must be living in the a box. Because all I have to do to see them in real life is fire up my email inbox. Hundreds of them will then be vying for my attention with a catchy subject line. They can also arrive in the mailbox, usually disguised as some sort of contest winner acknowledgement letter or one that has an uncanny resemblance to a legal notice. And the most annoying fraud attempts call you up from an unregistered number informing you to collect your prize at some shady location. Here are some of the most common credit related scams.
Credit repair
No matter convincing anyone tells you, there is absolutely no way they can change or edit your credit records. That is unless we are talking about something illegal here. The only person who can repair your adverse credit is yourself. There are legitimate services out there that do take you by the hand to repair your credit. But they act more as a motivator more than anything. It is just like hiring a personal trainer to get ribbed. You already know how to do it, but need someone to hold you accountable for it.
Credit repair 101 is basically paying off what you owe on a timely basis before the payment due dates. Do you really need someone to tell you that? But seeing that there are companies running these types of services for years, there must be a profile of people who find them especially helpful. If you want to hire them, nobody can stop you.
Fraud protection
The irony of these scam is that the phantom service being sold will supposedly protect the buyer from fraud. They then simply collect the funds and disappear. There is nothing sophisticated about this tactic. It solely preys on the fears of regular people of being taken for a ride.
For your information, federal law has policies in place that protects cardholders from fraud. And most card issuers have their own policies to protect the user when cards are used fraudulently. If you read up these terms, you will know that you are already protected from the things that these scams claim to protect you from.
Freebies And Lotteries
It is hard to resist claiming a prize that you have won. Even more so it is for a contest you did not participate in. For so many years of tough luck, luck has finally shined down on you. And you now have a brand new sports car out of thin air waiting for you in a garage somewhere. You would think that no one would fall for such radical scams and they would be weeded out pretty quickly due to low “demand”. But just 1 victim can make all the unscrupulous efforts worthwhile.
Congratulations! You have won a sweepstake you did not buy!
People especially the elderly are continually tricked into these schemes as we have read over the news. Seniors for some reason are vulnerable to them. But part of the reason could be that the younger generation feel embarrassed about falling for these fake sweepstakes. And do not report them to the press. Which is why we read more about them concerning the elderly in mass media.
One of those that I have personally encountered involved willing a new BMW from a sweepstake. A week later the caller called again asking why I did not collect the new sports car. Then a money transfer was requested for paperwork and delivery charges. I did not bite the bait. But if I had, my guess will be that my credit card will be requested, a payment to a bank account will be required, or that I will be directed to a website to input the cardholder details. An orgy of fraudulent transactions will then ensue. The truth is, most people will be able to smell them a mile away. But some people who trust others too easily can fall victim to them. Or people in debt are more likely to fall for them as they are often looking for a quick fix to their predicaments.
Pay first guarantees
There is an increasing number of complaints about people being asked to pay first before being issued a credit card or a loan. The truth is that any credible issuer can never guarantee approval. The desperation to obtain credit is usually the driving factor to falling into the trap. And also be mindful that what you could be getting is more of a rewards or catalogue card instead of a credit card
Skimming
If you had ever made a purchase over the internet with your card, you will know that is needed for a stranger to swipe your card over online are your name, card number, expiry date, and CV security code. All of which are plainly sighted on a credit card. This means that anyone with evil intentions can take a picture, front and back, of your card within 5 seconds and give you a nightmare in the mail a few weeks later.
These things can happen in restaurants, retail shops, or anywhere which you lose sight of your belongings for a minute or 2. Special magnetic reader devices can also capture all required information just from a quick swipe. And these things are presumably more common in tourist hotspots where people come and leave. By the time the victims realize the unauthorized purchases having a party in the month end statements, they are already hundreds of miles away back home.
Thieves with a flair with electronics can also design devices that fit nicely into the slot of ATM machines. An innocent party comes by to draw cash while the device jams the card and transmit the PIN number to a wireless reader nearby. After the victim leaves, the skimmer goes over to extract the card. He can then draw money with the collected PIN.
Phishing
The introduction of the internet took phishing to a whole new level. Websites are built with the intention of mirroring the design of valid transaction pages. Web browsers are then tricked into entering their details online and game over. You would imagine that people will not randomly arrive at a suspicious site and follow such instructions. But to get around this stumbling block, cyber criminals send legitimate looking emails to their prospects asking for action. The imitation involved is a masterclass and they are often enough to trick victims into complying.
The information being requested can be a combination of passwords, bank account information, social security numbers and credit card details. Sometimes cranky software or malware is also downloaded onto your computers just from clicking a link on an email. Key loggers then take snapshots of every key you input and send it back to the creator. It will then be a quick process in working out your passwords and login information.
Although the industry is continually working on ways to weed out and prevent scams and frauds. You are responsible to be diligent in safeguarding you own belongings and information. Take preventive measures to avoid becoming another statistic.