Avoid These Popular Scams

Are you getting phone messages from the IRS telling you that officers are on the way to arrest you within 45 minutes and that you will be spending five years in prison--unless you  buy some gift cards and give them to the caller? Are you getting other calls from strange-sounding, computer-generated voices, also threatening you?

There seems to be a recent increase in caller frauds, so here are some notes that will help you to deal with a few of them and not get suckered by them.

1. IRS Scam. A caller says he is from the IRS and gives you a badge number. He says you made many mistakes on your previous income tax forms, or avoided paying tax altogether. He says you didn’t respond to all the previous attempts to contact you. As a result, the police are on the way to arrest you. They will arrive in 45 minutes to take you to prison for five years—unless you agree right now to pay what you owe. The amount is usually between $2,000 and $6,000. They want to be paid by MoneyGram or gift card or some other odd method.
First step: Hang up.

2. Microsoft or Other Help Desk Scam. A message appears on your screen saying that your computer is infected, or you get a call from someone saying that your computer is so infected that it is interfering with the rest of the Internet. The caller will be glad to show you what’s wrong and repair the damage for a fee. To help you, they need you to share your desktop by installing a program such as TeamViewer, Screen Leap, Join.Me (there are many others). If you agree to share, the caller is likely to install a real virus, and then charge you a lot of money to get rid of it, or the caller will record your input as you access your bank account for payment. Your account will soon be drained.
First Step: Hang up.

3. Fake Kidnapping Scam. Criminals call you and say that they have kidnapped one of your relatives (brother, parent, grown child, nephew, etc.). They say they will harm the person if you don’t pay a ransom immediately. In fact, the criminals might say that the kidnapped victim has be shot or stabbed and it now bleeding out. If you don’t help right away, your relative will die. They might even put on a crying, begging hysterical voice claiming to be your relative. Note that this scam can seem real because scammers troll social media sites to get personal information about you and your relatives.
First Step: Use another phone to call your relative.

4. Refund Scam. If you have heard of the “419 Scam,” this is a variant like it. These scams are known as advance fee scams.  The caller (or emailer) says you have coming to you, depending on the scam, hundreds or thousands or even millions of dollars. Just pay a fee of some sort and the money will be released. Obvious question to the scammer: “If I’m going to get millions, why can’t you take the fee out of the millions, or pay the fee for me and I will reimburse you?” If you do pay, you’ll find an endless  string of additional fees that suddenly must be paid before you can get the money.
     Or maybe they say they will waive the fee, since you are such a nice person. Just give them the  Routing number and Account Number of your checking account, together with your Social Security Number and they will deposit the funds directly into your account. NOT. What they will do is clean out your account completely.
First step: Hang up

5. Sextortion Scam. You get an email containing one of your old passwords (remember all those data breaches where passwords were stolen?) and claiming to have loaded software on your computer that recorded your watching pornographic content. Unless you pay (in Bitcoin), the extortionist will send copies of the video with you watching to all your friends, relatives, and coworkers.
First step: Press Delete.
Next step: To protect you from paranoia, move your PC camera away from anyone in the room (or on a laptop, put a piece  of tape over the camera lens.

6. Fake FedEx Scam. You get an email supposedly from FedEx saying there is a package waiting for you but they need your address in order to deliver it. If you click on the link to enter  your address, the web site downloads a virus onto your computer.
First Step: Delete the message. Do not click on any link in an email unless you are absolutely sure of the sender.

More Information:

• Search YouTube or Google for “IRS scam,” “advance fee scam,” “419 scam,” “kidnapping hoax,” “refund scam,” “computer help desk scam,” and similar terms. 
• Search YouTube for “Jim Browning” to see how he gets revenge on various scammers.
• Search with Google on "Internet Scams."