Scams & Fraud

Computer viruses are scary. Tech support scammers exploit that fear, claiming your computer or mobile device is dangerously ill and needs an immediate, costly cure. These scams start with an unsolicited phone call or a pop-up warning on your device, claiming to be from Microsoft, Norton, or other related company, warning of grave problems. The goal is to persuade you to allow them to remotely connect with your device and then convince you they find something terrible. What they are really doing could involve installing malware to harvest personal information and logins or convincing you to pay for expensive repair and protection (fake and fake).

Veterans, active duty and military families are nearly 40% more likely than the general population to lose money to scams and fraud. According, to the Federal Trade Commission, reported fraud attacks against our nation’s heroes and their families jumped 69 percent from 2020 to 2021.

It’s open enrollment season, which also means it’s Medicare fraud season. Eligible beneficiaries have until December 7 to shop for the best deal for their health care dollar. Unfortunately, some of the deals offered won’t be deals at all.

There has been a lot of news recently about student loans. Some are being forgiven, some payments are being paused and lots of borrowers are trying to figure out where they fall. This is the type of situation that criminal scammers are ready to pounce on.

We Americans are a giving people. In 2020, in the midst of a pandemic that crippled the economy, we still contributed nearly half a trillion dollars, according to the Giving USA Foundation. Unfortunately, some of those funds went to criminal scammers, who capitalize on donors’ goodwill to line their pockets.

Equipping the Vulnerable to Protect Themselves

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month – a great time to remind ourselves just how much of our lives happen online and what threats exist there. Any device that stores information or is connected to the internet can be a way for cybercriminals to gain access to your information systems – or, in some cases, use your devices to attack someone else.

The week of October 3 is World Investor Week, a great time to remember that the too-good-to- be-true investment opportunity often is exactly that. Investment scams are among the oldest out there. With lots of people looking for a way to make money on investing, there are at least as many looking to take it away. One area where investment scams have thrived as of late is in cryptocurrency, which has taken a quantum leap recently.

Staying a step ahead of the scammers is like playing a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. Research shows that people who know about a specific scam are 80% less likely to engage with it, but how can you stay up to speed on all the different threats? One great tool is the AARP Fraud Watch Network’s Watchdog Alert.

No matter the season, plenty of us are looking to slim down, and scammers hope to pack their pocketbooks while we all try to unpack the pounds. In 2021, according to the Federal Trade Commission, bogus diet products and programs accounted for nearly 30% of all complaints in the category of health care scams.