Scams & Fraud

This October is National Cyber Security Month and AARP is focused on shining a light on the most prevalent online scams including celebrity impostors. Stars like Bruce Springsteen, Trace Adkins and Oprah Winfrey are among thousands of celebrities whose personas have been used by scammers online to solicit money from fans.

When it comes to the labor market, the supply of jobs is outpacing demand but that doesn’t mean that employment scams have gone away. Just because there are more job openings than job seekers doesn’t mean that criminals have closed up shop. With many Americans looking for a side hustle to help make ends meet or an opportunity to make more money or work remotely, there are still enough potential victims to fuel these schemes.

Some of the top scams are the ones that have been around the longest. One might think that a crime like the tech support scam, which has been around for 15 years, might fade away but it is more common than ever. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, the tech support scam was reported by nearly 18,000 victims who had a combined $588 million stolen from them last year.

Last month Medicare announced that one of their contractors had been hacked and the personal information of 612,000 Medicare beneficiaries were stolen. The security breach put Social Security numbers, birth dates, driver’s license numbers, health insurance claims, medical history notes, prescription information and other personally identifiable information at risk.

When it comes to fraud, knowledge is indeed power. But how can we spread that knowledge around so more people are empowered to protect themselves.

Cuando se trata de fraude, saber ciertamente es poder. Pero ¿cómo podemos distribuir ese conocimiento para que más personas sean capaces de protegerse?

Estamos en la temporada de huracanes —junto con las temporadas de incendios forestales y de inundaciones— y una de las cosas que a menudo resulta de todas las pérdidas personales a causa de un desastre natural son las organizaciones benéficas falsas que ofrecen ayuda.

It’s hurricane season – along with wildfire and flooding season - and one of the things that often comes with all of the personal losses from a natural disaster are fake charities offering to help.

Los delincuentes usan muchas tácticas diferentes para robar dinero a los consumidores, y una de esas tácticas es la promesa de dinero gratis. Este verano, el Servicio de Impuestos Internos (IRS) está advirtiendo a los contribuyentes que estén atentos a una nueva estafa que intenta engañar a las personas para que crean que el IRS les debe un reembolso.

Criminals use a lot of different tactics to steal money from consumers, and one of those tactics is the promise of free money. This summer the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is warning taxpayers to be on the lookout for a new scam mailing that tries to mislead people into believing the IRS owes them a refund.