Scams & Fraud

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.

En estos días, parece que la temporada de desastres naturales nunca termina. A medida que la temporada de incendios forestales se aproxima a la temporada de huracanes, ahora es un buen momento para recordar que después de que la Madre Naturaleza se va, los estafadores tienden a aparecer.

It seems like natural disaster season is never ending these days. As wildfire season moves closer to hurricane season, now is a good time to remind ourselves that after Mother Nature moves out the criminal scammers tend to move in.