Internet Fraud Losses Reach All-Time High

FBI Reports that Internet Fraud Losses Reach All-Time High. An excerpt:
"While the number of cases dropped, the amount of money lost to internet fraud reached an all-time high in 2007, a new government report states. 'According to the 2007 Internet Crime Report, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 206,884 complaints of crimes perpetrated over the Internet during 2007. Of the complaints received, more than 90,000 were referred to law enforcement around the nation, amounting to nearly $240 million in reported losses. This represents a $40 million increase in reported losses from complaints referred to law enforcement in 2006.' The top ruses used by the fraudsters involved pets, romance and secret shoppers. The original report[Large PDF] is available online, and it contains some interesting graphs. One indicates that the two largest types of fraud are Auction Fraud and Non-delivery, which combine for over 60% of all cases. As Computerworld notes, men are more likely to fall for scams than women, and over 30% of losses are between $1,000 and $5,000. The report also contains data about the location of the perpetrators (Nigeria only accounts for 5.7%), age demographics, and contact methods."


Friends, read my past posts about internet scams (more to come) - numbers do not lie! It may happen to you, if you are not careful.

Traffic Light Tampering = Increased Red Light Camera Revenue

Well, there goes any semblance of public safety/concern by our elected public officials!

Jeff Nolan, in his blog, notes that six US cities have been caught decreasing the length of the yellow light below legal limits in an effort to catch more drivers running red lights and thus increase their revenue!
Remember all the people you supported/voted for to get a City Council seat(or any other public office) ?
They're claiming that this is for safety purposes, and it doesn't put people in danger of death or serious injury for the sake of the almighty dollar!

Apparently it's not just the mortgage crisis you have to worry about, but the mismanagement of funds by your City or Township. And of course, when their "revenue" starts to decline, you gotta pay.
I wonder, if misappropriation of funds can be reined in, wouldn't we have enough to support the infrastructure in your area?

Tips to make your inbox less vulnerable to identity theft

Identity theft continues to be a big concern among Americans who engage in online transactions, and for good reason. Last year, an FTC survey found that 8.3 million American adults were victims of identity theft in 2005, and an alarming 85 percent reported that one or more of their existing accounts had been misused. Those accounts included email, credit card, banking, medical insurance, ...

Read more at: tech.yahoo.com

Stay away from Capital One!

If you've ever been enticed by the ads or mail offers for Capital One, please consider carefully before signing up with them.
Their no-hassle slogan is anything but true - from my experience.

Their customer service is horrible! False advertising and bait-and-switch methods, it seems, are visible just from scratching the surface.
I was enticed with a no-fee, no-hassle rewards card via a mail offer. After accepting the offer, I was charged a $29 annual fee. After discussing it with many a Customer Service Reps (CSR), and Supervisors and Managers, no one was able to revoke/credit this charge. After many days and unsuccessful attempts, I decided to make the best of it. I decided I would earn as much as possible in cash rewards to offset this charge.
So, I start to put charges on to the card. To keep my available line of credit high, I kept making online payments instead of waiting for the bill. This is where the fun starts! Some payments I make are allowed and clear up my available credit. However, others, especially larger payments, clear my bank, and gets posted to the account, but my available credit does not get cleared. This prompts a phone call to Customer Service - after 2-3 days and a hours of calmly trying to find the right person/dept that can resolve this, we found the FIT dept. All the while, we'd been treated to long hold times, misplaced transfers by CSR's and Supervisors telling us there's nothing they can do, and others saying you will have to wait for 5-7 business days for it to automatically clear. Apparently their computer system places a credit hold on any payments, larger than the minimum due for that month, made on accounts newer than 6 months. You would think that they can remove this automatic hold feature after receiving about a dozen cleared payments, but that would be logical!
This being our first experience with their so-called Customer Service, we were calm about the situation. From the second time they placed a hold on my available credit, I called Customer Service and asked to be transferred to the FIT dept so they can resolve the issue. Again, I was hit with requests to validate account information and then transfers to various other CSR's and Supervisors that told me it is not possible to remove this hold, etc, etc.. I stopped giving them my account information. The CSR's (most of them) are in India, it seems, and it was as if verifying my account information was needed to show they worked on an account - they are not allowed to even transfer a call without this information - no doubt this is a ploy implemented by the call center CapOne outsourced to. So, CapOne pays for every account touched by each agent - hey CapitalOne, your call center vendor is having their way with you and your customers for their financial gain. Yet, when I am able to reach a US based rep, I am transferred without even a single question! Why? Since the customer (me) has clearly explained the need and they are clearly _not_ able to help, and the obviousness of the customer experience with the presented issue and knowing which department the customer needs to talk to, there's no further questions required, provide the customer with the service s/he is looking for and move on to the next customer! WOW! What a concept, actually get some work done and not waste their time or a customers time!?!?! I hope someone at Capital One reads this, as you have a very unhappy customer - one that will _not_ be renewing the card at the end of the annual service agreement.
AND from what I see, I'm not the only one.... see here(consumeraffairs.com) for more details.
Here's another one about their bait and switch program.
There's plenty more - a google search will do wonders for your wallet and peace of mind, if this catches you before you get bit by the Capital One bug!

So far, I have made cash rewards well over $29 that they charged me. I plan on keeping this up to get as much money as possible from them. I am not a fool, I understand they make plenty of money on my transactions. However, for me, I will take pleasure in knowing that I'm getting something back for something that I already need to purchase. I plan on making sure I get my rewards until I cancel this card and will never look back.
Oh, when you're trying to do anything with CapOne, use their automated fraud system and after entering your account info press 0 for an operator. This, hopefully will get you to a US based CSR. If you bypass the automated system, you get sent to the Indian call center hell for sure.
Ask me how I know?! Wait, I already told you!

BTW- maneuvering phone trees and call centers isn't rocket science, just takes some patience and trial and error.

Fraud Alert - Money Mules

This one is becoming a fast growing trend, so I'm posting some info on a relatively new fraud scheme.
I know I'm not the only one that receives job offers via email for "money transfer agents" or "re-shipping agents" which utilize your bank accounts for transactions for overseas companies. These transactions are fraudulent and should be marked as SPAM or phishing emails in your email software. Just delete them asap - clicking on the links provided usually validates your email address for the sender and will prompt further scam related emails.

Here are some links that describes the varieties of the fraud scheme in more detail:
http://www.bobbear.co.uk/

some example emails for your review:
http://www.bobbear.co.uk/page8.html

a news blurb:
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/12/20/arrests_in_money_mules_scam/

Please share this with friends.
I hope it helps someone from falling in to this very serious trap.