I’ve collected a short stack of consumer warnings from the government in recent weeks, so that’s what we’ll focus on in this column.
The scams involved aren’t new, but they are news in that they’re circulating out there as you read this.
The most recent warning comes from the state Department of Revenue, where officials say people are being pushed into dialing an international number where callers can face some outrageous charges on their phone bill.
It works like this, according to Mike Gowrylow at the state agency: Businesses are getting automated messages to call revenue officers and to have their tax numbers ready. Return callers get a recording steering people to a number with the digits 101. It’s an international number.
Gowrylow warns people to hang up and to call his department at 800-647-7706 so it can investigate. Dialing the number with the 101 means you’ll get stuck with calling fees, he said.
He did acknowledge the agency calls taxpayers with overdue accounts and will leave a toll-free 800 number for people to call back. But it never will suggest you call an international number, he said.
The attorney general’s office said last week that residents of the Lakewood area near Tacoma (not ours near Smokey Point) have been targeted by callers claiming to be with the Social Security Administration and offering $500 because the person called had no criminal record and paid his or her taxes on time. The caller asked for bank account information to make the deposit, then argued and swore at the person when he didn’t get what he wanted.
Of course, the intention was to receive bank information to steal money from the account.
In what’s known as an overpayment scam, a music teacher also in Lakewood was sent four money orders, each totaling $832, for future instruction of someone now overseas who would be coming to the Seattle area. A portion of the money was for the instruction and the teacher was told to keep $200 extra.
The teacher was instructed to send the rest of the money to a New Jersey address by wire transfer. Someone later called the teacher to direct that the money orders be cashed immediately.
The money orders were instead turned in to the attorney general’s office. They were fakes, which means that even if the teacher’s bank had cashed them initially, she would have been liable for the money when the fraud was discovered later.
As I’ve said in the past, never provide personal or financial information to people who approach you in any way – in person, by phone, by letter, by e-mail or whatever. Only do so if you have initiated the transaction and have already checked to determine you’re dealing with a reputable business or person.
And red flags should go up and sirens should go off if somebody wants to pay you more than you’ve asked for and then wants you to send money somewhere else.
The stories that you hear about why this all is necessary are highly intricate and can be fun to listen to. Just make sure you ignore them.
Last but not least, the Federal Trade Commission, which is the federal agency charged with protecting us from Internet scams, has issued a warning about bogus e-mails purportedly from – the Federal Trade Commission.
The e-mails, targeting banking and corporate executives, had spyware attachments labeled as from the FTC that were intended to steal banking information, the agency said.
Basically the attachments secretly install software on a victim’s machine that can send information to others over the Internet.
Is nothing sacred?
Officials said scammers are increasingly using government agencies to try to lend legitimacy to their schemes, just like the people pretending to be from the Department of Revenue.
Mike Benbow: 425-339-3459; benbow@heraldnet.com.
Mike
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