Summer Heat: On-line Dating Scams PT II

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After my recent post Summer Heat: On-line Dating Scams a reader responded with the following:

“I just had a similar experience that you described in your blog “Summer Heat: On-line Dating Scams”. I had joined Plenty of Fish and upgraded my profile to have more exposure. I received an email from “exquisitedaddy” a few weeks ago. We started sending emails back and forth. Then he asked me to IM on Yahoo Messenger.

His IM email address was groovyromance@yahoo.com. The name he used was Joe Reid. He escalated the relationship quickly telling me how I was the one and only and how he loved me. then on 6/26 he asked me to buy him a Blackberry Bold for $450. I told him I didn’t have the money. The next day, 6/27, he told me his bank had contacted him and that a hacker had stolen $20k from his account. His account was frozen but the bank would reimburse him the money, he just didn’t know when. So he needed to buy networking equipment to complete a huge project he was working on for Nova Engineering Place. When he finished he would be paid $800,000 and have to paid 10 employees 40k each. But he needed $8k now to buy this equipment.

He said I shouldn’t worry because he would pay be right back either when the bank released the hold on his account or when he was paid for the project. I told him I didn’t have the money. I asked him questions about why others couldn’t help him and he always had an excuse. When I asked him if I used my Amex to buy the equipment, would that work he said no he needed cash! I said I would look into it but wouldn’t call him unless I found an answer since he was so stressed. Yesterday, he left a VM message for me asking me why I hadn’t contacted him and he was hoping that I was still looking to help him with the money and that he loved me.

I would like to do anything and everything in my powers to get this person so that he cannot abuse other women. Do you have any advice on what my next steps should be? He sent me flowers on Saturday, should I contact the florist and try to follow the trail back through there? thanks. Linda”

Wow Linda, you dodged a bullet. Linda sent me the picture of a handsome man who probably doesn’t know he is being used for a scam. She also found his profile on Match.com too.

No matter who the person is, what they say, how they look, don’t automatically trust.

The moment money or loans are discussed in any capacity that is a red flag.

Don’t let your heart get in the way of basic common sense.

Sometimes loneliness trumps our ability to see the truth. Keep your head up and pay attention to someone’s “intentions”.

Robert Siciliano is a Personal Security Expert and Adviser to Intelius.com. For more information see Intelius at Sex Offender Check and Date Check to reduce your chances of encountering a bad guy. See him discussing Safe Personal Dating on Tyra. (Disclosures)

School volunteers face background checks

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All across the country one by one school, administrators are slowly beginning to recognize the need to perform background checks on volunteers.

In Albany County WY, “under the tentative policy, all volunteers would complete an information form when they begin their volunteer work. Additionally, volunteers would undergo screening through the Wyoming Department of Family Services and a to-be-selected national database if they volunteer more than an hour a week on average, accompany students on an overnight trip, spend more than five days working as a volunteer coach or accompany students on any off-campus activity in which they would be alone with students. School principals would also have the authority to request the screening of any volunteer.”

As stated in the article policies like this  are designed to identify the criminal and sexual offense background of potential volunteers.

When a lion is hungry it seeks out a smaller, weaker and slower animals that it feels it has the power to capture and kill. This is a normal and natural evolution of life. Sadly, as with predators in the wild, predators in “civilization” act much the same and seek out their prey in much the same way.

Any time an adult is  positioned to work alongside children in any capacity it is essential that adult is fully checked to determine any prior history of wrong doing that may affect the safety and security of a child.

Robert Siciliano is a Personal Security Expert and Adviser to Intelius.com. For more information see Intelius background checks to learn more. See him discussing Dating Security on E! True Hollywood Stories.  (Disclosures)

Summer Heat: Online Dating Scams

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Love online. 20 years ago it wasn’t even a thought. 10 years ago it was weird. 5 years ago it was new and exciting. Today it’s as normal as milk and bread. If you are looking for a mate online you will eventually hit pay dirt. Most of my friends who tried it, succeeded at it.

When anything technology gets to the “normal stage” that’s also when scammers are well dug in. Scammers are usually much more ahead of the curve. When it was weird, they paid attention and the ones that had the foresight scammed, but when it was hot, they were figuring out all the different ways to pull the wool over their victim’s eyes and getting good at it. They ramped up and were beginning to perfect their craft.

Today, it’s a full time job for them. They know all the new scams and get better at revisiting the old ones.

Recently I signed up for a particular social network so nobody else would take my name. I was immediately contacted by a woman who enjoyed my profile on the social network. Problem was I hadn’t really set up my profile. But she liked it nonetheless.

So I responded “Thanks!” Then, she started to write me every day, and would put lots,and,lots of commas,in her sentances. Her spelling socked and HER capiTal leTTers were all,over,the,place. Plus,The spacing,    of her,words was weird,and from experience,dealing with scsammers,overseas I could tell,she didn’t really,like,my,profile. She wasn’t really a she, But a he, probably named Zambabooboo.

After communicating with “her” for 2 days she was talking love and marriage. After 4 days she wanted desperately to see me. On the 7th day she asked me for money for a plane ticket so she could come see me. I declined.

Robert Siciliano is a Personal Security Expert and Adviser to Intelius.com. See him discussing Safe Personal Dating on Tyra.

For more information see Intelius at Sex Offender Check and Date Check to reduce your chances of encountering a bad guy. (Disclosures)

Online Dating Liar Liar is 5’4, not 5’10

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But who cares? Apparently the dude with the 6 inch height difference did. And he figured the lady he was about to meet via chatting in an online dating service cared as well. Maybe she did, maybe she didn’t. Either way he started out in the relationship lying.

Many single people have been turning to the Internet for dating services. You can meet someone with the same interests, hobbies, and lifestyle. Dating services allow you to browse profile pages to shop for a potential mate while chatting it up with potential dates. In the process you are selling yourself as they are deciding whether to buy. And like a car on a “pre–owned” lot that was recovered from the waters of hurricane Katrina, the truth is often suppressed. .

But what happens when you decide to meet someone and you begin to discover little white lies? Realize that little white lies are often a front for big darker lies.

What else is this person hiding?   Are they married, have kids? Gone bankrupt, been arrested for violence? Or are they a registered sex offender? Are they unemployed when they said they have a job?

Sometimes the truth hurts and people innocently choose to adopt the “what they don’t know won’t hurt them” philosophy and simply don’t cough up the truth. Nothing good can come of this. This is why it is essential that you do your homework and find out as much about this person as possible to head off any potential heartaches.

Much of what you need to know about your new encounter can be found by doing a quick and easy background check. But don’t stop there. Google them, check out their Facebook page and dig as deep as you need to verify as much as possible to determine if their nose is growing.

Robert Siciliano is a Personal Security Expert and Adviser to Intelius.com. See him discussing Dating Security on E! True Hollywood Stories.

For more information see Intelius at Sex Offender Check and Date Check to reduce your chances of encountering a bad guy. (Disclosures)

Sex Offender Sets Up Facebook Page Looking For Love

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A sex offender, who spent 11 years in a court-ordered treatment program to rehabilitate him, is looking for a relationship via Facebook.

Facebook is approaching the 500 million member mark worldwide. Chances are there are a few sex offenders in there somewhere. I’d guess anywhere between 1 and 3 percent have a penchant for violating another persons sanctity. Statistically out of the 300 million people in the U.S., there are 500,000 registered sex offenders. Of those registered, thousands more aren’t and many haven’t been caught. You do the math.

He’s 29, so he was in detention since he was 18. His mom must be proud. He was found guilty of sexually assaulting girls. If I was one of the girl’s dads I’d be “friending” this dude to know what he is up to.

He has now set up a Facebook page, with a picture of pop singer Pink, in a bid to date women. Sounds like a real interesting guy.

The Herald Sun pointed out that 3 of his 12 online friends have profile photographs on his page which include children. Just ducky.

Be careful who you friend. They really are out there. Living breathing whacky predators.

Robert Siciliano is a Personal Security Expert and Adviser to Intelius.com. See him discussing Sex Offenders on Fox Boston.

For more information see Intelius at Sex Offender Check and Date Check to reduce your chances of encountering a bad guy. (Disclosures)

Mortgage Fraud and Identity Theft: Like Chocolate and Peanut Butter

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Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert

You don’t need to own a house to become a victim of mortgage fraud. Heck, you don’t even need to be older than 3 to be a victim. As long as the thief has a Social Security number, they can apply for loans in your name.

Lexis-Nexis Mortgage Asset Research Institute in Chicago shows that the incidence of fraud in 2009 increased 7 percentage points over 2008’s levels. In 2008, fraud reports rose 26 percentage points from the previous year. The institute collects and provides data – suspicious-activities reports, or SARS – to subscribers, including mortgage lenders. If you want to compare numbers, there were 67,190 such reports collected in 2009, compared with 63,713 in 2008, and 46,717 in 2007. The 2009 increase was small, but officials say they believe a lot of scam artists are going high-tech.

Law enforcement activities surrounding mortgage fraud across the U.S. have resulted in the arrest of thousands, according to reports. The utility of Social Security numbers as a means to obtain credit fuels the pervasiveness of mortgage fraud.

Some of the most devastating instances of mortgage fraud involve identity theft. Consumers not only have to be leery of questionable mortgage lenders, but also of others who might buy a home in their name.

Data from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has revealed that instances of suspected mortgage fraud have risen by 1,000 percent over the past six to seven years, reported the article in thisisyourmoney.co.uk, which went on to say the FBI’s financial crimes section has seen an 800 percent increase in its case load since 2003.

The apparent spike in mortgage fraud reveals one more line of attack that thieves exploit to hijack the financial identities of consumers.

The results of a research investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation recently revealed an apparent, significant upward trend in the incidence of mortgage fraud. Furthermore, homeowners who have Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOCs) are prime targets for financial fraud, suggested a related statement from the Identity Theft Assistance Center (ITAC).

The best way to combat the threat is to transform Social Security numbers into something useless to thieves, who use these universal identifiers to obtain financial identities. Social Security numbers’ de facto role as universal identifiers has fueled a massive increase in financial fraud—simply because these numbers allow criminals to assume others’ identities. Given the scope of financial fraud, which costs billions of dollars every year, consumers need a way to deprive thieves of the ability to gain access to someone else’s finances. They must implement measures that render those Social Security numbers useless to thieves.

Invest in Intelius identity theft protection and prevention. Not all forms of identity theft can be prevented, but identity theft protection services can dramatically reduce your risk. (Disclosures)
Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Speaker discussing the Social Security numbers on Fox News.

Beware of Facebook Dangers

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Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert

Danger!! How’s that for a blog title that screams fear, uncertainty and doubt!? Fact is Facebook boast 400 million users and is in so many ways seems out of the control of its founder, and is looking dangerous. This is a company that has grown faster than fast and has a (very intelligent) 20 something CEO just out of puberty calling the shots. It seems the amount they (his Board? CIO? ) lets him run at the mouth that privacy is no big deal, shows an immature lack of control over this operation. Any company that wields this much power needs to be checked and balanced.

Their growing pains are publicly played out in numerous lawsuits and visceral rants by every possible pundit (like me) and privacy professional on the block.

Sure when you are that big there will always be someone who wants to take you down. But every week there is a new story about a security breach or a privacy violation. That tells me it’s more than growing pains or jealousy. There are serious management problems there resulting in reputation issues for the company and for the user, security issues.

DANGER, DANGER!

The 3rd party applications in the form of games and quizzes are sharing data that’s not meant to be shared. While the user may agree to the terms of service, they aren’t reading the fine print. Is it really in Facebook’s interest to allow this?

Seems like every 2 weeks they change whatever privacy settings there are and the public gets more pissed off with each change. Why doesn’t someone inside this company have a clue what the public wants? What’s more obvious is they don’t care!

Criminals and scammers set up fake profiles of companies and individuals all day every day. These social media identity theft profiles are designed to get people to provide data for free gift cards or other offers that ultimately allow for financial fraud to occur. Is there no way they can more effectively police this?

Recently, the chat feature was made public. For a period of time users chats were available for anyone to see. They had to shut it down to calm the mess. How the heck does that happen? Don’t they have redundancy built in to prevent this?

Ads appearing on Facebook are sanctioned in some way by Facebook and some are malicious. When clicked they can infect your PC. You would think that a private company worth billions would have systems in place to prevent its users from getting hacked via ads placed on their own servers?

So now that I’m done throwing up, protect your identity. Because when it gets hacked on Facebook, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Invest in Intelius identity theft protection and prevention. Not all forms of identity theft can be prevented, but identity theft protection services can dramatically reduce your risk. (Disclosures)

Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Speaker discussing Facebook Hackers on CNN.

Watching Out For Criminal Hacks

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Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert

We use the web to search out tons of information, to shop online and to connect with friends and family. And in the process criminals are trying to whack us over the head and steal from us. And they’ve become very proficient at their craft while most computer users know enough about protecting themselves today as they did 15 years ago. Which equates to not so much.

Back in the day, a person only had to know not to open a file in an attachment from someone they didn’t know. Maybe even not opening one from someone they knew and making a phone call first. Today there are more ways than ever that your PC can be hijacked.

Today you can simply visit a website thinking you are safe and the bad guy was there before you and injected code on the site and now it infects your out-dated browser. That’s a “drive by” and it’s very common today. Here is a list of likely attacks occurring every day.

Fundamentals:

Update your browser. Internet Explorer and Firefox are the most exploited browsers. Whenever there is an update to these browsers take advantage of it.   Keep the default settings and don’t go to the bowels of the web where a virus is most likely to be. Consider the Google Chrome browser as it’s currently less of a target.

Update your operating system. No matter what brand of computer you are on you have to update the critical security patches for your Windows operating system. Microsoft will no longer support Windows XP after 2014, so start thinking about upgrading to Windows 7 (which is pretty sweet). Go to Windows Update. Why anyone would keep XP running unless they had to is a mystery to me. It’s a dog who has been kicked too many times.

Update Adobe Reader and Flash. Adobe PDFs and Flash Player are ubiquitous on almost every PC. Which makes them a prime target for criminals. To update Reader go to Help then Check for Updates. To update Flash go here.

Don’t be suckered into scareware. A popup launches and it looks like a window on your PC. Next thing a scan begins. The scan tells you that a virus has infected your PC. And for $49.95 you can download software that magically appears just in time to save the day. Studies show that organized criminals are earning $10,000.00 a day from scareware. That’s approximately 200 people a day getting nabbed. Some “distributors” have been estimated to make as much as $5 million a year. Just shut down your browser and do a scan with your existing anti-virus. Then update your browser because it’s probably outdated, which is why you saw scareware in the first place.

Beware of social media scams. Numerous Twitter (and Facebook) accounts including those of President Obama, Britney Spears, Fox News and others were taken over and used to make fun of, ridicule, harass or commit fraud. Often these hacks may occur via phish email. Worms infiltrating Twitter requesting to click on links would infect user’s accounts and begin to multiply the message. Then your followers and their follower would get it, causing more grief than anything else.

Invest in social media protection @ Knowem.com

Invest in Intelius identity theft protection and prevention. Not all forms of identity theft can be prevented, but identity theft protection services can dramatically reduce your risk. (Disclosures)

Robert Siciliano identity theft speaker discussing social media identity theft on CNN

Grand Jury: TSA Employee Stole Identities

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Identity Theft Expert Robert Siciliano

A Lynn Massachusetts couple was accused of selling the identities of at least 16 Transportation Security Administration workers at Logan International Airport.

Lynn was then and is now known as “Lynn Lynn the City of Sin, you don’t go out the way you come in.”

Fox News reports “A federal grand jury accused the couple of stealing personal information including the Social Security numbers of TSA workers at Boston’s Logan International Airport. There was no indication the private information of the security screeners was given to militant groups, Reuters reported, but the case suggests federal officials may be vulnerable to identity theft.

The grand jury alleged that the couple used the stolen information to obtain cable television and utilities for themselves and for others, whom they charged as customers. The two will face charges of conspiracy and aggravated identity theft.”

To steal the ID of a TSA worker gives one access to the airport then to luggage and more. There needs to be a tighter system that prevent this. We need effective identification that makes another’s identity useless to the thief.

Invest in Intelius identity theft protection and prevention. Not all forms of identity theft can be prevented, but identity theft protection services can dramatically reduce your risk. (Disclosures)

Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Speaker discussing hacked email on Fox News.

Phishers Ties Up Victims Phones, Killing Notification

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Identity Theft Expert Robert Siciliano

Many of today’s automated processes are designed with security and/or convenience in mind. For example, if a credit card companies’ anomaly detection software detects irregular spending on your credit card the software may freeze your account or call you to make sure you are in–fact the one making the charge. While this may help to secure you, it also may inconvenience you if you are traveling overseas and are declined or just in a hurry and trying to catch a flight.

These same technologies may or may not involve a human at different touch points during their activation periods. What’s happening today is the bad guys are figuring this out and they are determining when theses touch points occur and are tricking the system so they can move forward with their fraudulent activities.

In some cases when a money transfer may prompt an automated call alerting an account holder to the transaction the only requirement of the system is to make the call. The automated system doesn’t necessarily have to talk to a human and the human doesn’t need to do anything. This seems like a flawed system.

In the case of a Florida doctor a telephony denial-of-service attack flooded the victim’s phone with diversionary calls while the thieves drained the victim’s account. In some cases, the victim heard recordings from sex chat lines and in other calls he heard dead air when answering the phone. Sometimes he heard a brief advertisement or other recorded message.

Wired reports the doctor discovered that $399,000 had been drained from his Ameritrade retirement account. About $18,000 was transferred then $82,000-transfer followed two days later. Five days after that, another $99,000 was drained, followed by two transfers of $100,000. The thieves withdrew the money in New York.

Most likely the initial compromise was via a phishing email that he responded to. Once he responded to the phish, the criminals began the process of setting up VOIP telephones systems to bombard his telephone lines so he couldn’t answer the phone to receive the alert.

Currently any financial institution that employees technology that automatically relies on the telephone system to notify account holders of a transaction is at risk.

If you mistakenly respond to a phish email and give up your data, knowingly or unknowingly, and find yourself being bombarded with a flurry of odd phone calls, it may be a sign you’re being scammed.

Invest in Intelius identity theft protection and prevention. Not all forms of identity theft can be prevented, but identity theft protection services can dramatically reduce your risk. (Disclosures)

Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Speaker discussing criminal hackers on Fox News.