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Beware of Vacation Rental Scams this Summer

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Talk about getting taken to the cleaners: Imagine you spot a great summer rental property advertised online. Looks wonderful. The deal sounds too good to be true, but the owner tells you (via e-mail or even phone) that the fee is correct. You apply for the rent and send in the required upfront payment.

9DThen you head down there for the first time to see an empty lot. It then dawns on you that the owner was really a crook who used some photo he found online and advertised it for rent. And if losing your money isn’t bad enough, the thief now has other private information on you like your Social Security number.

How can you protect yourself if the property is too far away to check out in person? Limit yourself to only local rental properties that you can actually physically check out first? Whether or not you can do that, here are safeguards:

  • Copy and paste the rental description into a search engine. If it shows up elsewhere consider it a scam. However…a smart crook will alter the wording so that this doesn’t happen!
  • Google the listed address and see if it matches up. Google any other information connected with the ad, such as the landlord’s name.
  • If you locate the property on another site that lists it for sale, the rental ad is a scam.
  • Request a copy of the owner’s driver’s license to verify property records at your county assessor’s office.
  • If you can’t physically visit the property, use an online map to get a full view, including aerial, to make sure it actually exists. But this doesn’t rule out scam. The property may exist alright, but the ad you’re interested in was not placed by the owner, who’s either not renting at all or might be selling the place.
  • Conduct all communication by phone.
  • Never wire transfer an upfront payment or pay via prepaid debit card—two red flags for a scam. Pay via credit card.

Honest landlords can be scammed, too. They should search the information of responders to their ads to see what comes up.

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to TheBestCompanys.com discussing  identity theft prevention.

Top 12 Scams Happening NOW

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Scamerama is here to stay! Scams are as old as time, and evolve as inventions and technology evolve. Top scams, according to a report on FraudAvengers.com, are as follows:9D

  1. Scammer “accidentally” overpays you for an item you sold online; you cash the crook’s phony check and wire back the difference. You’re out cold.
  2. You order something online and it’s not delivered or version arrives that’s nothing like in the advertisement.
  3. You prequalify for a credit line or loan that seems too good to be true. It requires upfront fees and sensitive information—and you end up never hearing from them again.
  4. You “win” a prize or gift card and, to receive it, must give out sensitive information and/or pay a fee. This scam occurs also via phone, and sometimes the scammer uses well-known brand names.
  5. Calls from people claiming to be IRS reps warning you that you owe money—or that you’re owed money—and that you must pay up immediately or go to jail, or pay a fee to get your refund.
  6. Crooks harp on the vulnerability of confused people seeking health care coverage every fall during open enrollments.
  7. You purchase the puppy in the online photo, pay fees for shots, crating, etc., and the puppy never arrives.
  8. “Human Resources” e-mails that make you think they’re from your employer; you provide critical information that allows the scammer to hijack your direct deposit setup.
  9. The fraudster’s “service” helps recover unclaimed property or funds, but there’s no recovery—even after you’ve paid a fee or given out sensitive information.
  10. An online job offer looks great: no experience required, start immediately, full-time—after you pay a training fee and/or give up your SSN online.
  11. A medical plan that seems too good to be true—because it’s not coverage; it’s just a discount plan.
  12. For a fee, the thief claims to be able to help you get out of debt or recover from recent identity theft or some kind of fraud, playing on your vulnerable state.

Seriously, none of these scams would happen to you if you just paid attention. Please, beware, be careful and be smart.

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing identity theft prevention.

Stolen Social Security number? Don’t Worry!

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Just when you think it was safe to believe your Social Security number can’t get stolen…news breaks of the Anthem data breach. Over 80,000,000 patient records were compromised, including SSNs and home addresses. Like a meteor striking the earth, a disastrous ripple effect is underway, with patients getting hit up with phishing e-mails.

1PIf you ever suspect your SSN has been stolen, some suggest contacting the IRS and Social Security Administration and notify them of your situation. The thief can do bad things with your number, but if you contact these agencies, can you really protect yourself from that? I’m not sure these agencies can really do anything based on the volume of fraud happening today.

So what should you do to guard against ID theft while you’re still ahead?

Your credit report should have a fraud alert placed on it. This way, lenders and creditors will be stricter about identifying you as the authentic applicant. Thus, a thief will probably flunk these extra steps. Contact either Equifax, Experian or Transunion and they’ll place the 90-day fraud alert. You can also ask for an extension. Consider re-establishing the fraud alert every 90 days. The fraud alert will net you a copy of your credit report. Examine it carefully.

Watch your credit like a hawk. If nothing happens during those 90 days, this doesn’t mean you’re in the clear. A thief may act after 90 days, or, just as a baseline good practice, you should still always monitor your credit. Self-monitoring your credit involves either buying your credit report as often as you’d like or getting it free, quarterly at AnnualCreditReport.com.

Credit freeze. A more secure measure is to freeze your credit, but this means you too can’t do anything like apply for a refinance on your house until it’s “thawed”. But if you don’t foresee needing to do that or open new lines of credit in the near future, then you’ll get more peace of mind with a credit freeze.

If an unforeseen need to apply for a loan surfaces, you can unfreeze your credit. Just keep good notes regarding the user/pass and web address to quickly thaw your credit. A credit freeze/thaw requires a one-time fee of $5-$15.00. Cheap and effective.

Identity theft protection. This is a no brainer. For $100-$300 annually for an individual or family of 4, your identity is being monitored 24/7 by professionals who will also restore your identity in the event of loss. Check with the companies Terms of Service and their features/benefits to determine what the will and will not protect against.

Be smart. Though some hackers are amazingly ingenious and subtle with their schemes, other tricks are so obvious that it’s astounding that anyone who’s smart enough to use a computer could fall for them.

A college degreed professional can be so caught up in the latest trash or tragic news about a very high profile celebrity that they could be lured right into the palm of a ruthless scammer: The bait is a link to an exclusive interview with the celebrity’s mother. Hah! Click the link, and you’ll become the mouse in a trap.

  • Never click links inside e-mails, even if it seems that the sender is from someone you know.
  • Don’t even bother opening e-mails with sensationalistic subject lines like “Exclusive Video of Bruce Jenner in Mini Skirt.”
  • When using various online accounts, see if they offer two-factor authentication; then use it.
  • Use different passwords for all of your accounts, and make them long and unique, not “123Kitty.”
  • Use antivirus and anti-malware and keep them updated; also use a firewall.
  • Shred all personal documents before putting them in the rubbish.

Never give out your SSN except for job applications, loan applications, credit card applications and other “big stuff.”

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing identity theft prevention. Disclosures.

SSN and Its Afterlife

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What’s one billion? That’s about the number of possible permutations of the Social Security number. Which begs the question: What happens to an SSN when someone kicks the bucket?

8DCurrently, SSN’s are never repeated when they’re issued by the Social Security Administration. As of June 2011, the SSA made the issuance entirely random (previously, for example, the first three numbers were determined by place of birth).

With nearly a billion permutations, there’s no point in any number surviving the holder’s death and being reissued. Now in theory, the combinations will eventually run out, because eventually, a billion people will have been born in the United States. But this isn’t exactly in the near future. Why worry?

Nevertheless, some people like to plan way ahead. Maybe this scenario can be mitigated with a 10-digit number. Maybe numbers will stay at nine but be recycled. But for now, your number is as unique as your DNA. But, unlike DNA, a SSN can be used fraudulently.

The three credit bureaus maintain a list of the deceased based on data from the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File Index. Sometimes it takes months for bureaus to update their databases with the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File Index.

Here’s how to avoid identity theft of the deceased:

  • Report the death yourself by calling the Social Security Administration at 1-800-772-1213.
  • Contact the credit bureaus directly to report a death and request the information to be recorded immediately.
  • Right now, before anyone perishes, get the person a credit freeze. Upon death (as in life), the person’s Social Security number will be useless to the thief.
  • Invest in identity theft protection. This is a layer of security that monitors one’s information, including Social Security number, in the wild. Have it activated for six months to a year after death.
  • The Identity Theft Resource Center suggests, “Immediately notify credit card companies, banks, stockbrokers, loan/lien holders and mortgage companies of the death. The executor or surviving spouse will need to discuss all outstanding debts. If you close the account, ask them to list it as: ‘Closed. Account holder is deceased.’ If there is a surviving spouse or other joint account holder, make sure to notify the company the account needs to be listed in that surviving person’s name alone. They may require a copy of the death certificate to do this, as well as permission from the survivor.”

Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert to BestIDTheftCompanys.com discussing  identity theft prevention.