Scammers seem to have a bottomless supply of creativity. The amount of fake roles they haveassumed is astounding: pretending to be Lottery Commission agents, debt collectors and even close relatives in need of help.

Recently, the conmen decided to try something else. In the latest scam, the scammers pose as a representative of a local electric company and demand payment for an overdue electric bill. If not paid off immediately, service will be disconnected. But since the scammers have no way of processing credit cards, the victim is instructed to either purchase a prepaid card such as Green Dot Moneypak or wire money through Western Union. These methods of payment guarantee that once money is transferred, the victim will not be able to track who received it.

So far, the scam seems to be effective in places that have the most extreme weather conditions such as in southern states where the temperatures get immensely hot. The thought of losing Air Conditioning in a house in Texas must be a terrifying prospect.

For those who receive such calls, the utility companies offer a simple solution. The recipient should hang up right away. They do not need to put up with the callers. Simply take down the caller’s name and alert the utility company right away. It is also important that such calls are reported to Callercenter.com in order to warn others. And although the scammers can switch numbers on a whim and call people at all hours of the day, they do not stand a stand a chance as long as everybody remains vigilant against suspicious calls.

Going to college is an interesting time in your life. You are trying to decide what you want to do with yourself, and life on a college campus has been quite an adventure. While this is a trying time for you as a simple poor college student, the last thing you can do is afford to get scammed. There are a lot of people in this world that will take advantage of anyone, whether they are elderly or a young naïve college student. Here is more information on a scam that is circulating through college campuses right now, and if you are a college student you need to be very careful.

Financial aid for a college student: as a college student, you probably do not have any money to go to school without some form of financial aid. However, if you are walking along your campus and a complete stranger wants to offer you aid, you need to get out of there. The only financial aid you can trust will come from either the federal government or the college itself and you need to remember this fact.

Do not ever give out your personal information: Beware of anyone that approaches you asking for such sensitive information like your full name or your social security number. This should be a warning sign right there because in this day and age, anyone that is asking for such vital information cannot be trusted.

Your banking information is extremely important: The number for your bank account is something you should never ever give to anyone. Anyone that has your bank account number can easily withdraw money from you and leave you in a terrible situation. You should not tell anyone about your bank, not even the name of it because you can really be setting yourself up for being scammed.

As a college student, you are considered to be an easy target by scammers. College student can be trusting because of their age, and this makes any college student an irresistible target for people who have no morals or principles. You need to really remember that if something sounds too good to be true than it probably is. You are young and just starting out as you try to get an education, but just because you are a college student should not mean you should be taken advantage of.

So remember if someone approaches you on college campus and tries to offer financial aid then you should be extremely suspicious and try perform as many background checks on them as possible before providing any personal information.

During my whole time as the administrator of callercenter.com I’ve never come across a scam like this. The magnitude and viciousness of “fake debt collector” scam is simply astonishing!

All across north america people are getting calls from scammers who pretend to be debt collectors. They verbally abuse victims and say things like “I’ll come to your job and arrest you myself” or “I’ll drag you out by your feet from your work”. They even threaten to arrest the whole family if the fake debt is not paid.

With scams like “Fake lottery winnings” the criminals assumed a role of a benevolent lottery agent with a happy voice and a friendly demeanor.

NOT with this one!

This scam allows them to show their true evil colors and they don’t even have to act.

I was exchanging emails with a poor lady from Virginia who was convinced that she was going to get arrested. The fraudsters even called the victim’s sister and neighbours (god knows where they got that information).

Even after telling her that it’s a scam more than 5 times she wouldn’t believe me. All she could see was fear. It got to a point where I picked up the phone and called her myself. I told her to call the police and not to worry about it.

I think past a certain age people become extremely trusting and get very easily intimidated. The point of the story is that if you have an elderly relative you should call them and tell them about this scam. Let’s hope that someone makes some high profile arrests in these cases and that people like Kirit Patel do some serious jail time, instead of getting away with a fine (more about this in the ABC news report).

It’s summer and bogus jobs are on the rise again, just like during any other time of the year. Although this is largely due to the economic setback people are experiencing, it can’t be denied that this is also a result of the government claiming numerous jobs to be available when they really aren’t. This is difficult especially on students who take advantage of summer breaks to earn money for college or high school expenses.

Recently, a reader shared this experience about falling for a fake job advertisement and having to suffer dire consequences.

“I have been applying for jobs everywhere and was thrilled when I did not only get an interview, but was also hired. At the time, I was told I would need to purchase some equipment required of the position and was given a list. The company’s representative informed me that a check would be issued for this purpose, which sounded okay to me. After the check arrived, I received an email from the company stating that the amount on the check was in excess. However, to save time, the company wanted me to deposit the check into my account anyway and just refund them the difference by wiring the money back to them right away, which I followed without question. Well, it took a few days for the check to clear but then when the time came, it bounced back from the bank. I discovered the job offer was bogus as well as the company. I was already out of the amount I wired but I had to shoulder the bank charges for the fraud check, too. Needless to say, when I tried to reach the company again, it had vanished without a trace.”

Another common bogus summer job offer is the door-to-door selling of magazine subscriptions, art works, or other similar items. Below is a report on this topic from one of our readers:

“In order to earn money for school, I joined a company where I went door to door selling products and subscriptions. I was to receive a small commission on every sale I make, given to me after the company got the payment and processed the sale. However, it turned out that I was actually selling non-existent products and subscriptions. The bad part was, I sold to neighbors and friends. The worst part was, since that was an illegal activity, I could be held personally and financially responsible for everything I sold. So I fully cooperated with the police. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the guy who hired me in the first place. I guess he moved onto other suckers.”

In addition to that, there is also this scam called Re-shipping that has increased in popularity this summer. It can easily get an innocent employee into trouble. Well, how the scam works is simple. For a certain amount of money, an individual receives a package, re-packages it, and forwards it to a foreign address. This is not related to drug sales, though. It could be toys, clothes, household items, or just anything. However, there is no way of knowing if the item being shipped is stolen or something illegal. The bad thing about this is that the re-shipper is just as guilty as the other parties involved and can be held accountable in a court of law.

This is why everybody is encouraged to be careful and cautious when applying for short-term jobs during summer. Be aware that summer job scams usually have telltale signs and it’s important to look for these clues:

• Easy money. The pay appears to be too good to be real.
• No qualifications or references required.
• Vague job description. In other words, the company will not provide details about the specific position.
• Cell phone or email contacts only. You are not provided with a physical address or any other way to contact the employer.
• Personal information needs to be kept personal. If a potential employer asks for too much information when you are first contacted, be wary.
• English, grammar, or spelling errors in job description.
• Offer appears out of the blue without you job hunting.
• Money must be paid up-front for supplies or any other reason. Legitimate employers pay you, you don’t pay them.

One of the things that you may be experiencing, without being aware of it, is phone cramming. This is where recurring charges for services you did not order or use are directly added to your phone bill. Ordinarily you receive a telephone bill and pay it without a second glance. In this high tech world of cell phones, internet bundles, Ipods, and other similar services, the thought of unauthorized charges added to a phone bill does not occur to the average consumer.

Ever received a call to renew your free online yellow pages listing that you never authorized in the first place? Ever entered an online drawing for a flat screen TV? Ever got a phone bill that you felt had bogus charges? If so, you may have been a victim of “phone cramming.” This shady practice allows telemarketers or online vendors to add charges to your landline phone bill without you ever knowing you signed up for a service.

In addition to that, 3rd party scammers also take advantage and use your phone bill as a way to get you to pay for something you never requested or used. Just last year, third party billing generated over $2 billion in business. Unfortunately, and amazingly, 950 per 1,000 customers were not aware of these unauthorized charges on their bill.

Consumer organizations, as well as the State and the government, now realize that this has become a real problem. The companies involved add charges for services such as voice mail, calling cards, extended warranties, credit repair, extra e-mail, ‘special’ voice mails, and text messaging; they use toll-free numbers for free long distance calls that aren’t really free; and any other charge imaginable. These, of course, increase the total bill of the consumer.

This is not a new practice. In fact, it has become disturbingly easy for businesses to do with the increased use of electronics. It has been going on even before 1997 yet overlooked because the fees are often very small on a per-bill basis and not noticeable even to those who carefully review a lengthy phone bill. It is anticipated that mobile cramming will become an even bigger problem as more people leave land line communication systems in favor of mobile devices. Here are a couple of stories from some women who reported their problems to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

I’m from Port St. Lucie, FL and was shocked when I saw an obscure $13.97 charge on my phone bill for voicemail. When I called to question the charge, I was told that my husband had ordered it. I told the company that was impossible since my husband had died three months before. They said they would refund the amount, but I’m still waiting and it’s been over a year.

I’ve spent nine months trying to remove an $11.01 charge on my phone for web-hosting services I never ordered. I don’t even know what web-hosting is so why would I order it? I think it’s been long enough. Can you help get my money back?

The efforts of the regulators from both the FCC and the FTC to force phone companies to make bills easier for customers to read and truly understand are helping. These are called “Truth-in-Billing” rules and have been credited with at least helping consumers identify charges they did not authorize, although it has not helped improve the refunding system. In an attempt to restrict this practice even further, just this week, the FCC unveiled new rules that would require providers to create a separate list for any additional charge added to a bill. Also, regulators have been going after companies behind bogus charges that have yielded some of the largest penalties and consumer refunds on record. The FCC recently fined four long-distance companies $11.7 million for placing cramming charges on consumers’ bills.

However, despite all these efforts, cramming continues. The bottom line is that it’s up to you to check your landline phone bill carefully. See if there is any charge you don’t recognize, and if there is, call your phone company stat, and have it removed. This goes for any type of landline bill, whether it is business or personal.

On a legislative level, Attorney General Lisa Madigan states that the fight will continue. Recently she introduced a bill – HB5211 – which would prohibit third party vendors and billing agencies from submitting unauthorized third party charges to local phone companies for billing.

“Unfortunately, fines and refunds are just a cost of business for many of these third-party scammers” Madigan recently stated. “The profit they make usually far exceeds any penalties or fines they have to pay back. If we want to stop cramming, we have to take the profit out of it. The penalties have to be harsh enough to deter vendors. We also have to ensure that telephone companies know when third-party charges are bogus and they have the proper incentives to avoid doing business with these scammers.”

Reporting all bogus charges to the FCC and the FTC is a step consumers can take to help stop these illegal practices.

One of the most serious threats to your finances today is called credit card skimming. This is a situation where a machine is used to read your card information and record your pin while you’re using your card with a reliable business. These devices are found largely in service stations where credit and debit cards are used to purchase gas, snacks, and auto supplies. Fraud artists attach a machine called an electronic skimmer to the gasoline pump that does not only read your credit card number but your pin number as well, while the owner remains none-the-wiser.

Needless to say, this opens a can of worms regarding your personal finances. By using the card and pin number gleaned from this device, false identification cards can be quickly issued, allowing perpetrators to obtain information regarding your bank account, as well as your personal information that can be used to make other types of transactions possible. These crooks work fast and have been known to strip bank accounts of thousands of dollars in just one day. In addition to that, they can issue checks, make countless purchases, and create new lines of credit. In general, they can cause financial catastrophe in your name. Unfortunately, once this happens, it often takes months or even years to straighten things out.

Unfortunately, there is no way to determine when a skimmer is in use. Here’s a story from a local newspaper in Lawrenceville, GA where this happened and the police are now asking for help to resolve the problem.

If you’ve dined at Footprints Cafe and paid with a debit or credit card, Lawrenceville Police are asking you to double check your statements. Over the weekend, police arrested Laura-Grace Tanis, a waitress at the restaurant. According to a police report, Tanis used a portable electronic skimmer to capture information from customers’ credit cards. She was charged with Financial Credit Card Theft and Criminal Possession of a Financial Transaction Card Forgery Device. Tanis has only been charged with one count so far, but Lawrenceville police are looking into whether this was an isolated incident or was part of a larger operation. Investigators are following leads that may show it was in fact a more extensive network of people involved in the card skimming scheme. If you should find something amiss, please contact Lawrenceville Police Detectives at (770) 963-2443.

In June the FBI arrested 24 credit card hackers which included two dozen people in 13 countries. Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg. In order to protect your credit and identity, the FBI recommends individuals stay alert and follow some simple rules:

• Keep your credit cards in sight at all times. Unfortunately, this alone will not work where a gas pump is ‘rigged’ with one of these devices. Restaurants are also where this frequently occurs. An answer to this concern is to pay cash.
• Always monitor your receipts against your statements as well as carefully check the receipt when paying to make sure there are no additional charges that were not authorized.
• Shred all papers that involve any financial solicitations or reports that are not kept and filed in a secure location.

If you find you have been scammed you should:

• Notify the police and retain the report number.
• Notify your credit card company and bank immediately and request all account numbers be changed. Under federal law you can only be held liable for $50 of unauthorized charges.
• Inform the three major credit bureaus so that they can notify any company requesting credit information. A good place to visit is www.annualcreditreport.com. A federal law established this site to provide free annual credit reports as well as monitor this type of theft and provide a place where people can report any suspicious activity on their accounts.
In this era of economic distress and increased electronic use, the FBI Cyber Crimes Unit has documented an increase in all types of scams that include the use of illegal electronic skimmers. This makes it important that consumers remain alert at all times.