Watch Out for These NEW Online Scams

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Is there anything happening right now

00:00:07.380 | that you know about 'cause you're in the industry

00:00:10.100 | that maybe other people will hear about

00:00:12.380 | over the next few years, but would be good to know now?

00:00:15.180 | - Well, let's go through some of the scams that exist

00:00:19.140 | and sort of match them to what's going on.

00:00:21.940 | First of all, there are healthcare scams

00:00:23.740 | that have been going on for forever,

00:00:25.940 | but in particular, COVID was a petri dish for them

00:00:30.780 | and now monkey pox is becoming a problem as well.

00:00:34.420 | And that could be anything from updates,

00:00:37.820 | to tracking, to notifications,

00:00:42.460 | to here's where you get your vaccine,

00:00:45.140 | here's where you schedule your test, these kinds of things.

00:00:49.420 | So you have to be on the lookout for this.

00:00:52.080 | Again, as you said, run your cursor over the email address

00:00:56.460 | to make sure that where it's coming from looks legitimate.

00:01:00.620 | And even then, wherever it's coming from,

00:01:04.260 | even if it's a phone calls from someone saying

00:01:07.100 | they're from the health department,

00:01:09.180 | thank them, hang up, independently confirm

00:01:12.060 | the right number for your county health department

00:01:14.380 | or your state health department, or even the CDC,

00:01:17.740 | if you think you're getting a call from the CDC,

00:01:20.380 | which I really haven't heard of too many calls

00:01:22.520 | coming from the CDC.

00:01:24.220 | But, and then call the real number and speak to somebody

00:01:28.640 | and confirm whatever that information

00:01:32.400 | that they're providing you.

00:01:35.120 | And remember, in most of these cases,

00:01:37.760 | they are never supposed to ask you

00:01:40.000 | what your social security number is

00:01:43.440 | or getting credit card information from you.

00:01:46.280 | You know, you can't pay to get to the head of the line

00:01:48.760 | with these.

00:01:49.740 | If it's a legitimate government situation

00:01:53.360 | and it's involving healthcare,

00:01:54.960 | there is a protocol to use.

00:01:57.760 | And in no protocol that I know of and have ever known of,

00:02:01.960 | are you paying something in advance

00:02:04.040 | in order to advance your prospects with that?

00:02:07.960 | So you have health, job scams all the time,

00:02:11.840 | especially during the great resignation

00:02:15.100 | and now with inflation and now with the concerns

00:02:18.860 | about whether or not there's going to be a recession.

00:02:21.500 | You know, people may be looking for additional jobs.

00:02:25.020 | There, go to legitimate, well-vetted websites

00:02:29.060 | and make sure that you're communicating

00:02:31.940 | with the right organization.

00:02:33.620 | If someone asks you to provide your social security number

00:02:38.740 | right off the bat, that's not legitimate.

00:02:41.980 | Don't walk, run.

00:02:43.740 | - So this could be a job board.

00:02:45.460 | You see a job you're interested in.

00:02:47.500 | You're like, ooh, this company's interesting.

00:02:49.220 | Maybe I should apply for it.

00:02:50.820 | It could just be a totally a fake company

00:02:52.580 | that's leading you down a path of interviewing for a job

00:02:56.260 | with the purpose of just collecting information about you.

00:02:58.820 | Is that-

00:02:59.660 | - Absolutely.

00:03:00.500 | Or getting financial information by way of, you know,

00:03:04.180 | giving you, giving them your credit card information.

00:03:06.500 | Let's say it's a secret shopper job and they say, well,

00:03:10.860 | you know, to get you started, you know,

00:03:13.620 | we're going to be laying out some money,

00:03:14.860 | but we'd like you to sort of reimburse us for this.

00:03:17.180 | So be careful.

00:03:18.020 | You don't want to get involved in anything like that

00:03:20.580 | unless you can confirm the legitimacy of it.

00:03:22.980 | So always independently confirm.

00:03:25.940 | Also confirm that that particular company

00:03:28.420 | is actually looking to hire people,

00:03:31.060 | which you can go by going to the real website

00:03:35.620 | of the organization and then calling the HR department

00:03:38.900 | of the company and asking them

00:03:40.700 | if they're conducting interviews.

00:03:42.460 | But you have to be very careful about job scams.

00:03:44.860 | There was a scam that was going around for a while,

00:03:48.420 | disappeared, came back again, the jury commission scam.

00:03:51.140 | That's where you get a phone call.

00:03:52.580 | Someone represents themselves to be

00:03:54.460 | from the jury commission.

00:03:56.140 | They're polling, quote, eligible jurors in the district.

00:04:00.780 | And if you would be so kind as to provide them

00:04:03.780 | with your social security number,

00:04:05.940 | they'll be able to let you know whether or not

00:04:07.820 | you're eligible or not for the jury poll.

00:04:10.780 | There have been scams where police departments

00:04:12.980 | were supposedly calling people

00:04:14.580 | and asking them for specific information.

00:04:19.580 | Generally, police departments just don't call people

00:04:22.860 | out of the blue, or if they do, it's a legitimate detective.

00:04:25.620 | They may be asking you questions,

00:04:27.420 | but they're not going to be asking

00:04:28.540 | for your social security number or your date of birth

00:04:31.100 | or things like that.

00:04:32.740 | So unemployment scams, of course,

00:04:36.540 | have been a disaster during COVID.

00:04:38.700 | I mean, billions upon billions of dollars have been stolen.

00:04:41.900 | My own sister-in-law, who was on one of our episodes,

00:04:45.260 | was talking about the fact that she was legitimately notified

00:04:49.260 | by her home state of Colorado and by the state of Ohio

00:04:53.380 | that somebody using her information

00:04:55.380 | had applied for unemployment benefits.

00:04:57.820 | In one case, she found out simply because she received

00:05:01.340 | a debit card in the mail from the unemployment agency,

00:05:06.780 | which she said, "I'm not looking for a job.

00:05:09.980 | I'm fine. I'm not out of work."

00:05:13.180 | We've had cases where people found out

00:05:15.180 | because someone in their company walked up to their desk

00:05:19.180 | in the days when people were actually at their desk

00:05:21.820 | and said, "By the way, why did you apply for unemployment?

00:05:26.820 | You still have a job here."

00:05:29.540 | So, you know, that was going on.

00:05:32.420 | You have the tech scams.

00:05:33.780 | That's when you get a phone call

00:05:35.140 | from someone representing themselves

00:05:36.900 | to be from Apple or Microsoft saying that they've noticed

00:05:40.900 | that there's a problem with your computer.

00:05:43.140 | They are going to direct you to a site

00:05:46.460 | where you can download certain software,

00:05:50.140 | which will enable them to then come into your computer

00:05:53.620 | and check it out and solve whatever the problem is.

00:05:56.620 | Apple and Microsoft, they don't do that,

00:05:59.860 | but scammers certainly do that.

00:06:01.780 | So, you know, be on the lookout for tech scams.

00:06:05.700 | Then, of course, in the line of work

00:06:07.540 | that you've been talking about too,

00:06:08.940 | which is vacations and points and all of that,

00:06:12.700 | there have been theft of frequent fire miles.

00:06:16.300 | There have been all kinds of vacation scams,

00:06:18.900 | all kinds of rental scams

00:06:22.500 | that people have to be on the lookout for,

00:06:24.420 | which we can go into further depth if you'd like to do that.

00:06:27.500 | And then there's catfishing, which is huge.

00:06:30.940 | And it just, you know, whatever the theme may be,

00:06:35.180 | it's still a catfish.

00:06:37.180 | And what people are trying to do

00:06:39.460 | is they're trying to tug on your heartstrings

00:06:41.500 | and get you to believe that they care about you.

00:06:44.900 | And the whole goal is to get into your life

00:06:48.060 | as quickly as possible and as authentically as possible,

00:06:52.740 | but yet you never really get to see them.

00:06:55.180 | You never get to really hear them.

00:06:58.580 | You may just be communicating with them by text or by email.

00:07:02.820 | And then at some point relatively quickly

00:07:05.380 | into this relationship,

00:07:07.340 | you're suddenly asked for a lot of personal information,

00:07:12.860 | or they send you a compromising picture

00:07:16.900 | and ask you to reciprocate.

00:07:19.660 | And what you don't realize, that's not their picture,

00:07:22.260 | but unfortunately that's your picture

00:07:24.940 | you just sent to them.

00:07:26.780 | And suddenly you can become a victim

00:07:29.460 | of extortion and blackmail.

00:07:31.460 | Or they ask you to provide credit card information

00:07:36.020 | so that you can help them get a plane ticket

00:07:39.220 | to come visit you.

00:07:40.700 | Or we've had cases, we had a woman on our show

00:07:43.060 | talking about the fact that she met someone online

00:07:46.980 | who even had a terrific LinkedIn profile

00:07:49.700 | as a very successful medical professional

00:07:53.660 | who had decided to dedicate part of his life

00:07:56.020 | to go to the Mideast and then open a clinic there.

00:07:58.980 | And somewhere in the first couple of weeks

00:08:01.940 | that they were getting to know each other,

00:08:03.420 | he said, you know, our equipment has come in.

00:08:06.180 | It's held up by customs at the airport.

00:08:08.900 | If there's any way that you could help me

00:08:11.660 | by sending me 30,000 so I can get the equipment out,

00:08:15.860 | that would be great.

00:08:16.700 | Of course, she didn't do it.

00:08:17.660 | She wouldn't fall for it.

00:08:18.700 | But unfortunately, a lot of people do.

00:08:21.260 | I mean, we've seen cases where someone was taken

00:08:25.180 | to the tune of $2 million by someone who convinced them

00:08:30.180 | that he loved him.

00:08:33.860 | And the only way that they found out

00:08:35.980 | there was something wrong,

00:08:37.500 | which they should have known from the beginning,

00:08:39.420 | but was that a financial advisor notified members

00:08:43.700 | of their family and said,

00:08:44.820 | "Something's going on with your mom.

00:08:46.740 | She's taking a lot of money out and sending it overseas.

00:08:50.620 | You really need to look into this."

00:08:52.380 | And even after confronted with the reality of her situation,

00:08:57.380 | she said, "Okay, I understand it's a fraud,

00:08:59.700 | but in my heart, I still love him."

00:09:02.300 | I mean, this is how deeply they ingrain themselves

00:09:05.580 | into your life.

00:09:06.820 | And then another scam, and I won't go on forever,

00:09:10.100 | but another scam are charity scams.

00:09:13.500 | And this is where they'll take the issue of the day,

00:09:15.580 | whether it's the Ukraine, it's a natural disaster,

00:09:19.260 | it's a crisis somewhere in the world, it's children,

00:09:23.060 | any one of those topics, whatever is in the news,

00:09:26.300 | they will use it, they will convince you

00:09:28.700 | that they are the newest, best, most successful,

00:09:32.620 | most respected organization in the space.

00:09:36.020 | And could you please give them credit card information

00:09:38.700 | or send money to this?

00:09:41.180 | And it's not real, it's a fraud.

00:09:44.820 | That's really interesting.

00:09:45.660 | So I've been a little familiar with some,

00:09:47.900 | not all the others.

00:09:49.380 | When it comes to the frequent flyer miles thing,

00:09:51.980 | if you Google my name, there's some articles

00:09:55.140 | about having a lot of points and miles.

00:09:56.660 | And so I have been a victim of, I guess,

00:10:01.260 | theft of points, I guess,

00:10:03.500 | which we talked about maybe coming on your show.

00:10:06.020 | And if that happens, definitely go check it out.

00:10:08.540 | I'll tell the full story. - Absolutely.

00:10:11.500 | - But in short, it led me to,

00:10:14.580 | that's what set me down a path

00:10:15.900 | of really locking down all these accounts,

00:10:17.780 | because someone was able to call Chase

00:10:21.700 | and get Chase to let them order things

00:10:25.860 | with points on the internet.

00:10:27.740 | The craziest thing,

00:10:28.660 | and I have still today don't understand it,

00:10:31.460 | was they ordered an Apple laptop using my points,

00:10:34.140 | but they shipped it to my house.

00:10:35.860 | Now, maybe the plan was to come to my house

00:10:38.540 | and kind of pick it up, but they never did.

00:10:41.180 | And I just, an Apple laptop showed up.

00:10:43.820 | So it was like the strangest fraud

00:10:47.300 | because Chase refunded the points.

00:10:49.580 | And now I had a laptop.

00:10:50.420 | I asked Chase what they wanted me to do with it.

00:10:52.860 | And they said, "Try to take it to the Apple store."

00:10:55.220 | The Apple store didn't want it.

00:10:56.580 | So eventually Chase said,

00:10:58.460 | "The best thing we can tell you is to keep it or donate it.

00:11:00.940 | We don't know what to do."

00:11:02.580 | Which ended up being a happy story for me,

00:11:04.900 | but it was probably payback

00:11:06.860 | for the hours of time to mitigate it.

Watch Out for These NEW Online Scams

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