Scams & Cons

Have you ever heard of a scam used on travelers using pizza menus? Until yesterday, I hadn’t. And, until yesterday, I never would have hesitated when ordering a pizza from a hotel room. Travel scam – pizza menus The pizza-menu scam is quite simple as far a scams and cons go. Someone walks through a […]

In this morning’s email, I found an email from Verizon Wireless Services. The email was addressed to me, included the Verizon logo, colors, etc. In short, it appeared to be legitimate with two exceptions. There was no identifying account information and the balance was huge. How to tell a phishing email from the real thing […]

It’s easy to find yourself the victim of a travel scam. With the summer travel season fast approaching, it’s a time that offers identity thieves the perfect opportunity to make money at your expense. Here are three quick tips on how to avoid becoming the victim of identity thieves that prey on travelers. Two of […]

This morning, I started to log on to Twitter.com, but got redirected immediately to a website where I was told that I had been selected to complete in a three-question survey and that for my trouble, I would receive a prize. The suspicious angel on my right shoulder said, “Scam alert!” The curious devil on […]

Yesterday, while driving, I received a text message. I seldom receive text messages, so I thought this must involve something important. To my surprise, the message was from Walmart—or so the message said. The text message read as follows: “Dear Walmart shopper, your purchase last month won a $1000 Walmart Gift Card. Click here to […]

Amazon.com is a favorite target of email scams. You might have already received an email that supposedly comes from Amazon telling you that there is a problem with your recent order. Because the email looks a lot like it really did come from Amazon, it’s easy to fall for this scam. It’s even easier to […]

Have you ever gotten a frantic email from a friend about them being stranded in London (or another city) and asking you to send money? That email scam is making its tired way around the circuit again. Here’s an example of one that I received just last week. “I’m writing this with tears in my […]

If you know someone who uses AOL as their email provider then you have probably received an email within the past couple of days with a link and perhaps a small snippet of text such as “…Get rich on-line…” Oddly enough, there appears to be very little information about this AOL email scam online, but […]

On May 5, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) issued a warning to people traveling abroad to beware of malware. The IC3’s release stated, “Recent analysis from the FBI and other government agencies demonstrates that malicious actors are targeting travelers abroad through pop-up windows while establishing an Internet connection in their hotel rooms.” This malware […]

This internet email scam that is being used a lot these days has several variations. The latest involves yet another modification on the original email that claimed my package couldn’t be delivered and was being held until I claimed it. The email from the “US Postal Service” has changed slightly—the supposed package is now being […]