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 menusThe pizza-menu scam is quite simple as far a scams and cons go. Someone walks through a hotel or resort in the late afternoon after all the rooms have been … [Read more...] about Three tips for travelers to avoid the pizza-menu scam

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 thingBesides the fact that this email did not contain … [Read more...] about Verizon Wireless email scam

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 these tips won’t cost you a dime, the third involves buying … [Read more...] about Three tips to avoid identity theft when traveling

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 my left shoulder said, “At least take a look!”I gave in to Curious, … [Read more...] about The Twitter.com scam

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 claim.” The message then gave a website … [Read more...] about Walmart text message scam