Score one for the feds in its ongoing cat-and-mouse game with robo-call telemarketers. The agency just shut down five companies in Arizona and Florida responsible for what it characterized as millions of calls from “Rachel” and her fraudulent friends at “Cardholder Services.”
scams
The Poet Laureate of Identity Theft
To literary-minded Americans, he’s a scribe of suburban ennui. To a loose confederacy of Nigerian hackers, he’s a potentially lucrative collection of account numbers and passwords. In both cases, he’s Rick Moody. And after a …
Why Those Annoying Robo-Calls From ‘Rachel’ Aren’t Going Away Anytime Soon
Rachel’s back, and this time, she’s brought her friends. Despite ongoing efforts by the Federal Trade Commission, complaints about robo-calls — from “Rachel from Card Services” and other automated telemarketer scammers — have …
Top Consumer Complaints: Our Latest, Biggest, Weirdest Grievances
So we like to complain. What else is new? No, really — what’s new? A consumer watchdog group just released a study about the biggest and baddest complaints fielded by various investigative agencies last year. There are some …
Olympic Scammers Go for the Gold as Games Near
Financial Fraud: How to Avoid the Grandparent Scam
Scam artists have a new method: pose as a youngster in trouble in a foreign country and get Grandma to wire money. You’d be surprised how often it works.
Don’t Fall For a Facebook IPO Scam
Facebook is getting ready for its IPO any day now. Some analysts predict that the eight-year-old company could be worth nearly $100 billion. If the actual numbers wind up being anywhere near that, some early-stage investors and …
Here’s How Your Identity Will Be Stolen: The Top 10 Scams
For the past 12 years, the top category of consumer complaints fielded by the Federal Trade Commission has been identity theft. In 2011, this category made up 15% of all complaints. Crooks have many ways of stealing your personal …
Feds Bust the Mother of All Robocalling Rings
If you were pestered by telemarketers any time between January 2008 and August 2009, there’s a good chance that at least some of the calls came from an operation that was just squashed by the Federal Trade Commission. The agency put out of business a huge operation that bombarded consumers with 2.6 billion robocalls over that time …
Old ‘Nigerian Lottery’ Scam Gets a New Twist
Prepaid-debit-card providers like to make the argument that their products can be used just like bank accounts, but there’s one major way in which prepaid debit differs from bank-issued cards tied to an account or line of credit: …
Financial Scams Target Boomers
Baby boomers are still looking out for their parents, even as they have fallen into the crosshairs of financial con artists themselves. It’s a bona fide boomer nightmare: they are becoming their mom or dad—at least as it …
Gambling Site Full Tilt Poker Alleged to Be a Ponzi Scheme
It’s easy to lose money by gambling. And it’s really easy to lose money by gambling when the house is basically using a stacked deck, and never plans on paying out all the winnings. According to attorneys who filed a civil suit …
