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It's a shame Christmas brings out all the grubs.

The 12 scams of Christmas

November 2011: SCAMwatch is advising consumers to watch out for this year’s 12 scams of Christmas. Scams occur all year round but scammers prey on people’s generosity and vulnerabilities at this time of year.


1. Holiday accommodation scams

Time for a holiday? Whether you’re relaxing in Australia or travelling overseas this festive season, scammers may try to get hold of your money and personal details. Look out for fake accommodation vouchers, scam travel clubs and scammers asking you to pay upfront deposits for properties which aren’t actually available for rent.

Protect yourself

Always check travel offers are legitimate before you sign up, search the wording of the offer or the company name on the web as many scams can be identified this way.
Before buying holiday or accommodation vouchers check with the hotel that they are genuine and will be honoured during the period that you intend on using them.
Never provide your credit card details and other personal information to someone you don’t know or trust.

2. Flight booking scams

Scammers set up fake websites which look genuine and make you believe you are purchasing an authentic flight ticket. When you arrive at the airport you may find your booking was a fake.

Protect yourself

Always book flights through a legitimate travel agent, airline, flight booking or travel website.
Be cautious when deciding to purchase very cheap airfares – if it looks too good to be true it may be a scam.
Check that the ABN quoted on a flight booking website is genuinely registered to the trader named on the site. You can look up an ABN on the Australian Government’s business.gov.au website.

3. Charity scams

At Christmas many legitimate charities appeal for donations of money, food, clothing and children’s gifts. Unfortunately scammers also try to get your money by camouflaging themselves as genuine charities.

Protect yourself

Beware that scam charity emails and websites may use official-looking logos and words which make them look genuine. Always check that a website is legitimate before donating.
Approach legitimate charity organisations directly to make a donation or offer support.
Don't rely on any phone number or website address given by the person who first called, visited or emailed you. Independently search for the charity name online as many scams can be identified this way.

4. Online shopping scams

Found that perfect gift online? Beware, scammers post fake classified ads, auction listings, and run bogus websites. If you get caught by a scammer you will not only lose your money but will also never receive the item you were trying to purchase!

Protect yourself

Be cautious if the advertised price of an item online looks unusually low. Scam ads quote goods at much lower prices than similar items on the same or other sites.
Avoid any arrangement with a stranger that asks for up-front payment via money order or international wire transfer. Scammers will ask you to pay outside of the website’s official payment systems.
Beware, some scammers will send scam emails which appear to be from official payment companies requesting payment, others will direct you to fake payment websites which look genuine but have a different URL.
Be especially cautious when buying pets and pedigree puppies, smartphones and tablet devices, horses and saddles, motor bikes, cars and boats. These are common scam targets.

5. Parcel delivery scams

Australians are predicted to send and receive millions of parcels at Christmas time. If you are expecting a parcel from family or friends, it’s important to be aware of scams involving parcel collection. Scammers may call or email pretending to be from a logistics or parcel delivery service such as Australia Post, claiming that a non-existent parcel could not be delivered to you. They will offer to redeliver the parcel in exchange for a fee and may also ask for personal details.

Protect yourself

If you are in doubt about the authenticity of a parcel delivery call or email, don’t commit to anything. Call the company directly using their official customer service number to verify that it is genuine. Never use contact details provided by the caller or in an email.
If you think you have provided your banking or credit card details to a scammer contact your bank or financial institution immediately.

6. Social media gift voucher and free product scams

Gift vouchers make handy presents when someone is hard to buy for, but always buy them from an official source to avoid being scammed. Recent scams have involved fake gift vouchers and “free products” being offered via social networking sites. Scam offers will ask victims to give personal details via survey in return for vouchers and products which either never arrive or are not honoured.

Protect yourself

Never click on suspicious links on social networking sites – even if they are from your friends. Remember if an offer seems too good to be true it probably is!
Be very wary when filling in surveys linked to via social networking posts and pages. Scammers commonly use these surveys to steal your valuable personal information.
If in doubt about the authenticity of a free offer always contact the company on their official customer service number to verify that it is genuine. You can also search the internet using the exact wording of the offer as many social media scams can be identified this way.
If you think you have provided your banking or credit card details to a scammer contact your bank or financial institution immediately.

7. Door-to-door scams

Lots of legitimate traders sell products and services door-to-door over the holiday season. Unfortunately scammers also approach their victims this way trying to sell poor quality products that don’t do what is promised. If you fall victim, you will not get value for your money and money-back guarantees will turn out to be useless.

Protect yourself

If someone comes to your door, ask to see their identification. You do not have to let them in, and they must leave if you ask them to.
Do not agree to offers or deals straight away: tell the person that you are not interested or that you want to get some independent advice before making a decision.
Carry out a web search on the trader to see if there are other consumers who have commented on the quality of their product or service.

8. Telephone scams

If you are taking time off work over the Christmas and New Year period, you may find you receive scam calls on your home landline telephone. These scams have been prominent over 2011 with scam callers claiming that your computer is infected with a virus, offering fake government grants/compensation or seeking bank details in order to process a bank fee or tax refund.

Protect yourself

Be cautious if you are contacted out of the blue by someone claiming to be from a government department, a business or private organisation requesting personal information or payment for various services or fees. If you’re not sure that a call is a scam you can check by independently using official contact details, never use phone numbers or email addresses provided by the caller.
NEVER provide or confirm your personal, credit card or online account details over the phone unless you made the call using details you found yourself and you trust the other party.

9. Christmas e-card scams

At this time of year it’s not uncommon to be sent emails containing links to Christmas e-cards. Whilst these emails often come from colleagues, friends and family, they may have unknowingly forwarded on attachments containing hidden malware or links scam websites. The emails may contain animations, pictures, videos or links which when opened, download malicious software onto you’re your machine. Malware can be used to steal sensitive personal information stored on the computer or to record your keystrokes when you enter passwords online.

Protect yourself

Never open unsolicited emails, delete them immediately!
As fun as they may look, exercise caution when opening e-cards even if they’ve come from someone you know. Never click on any links or open any attachments in these emails.
Keep your computer updated with the latest anti-virus and anti-spy ware software. Also, use a good firewall.

10. Romance scams

Online dating scams are very common and last year cost Australians more than $15 million. If you are looking for that special someone online be cautious. Scammers post fake profiles on legitimate online dating websites and will give various excuses to ask you to send them money via international wire transfer.

Protect yourself

Be wary of anyone who you have not personally met who asks you to send them money, gifts or your banking and credit card details.
Be very careful about how much personal information you share on social network and dating sites.

11. Weight loss Scams

Many of us make resolutions to loose weight over the Summer holidays, but watch out for scammers offering ‘miracle’ weight loss pills and potions. These scams may promise weight loss for little or no effort or may involve unusual or restrictive diets, ‘revolutionary’ exercise or fat-busting devices, or products such as pills, patches, or creams. Also watch out for 'free trials' that may sign you up to unexpected payments.

Protect yourself

Remember, there are no magic pills for rapid weight loss, instead speak with your GP about healthy and safe weight loss options.
Be very careful about offers for medicines, supplements or other treatments: always seek the advice of your health care professional.

12. Lottery scams

There are many legitimate lottery jackpots, competitions and sweepstakes throughout the festive season, however lottery scams also circulate at this time of year. These scams will often use the names of legitimate overseas lotteries or carry the name of a well known company, event or person. You will usually be asked to pay various ongoing fees to release your winnings but you will lose all the money you pay and won’t receive anything in return.

Protect yourself

If you receive a letter, email or SMS out of the blue claiming you have won a lottery which you never entered it’s most likely a scam – ignore it.
Ask yourself why you are being asked to pay fees when these could come out of the winnings. Genuine lotteries don’t operate this way.

Report

You can report scams to the ACCC via the report a scam page on SCAMwatch or by calling 1300 795 995.

Stay one step ahead of scammers, follow @SCAMwatch_gov on Twitter or visit http://twitter.com/SCAMwatch_gov.

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Tempus fugit

And the thirteenth which I've received twice this week pretends to come from Paypal saying that I've changed my credit card details and click here to confirm.
As I had changed them, I was almost sucked in until I noticed that it came from intpaypal.com not paypal.com.

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I'm John. I collect Italian, particularly the Mussolini years.

Quick way to pick a Paypal scam is that it will open with the words "Dear customer" or "dear account holder".

If it's genuine, Paypal will use your correct Paypal account name.

Just a computer safety tip to add.

It's always a good idea to look carefully but keep in mind that even something that really 'comes from' a paypal.com email address does not mean that it is from PayPal at all. Because of the SMTP people can tweek addresses and cover the real source from showing as they plug in anything that they want to appear in the from area.

It's called spoofing...see this link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_spoofing

If you get an email, etc. from a company that you really do business with, it's really best to always close the email, close the entire browser as well, all of them (to kill scripts running, which is a different issue) and then either call (via the phone number that is physically on the back of your credit card for example if the email is from a credit card) or in the case of PayPal, etc. log directly into the website by physically typing in the known address (https://www.paypal.com) into your fresh browser without going through any email links. If all else fails, call them with the existing phone number that you already have from them and never call a number from an email.

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'The world is indeed comic, but the joke is on mankind.' -H. P. Lovecraft

If you have Youtube account:

Warning, this is not an official Youtube document, it's a grub trying to trick you.

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Tempus fugit

If your after a few heads up then here's the ones I'm currently getting:

From: PayPal "my account details have changed" etc
From: "My Broadband provider" (But they used the real name that I am with), "I will be cut off unless I update my details"
From: "My Mobile Phone provider", same as above.
From: UPS "A parcel has been sent to me, here is the tracking info"
From: Firefox "upgrade to firefox 8 now" by clicking here.
From: "My bank" (insert any bank you choose) "your details have changed, click here to restore" (This one is dangerous as they use screen shots of the real logos etc)
From: Adobe, "upgrade to adobe reader 2012". There isn't one called that!


They are everywhere but the answers are so simple for 99.9% of them!

They never use my name, or any on my account/member numbers.

Most are never actually sent to my email address just "undisclosed recipients" or multiple configurations that happen to include my actual email.

Nearly all land in my junk mail folder and I have fun deleting them and reporting the dangerous ones.


Then again I seem to be friends with Mr Gadaffi's wife, a lot of Ghanan banks and politicians, a billion European loterries, Mrs Clinton, relatives I never knew who leave me money in their wills and a few thousand dying millionaires lying in beds with no one to give all their money to.

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Greg - Looking for Goulburn Australia Cancels and Grangemouth Scotland Cancels and Covers
Member of the S.T.A.M.P Club for Slightly Twisted And Mad Philatelists - Motto: "Bring back the lick!"

Interesting isn't it!

I've had 2 emails from Paypal and one from Adobe in the last two days!

Speaking to Paypal customer service, they recomend that you forward the spoof emails to spoof@paypal.com.au

The emails go to their fraud squad who will attempt to track the offenders down...not that I like their chances! They have apparently been swamped by people calling about these emails. Sort of feel sorry for those silly enough to respond to the original email. Credit card account will be empty before you blink an eye!

Some good advice written here by members. Everyone should read it. Anne

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I am having fun collecting WW and Indian States.

Agree.

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Click HERE to see superb, RARE and unusual stamps, at FIXED low nett prices, high rez photos, and NO buyer fees etc!

The only one of these I have experienced recently is the PayPal email scam, they send emails saying 'click this link, your details have changed/your card has expired' and the you are asked to enter details into the FAKE PayPal site.

I just delete all emails from PayPal and frequently look at my account by signing in to www.paypal.com instead.

NSW Police Force 08122011 (Facebook)
Christmas e-card #scams - Beware of emails containing attachments or links to Christmas e-cards. These have been known to contain hidden malware and/or links to scam websites. SCAMwatch advises: 1. don't open unsolicited emails - delete them immediately; 2. only open e-cards if you're certain of the sender and reason for sending; 3. keep your computer's security software up-to-date. For further advice, visit the SCAMwatch website.

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Tempus fugit

The best email system IMHO is Gmail - All SPAM automatically goes into a folder that keeps it out of your inbox.

And another one to keep people on their toes.

Today a relative received a letter, to her home address (she has a P.O. box), with a postage imprint from Portugal.

She has just won 1,610,550.00 euros; all she has to do to begin processing her claim is either go on-line, or fill out the claim form (which the company so thoughtfully supply).

They don't want much - just her banking details, next of kin, occupation, a photocopy of her driver's license......

On the scam-watch website I even found this particular scam as an example;

http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/item.phtml?itemId=727291&nodeId=2d3c444c522bb3254ee6fa73506802fc&fn=Lottery%20Scam-Sample%201.pdf

It does pay to remember that not all scams use the 'net. Fortunately, mum is a wily old bird and we had a joke about it.

But others may not be so suspicious.......

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FORESTS OLD, PASTURES NEW
(An expert is one who knows more and more, about less and less)

Which one of these would you recognise as a scam? Or both?
Both received within the last 24hrs.






Apparently 1 of them is a proper email from Paypal, but even the info on the link was not to my liking so I went straight to the website to check for mayself.

Which one to your eyes is the fake?

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Greg - Looking for Goulburn Australia Cancels and Grangemouth Scotland Cancels and Covers
Member of the S.T.A.M.P Club for Slightly Twisted And Mad Philatelists - Motto: "Bring back the lick!"

The fake will be the one that doesn't include your name. Scams usually say "Dear member", but in this case the salutations have been blotted out. But I also think the bottom one is the fake since PayPal normally sends all their correspondence from its headquarters in the USA.

Just got this spam email today in my inbox

Hello dear friends!

My name is Vladimir, I live in Russia, in Volgograd. Since childhood, fond of collecting stamps and other philatelic materials. I am currently with a group of like-minded people create the Children's Center of philately. Our goal - to captivate as many children aged 10 to 15 years collecting, and thus minimize the deleterious effects on children of negative social factors. We plan to form a set consisting of stamps, postal envelopes, tweezers, albums for stamps, philatelic literature, and give them to participants in our center for the formation of interest in philately. Unfortunately, their own funds to purchase the required number of philatelic materials we have enough. Would be very grateful if you could give us all possible assistance in acquisition of sets for young philatelists. Gratefully accept any postage, guards envelopes, stamp-album, tweezers, magazines and any other materials on philately, which you can send us.

In addition, we plan to build sets of postage stamps, envelopes and other philatelic materials and send them to institutions for children without parental care. Thus, children will feel cared for adults and will have the opportunity to expand horizons and a new exciting hobby.

If you accept the generous help, the topic and the amount of materials sent to us will be left to your kind decision.

Dear friends and colleagues! If you find it possible to respond to our request, we ask you to sent us letters and packages necessary to specify an email address for feedback. We will certainly notify you that, in what kind of child care and how much we have sent kits for young collectors, philatelists.
Mailing address: Vladimir Lukin, Anri Barbusa, 8-13, Volgograd, Russia, 400081.

P.S: We also greatly appreciate if you could find it possible to send us the materials and on other types of traditional collectibles such as numismatics, faleristics Bonistics, etc., as well as accessories and appliances in such kinds of collectibles. The thus obtained materials will be sent to the above method, and a report sent to your address.

Thank you very much for your understanding and help!
Success!
Very truly yours, Vladimir!



Is this guy a scammer or a time waster?, has anyone else got it

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I collect Malta, Ireland, Malta, Tristan da Cunha, Malta, various Pacific Islands, Malta, New Zealand, Malta, Australia and Malta.

I think it's legit. He is simply asking for postal matter. Every scammer I have ever read or seen wants one thing only.....your money. Preferably in tens of thousands. You could always send him some old decimal stamps and see what reaction is generated.

Well, I could easily send him 4-500 stamps...with just a c/o PO address!

As we don't have mail delivery here in Lockington, everything HAS to be picked up at the PO.

If I let the Postmaster know what's going on, he can vet anything coming through! Knowing him, he'd be right in on it and would enjoy a bit of excitment for our very boring little town!

Boring Town: means:

Everybody knows everybody else.

Most people know everybody elses business...whether it's true or not!

If a delivery man ask where a certain address is...you have to ask who it's being delivered too! We all know where so and so lives, but we don't know the address

I would be game enough to give that a go! providing everyone here thinks it OK!

Another thought, do you think it's from a genuine "club" or from someone wanting to fast-track his own collection?!

hutch

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I am having fun collecting WW and Indian States.

Why is he asking for an email address ? It would appear he already has it !!

I've thought this over and have decided to give it a go.

I'll just send a couple of hundred old stamps I was going to give to another poster here for her art work but she never got back to me.

I'm not going to include my email address though. Just a "C/O PO" address. If they want to contact me it will have to be by mail!

hutch

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I am having fun collecting WW and Indian States.