It certainly seems like that the pandemic and shutdown did nothing to slow down the con artists and fraudsters out there, in fact, it feels like there are more and more scams popping up every week. Let’s take a look at some of the ones that have been showing up on our radar recently.

This one at first glance seems legit after all there are people driving around with ads on their cars all the time, but really this is another take on the “fake check scam”. What will happen is you'll either see some kind of job posting, or an email might come into your box, or you may even see an advertisement for something that claims to be able to pay you to just drive your car around. And the idea is that you'll answer this ad and they'll say, "Yeah, all you have to do is put an advertisement car wrap logo on your car, drive around like you normally would, and we'll pay you several hundred dollars a week for that.” 

How It Works - They send you a check (it’s bogus) and tell you to deposit it into your account and then use the money to purchase the car wrap from their “specialist”. The payment will be done in either a wire transfer or a money order, something that is not reversible. Once the bank realizes the check is fraudulent they will reverse the money, which means you lose the deposit plus whatever was sent to the specialist. 

Alert - Always be wary of any company that says, we're going to send you a check and you go and use that to buy something.

While these have been around for awhile, it seems that they are popping up more and more here in 2021. In this con, you'll get a phone call claiming to be a relative of yours, and they're in some kind of emergency that requires you to give them money.

This is often like they're away, as in out of town on vacation and they had a mishap or just got arrested.

How It Works – The person calling claims to be a friend or a relative and in they need money. The most common one is help to make bail. Usually the target is an elderly person and the scammer will pretend to be a grandchild. The pitch, "Oh grandpa, grandma, I'm in jail. I need a bail," followed by, "Please don't tell mom and dad. They'll be so mad. Please just send the money over now, and I'll sort it out and then tell them."  It's always very urgent. They need the money now. Maybe the hearing is tomorrow and they need the money for a lawyer, or they need to get out of jail now, because it’s scary being in jail, that sort of thing. And while you think I would know my grandson or granddaughters voice, these scammers are more clever than you may think. I saw one post where someone questioned why they sound different. They're like, "You don't sound like my grandson." And they said, "Oh, well, I broke my nose while being arrested, and that's the reason I sound different." 

Alert – Always good practice not to answer any phone call from a number you don't recognize, just let it go to voicemail (if it’s important they’ll leave a message) but at least verify the story somehow before wiring any money.

This one specifically involves 2 major corporations; Apple & Amazon and is a take on the fake order confirmation scam you may have heard of in the past.

In the past this was a phishing thing; you’d get an email alert about an order to your account and in order to cancel you need to click here. This takes the concept up a level – now it’s done with robocalls. The message may be, "This is Amazon support, and this is alerting you to an unauthorized purchase of an iPhone for a thousand dollars. Press 1 to talk to customer service to cancel this." And of course, if you pick up and you're like, "Oh, I didn't order that," so of course you press 1.

How It Works – The person will be super supportive in trying to help you get the order cancelled, but of course all they are trying to do is get your credentials. "Oh, to cancel this, we need your original credit card info," anything like that. But just note that it's a scam.

You can listen to a sample audio clip from the FTC website here, so you can an idea of what this might sound like. An unauthorized purchase of an iPhone XR 64 gigabytes for $749 is being ordered from your Amazon account. To cancel your order or to connect with one of our customer support representative, please press one or simply stay on the line. So that's just one example for Amazon, but apparently Apple is another target scammers are using.

Alert - If you get one of these phone calls, never call the number that they tell you, or press the contact button – Just Hang Up! Because if they hear you press the number, then they know now that it's a live working number and then that may be added to a list and you'll start getting even more and more spam calls. If you are concerned it might be real then we suggest you go to Amazon or Apple's official website and contact them through the official number listed on the website, not some number that a phone call gives you, because it could be fake. 

This is a new take on the fake order scam mentioned earlier, except in this case the scammers are actually sending out text messages, which may be personalized using your name (which they obtain from data list brokers) and it will go, "Oh (your name) you have a package waiting from USPS or from Amazon, click this link to find out more and how to receive it.” But then if you do click the link, it's going to take you to what looks like a login page for Amazon, Apple or whoever’s website the package is supposed to be from.

How It Works - It's a phishing page and they're going to immediately steal your credentials and then use it to order from your real account and to try and take your money that way. 

Alert – Don’t click the link. Even if you know it's a scam and you're curious what the website's going to look like, don't do it, because they definitely have trackers on those links to know who is clicking the links and who's not. And the next thing you know is that you will be getting more & more e going to start to get even more text message spam because they know you're a working number. 

Due to COVID and the shutdown over the past year these scams have become much more prevalent, so much so that the FTC has started a new campaign to spread awareness, called Operation Income Illusion, to let people know that these scams are becoming more common. These scams come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Note – the car wrap scam we wrote about earlier was basically a form of this. Usually it is an ad, or email, or even a posting on social media about “Work From Home”. Regardless of the pretext they use to get your attention, they will try to take your money in a variety of ways. 

How It Works – Usually it’s based on the fake check scam we described earlier. The job may require you to buy something in order to do the work – let’s say it’s a specific type of printer. Either you’ll be asked to buy it upfront from their supplier, or worse, they’ll send you a check to cover the cost, either way you never get anything out of it.

Alert – If they are making claims that they will reimburse you for your purchase or wanting you to buy from a specific vendor, then beware. It’s best to do a little more due diligence before getting involved with the company.

Scammers are relentless and the coronavirus relief and stimulus checks seemed to open more ways for them to try and take advantage of people.

How It Works - A common tactic is for scammers to contact you, whether it's email, text message, phone call, whatever, and they'll say, “Congratulations your eligible to get your stimulus check of $XXXX, whatever. Here’s all you need to do to get your claim…”

And then they’ll go about trying to steal your money or your ID in any number of ways. An example might be, "Hey, your coronavirus check is ready. We just need your bank information to deposit it. Maybe your bank account number or your bank login." Or something like, "Did you know to receive this round of stimulus money you're going to have to sign up to even be eligible? We noticed you haven’t signed up yet.” And then they give you a link to some website, of course, that is going to either steal your information and use it to steal your identity, or they might, again, steal your bank login, stuff like that.

Alert - If you're curious about whether or not you're eligible to get some kind of stimulus or when, it's always best to just stick to official websites, either your local state government or the official IRS website for details. The government isn’t going to call you about your stimulus check! 

Reach out to us at the ARIES Foundation for Financial Education, Inc and let us know if you have been approached with any of these or other scams infor@ariesfoundation.org