Tag Archives: Avoiding Scams

Red Flags in Rescue: Don’t Fall for a Pet Adoption Scam

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At First Financial, we know how much joy a new furry friend can bring. If you’re looking to adopt a pet online, be cautious. Pet adoption scams are on the rise, and can leave aspiring pet owners with their hearts broken, wallets drained – and one big financial headache.

These scams typically occur online through fake websites, social media posts, or classified ads. Scammers will post adorable photos of animals that aren’t real or aren’t available – to lure you into paying for adoption fees, shipping costs, and/or vaccinations. Once you send the money, the scammer will disappear or “ghost” you, and you’ll unfortunately never get your desired pet.

According to the Better Business Bureau, thousands of aspiring pet parents fall victim to puppy adoption scams and similar fraud each year. Victims report losing anywhere from $500 to $2,000 per scam, often without any recourse for recovery.

Whether you’re searching for a rescue or a purebred pet, it’s important to understand the red flags of fraudulent listings before sending any money.

Red Flags to Watch Out For

Be sure to watch out for these common warning signs of a scam:

  • Too-good-to-be-true offers. Purebred puppies or exotic pets listed at a low cost or as “free to a good home.”
  • Unusual payment methods. Scammers will often ask for wire transfers, gift cards, Venmo, or Zelle – all methods that are hard to trace.
  • No video calls or visits. The “seller” avoids letting you see the pet in real time or meet in person.
  • Pushy tactics. You’re pressured to pay quickly before someone else “claims” the pet.
  • Shipping costs. Many times, the scammer will want to ship the pet – charging you more for shipping fees, vet clearance, etc.

How to Avoid Pet Adoption Scams

Before you click “send” on any payment, follow these tips to protect yourself:

  1. Research the rescue agency or breeder. Look for reviews, verify their business license, and check for complaints on BBB.org.
  2. Never pay with untraceable methods. Use a credit card or secure payment system that offers fraud protection.
  3. Insist on an in-person meetup. There are plenty of animals waiting to be adopted. Only adopt one that you’ve met in real life.
  4. Avoid emotional decisions. Scammers will prey on your love for animals. Take your time and don’t let urgency cloud your judgment.
  5. Adopt locally when possible. Visit your local animal shelter or reputable rescue organization in person.

What To Do If You’ve Been Scammed

If you think you’ve been the victim of a pet adoption scam, take immediate action:

  • Report the fraud to the Federal Trade Commission (ftc.gov) and Better Business Bureau.
  • Contact your financial institution to try to reverse or stop any payments.
  • File a police report, especially if significant funds were involved.

Protecting You & Your Finances

First Financial cares about your financial safety and well-being. Before you adopt, take a moment to ensure you’re working with a trusted source. If you ever have questions about suspicious transactions on any of your First Financial accounts or protecting your financial information, our team is here to help. Contact us, stop into your local branch, or visit our website for more financial wellness tips.

Protecting Your Finances: Beware of Double Zero Scams

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In today’s digital age, financial scams come in many forms and staying vigilant is crucial to safeguarding your hard-earned money. One such scam gaining traction is the Double Zero Scam, a cunning scheme that preys on unsuspecting individuals’ goodwill and trust. Let’s delve into exactly what this scam entails and how to protect yourself.

What is a Double Zero Scam?

Imagine receiving a call from someone claiming to represent a reputable company that you may have an account with or have purchased a product or service from in the past. The caller informs you that a $150 refund was issued to your bank account for unused services. However, due to a bank error – an additional two zeros were added to your account, making the refund amount $15,000. The caller is in distress and pleads for you to wire back the excess amount or to go to the bank and withdraw it in cash, to rectify the error so that they don’t lose their job.

How Does it Work?

The scammer relies on psychological manipulation, leveraging urgency and fear to coerce victims into compliance. By creating a sense of urgency and portraying themselves as reputable entities facing dire consequences, they aim to bypass your logical reasoning and exploit your desire to help.

Protect Yourself from Double Zero Scams

  • Verify the Caller: Always verify the identity of the caller, especially if they claim to represent a company or organization. Hang up and contact the company directly using a trusted phone number to confirm the legitimacy of the call.
  • Be Skeptical of Unsolicited Requests: Exercise caution when presented with unexpected refund offers or requests for financial transactions. Legitimate companies typically do not request immediate action or ask for sensitive information over the phone – much less a payment via a wire transfer, gift card, person-to-person payment (i.e. Venmo or Zelle), in cash, or with cryptocurrency.
  • Trust Your Instincts: If something feels off or too good to be true, trust your instincts. Scammers often rely on creating a sense of urgency to pressure victims into making hasty decisions. Take a moment and call your financial institution for a second opinion before making any financial transactions. A trusted company representative will not have an issue with further verification.
  • Educate Yourself: Stay informed about common scams and fraudulent tactics gaining traction in today’s digital landscape.

At First Financial, your financial well-being is our top priority. Our tools and resources such as our Fraud & ID Theft Protection Guide can equip you with the knowledge necessary to protect yourself from scams. By staying informed and vigilant, you can safeguard your finances and enjoy peace of mind in an ever-evolving digital world.

For more personalized financial assistance with your First Financial accounts, call us at 732.312.1500 or visit a branch today. Don’t miss out on more financial tips and advice, be sure to subscribe to our First Scoop blog.

Easy Money or Money Mule?

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A money mule acts as a layer of distance between a scammer and their victims by handling stolen funds on behalf of someone else, either knowingly or unknowingly. Money mules make a scam harder to trace and the money harder to find.

Beware of offers that promise quick cash or a commission in exchange for receiving money and then sending it to someone else. This may take the form of a fake job opportunity, investment scheme, or prize award.

As an example, the scammer may approach an unsuspecting victim online or by phone with the promise of a financial windfall. In some cases, they may send the person a lump sum, ask them to transfer a portion of it to another account, and keep the rest for themselves. It sounds like easy money, but acting as a money mule is illegal – even if the person is unaware they are committing a crime.

Another tactic is for a scammer to say that they’re unable to receive funds through a particular payment method and need someone else to help by accepting a payment into their bank account. In reality, they are scamming someone out of funds and using another person as a middleman to help cover their tracks. After the money transfers are completed, the money mule could be held criminally responsible for their participation – whether they knew it was a scam or not.

Protecting Yourself from Money Mule Scams

It’s important to only send and receive money with those you know and trust. If a stranger requests that you handle money for them, stop communicating with them immediately. If you find that an unexpected deposit has been made in your account and someone you don’t know calls and claims it belongs to them, hang up and contact your financial institution.

Follow These Tips to Avoid Becoming a Money Mule

  • Don’t agree to send or receive money or packages for people you don’t know or haven’t met in person.
  • Do not take a job that promises easy money – especially if it involves sending or receiving money or packages.
  • It’s not a good idea to open a bank account or cryptocurrency account at someone else’s direction.
  • Refuse to send money to an online love interest, even if they send you money first.
  • You should never pay to collect a “prize” or send someone money out of your “winnings.”

At First Financial, our goal is to help protect our members from scams and identity theft. If you have any concerns or questions about any of your First Financial accounts, please call member services at 732.312.1500 or visit one of our branches.

To learn more about scams and ways to protect yourself, visit zellepay.com/pay-it-safe.

Zelle and the Zelle related marks are wholly owned by Early Warning Services, LLC and are used herein under license.

Facebook Contest Scams: A Personal Journey Through Fraud

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With as many scam blogs as I’ve written or fraud cases I’ve been informed of over the years, you’d think I’d be pretty savvy in spotting or becoming a victim of one myself. And up until last week – I was. I’m sharing a Facebook contest scam with our readers in hopes that it will prevent someone else from becoming a scam victim too. I’d also like to showcase how “good” some of these fraudsters are, and that these scams often play on people’s emotions and allure them in with attractive advertising online when they’re vulnerable.

Keep reading to prevent this type of scam from happening to you, or if you also fell for the same type of scam – how to stop any fraud or ID theft from continuing.

Here’s what happened

After going through an emotional personal situation recently, I found myself being unable to sleep one night. As many of us might also do in that instance, I reached for my phone and decided to scroll through my Facebook feed for a bit until I got tired enough to hopefully fall back to sleep.

After a few minutes, I saw a series of ads that were targeted to my age range, gender, geographic area, the personal situation I had experienced, and one of the women in the ad even looked like me. She was holding up a Michael Kors handbag I had actually been looking at online a few weeks ago but hadn’t purchased. The ad content mentioned, “Enter to win a Michael Kors tote bag, all you have to do is answer 3 easy questions!”

I should have trusted my instincts that told me this is too good to be true, but against my better judgement (and lack of sleep), I proceeded anyway. Before I answered the questions, I did look through the comments on this contest ad that I was about to fill out, and they didn’t appear to be anything out of the ordinary. I also went to the advertiser’s page and saw what looked to be legitimate Facebook users who had commented on the contest post, thanking the advertiser for their bags and with actual photos of the bags they had won and received in the mail.

One user profile commented when someone else asked if the contest was real, “Yes! It was even posted on the Michael Kors page story that they had extra inventory and would be providing retailers with discounted bags to make room for a new summer line.” I even went to that page, and when I (obviously) didn’t see it in their story, told myself it had probably just expired and would be posted again later.

After convincing myself this was legit, I answered the three simple questions. Sure enough, I was selected as a “winner” and would now get my chance to open one of the digital contest gift boxes and see if that box contained the purse prize. Naturally, it did. I was then brought to what appeared to be a secure website form that had a lock icon up top next to the web address.

The message at the top of this form said, “Congratulations, you’ve won! We’ll ship your Michael Kors tote bag within 1-2 business days, just pay $9.95 for shipping and handling.” That’s where I really went wrong, I should have known that any contest or sweepstakes that tells you that you’ve won – now pay us (even if it’s a small nominal or shipping fee), is always a scam.

Thankfully, my guard was somewhat up – and even though I entered my name and shipping address into the fraudulent contest website, I used a landline phone number instead of my cell phone, an old email address that I never use anymore but hadn’t gotten around to deleting yet, and a store Mastercard that had a zero balance instead of my main debit or credit card.

As soon as I entered my card number with its expiration and CVV code and hit submit, I knew I had made a big mistake. Luckily, I had fraud alerts setup on this store credit card, and I immediately received a possible fraud alert text from the card issuer. When I checked my email account, there was what appeared to be a legitimate email – with all the contact information I had entered, as well as an order number and a message that said the bag would be shipping within 1-2 business days, and I would receive another email once it shipped with tracking information.

Even with all that, I still had an uneasy feeling after getting the fraud alert text and I called the customer service number on the back of the card I had used. When I got a representative on the phone, he told me in addition to my $9.95 purchase in question – there were already 12 other pending charges to my account. As he named them all, not one of them was me. The scary part was around half of the pending charges on the card were legitimate purchases that I had made at various merchants in the past (probably so that if I looked at my account I would think I made those purchases).

My card was then shut down immediately, a new one was issued, and all pending purchases to that card were blocked. Had I used my debit card or my main credit card, this scam would have been a much bigger headache – but luckily fraud alerts had been setup for this card and I knew right away that something might not be right and called customer service.

What to do if you paid a scammer with a credit or debit card online

  • As soon as possible, contact the bank or company that issued the card.
  • Tell them a fraudulent charge was made.
  • Have them reverse any transactions, close the card, and issue you a new card by mail.
  • Continue to monitor your account to ensure no additional fraudulent charges take place.
  • Make sure any automatic payments setup using your previous card are updated once you receive your new card.
  • File an online case with the FTC and the FBI’s Internet Crime Center.

If you paid a scammer with another payment method or gave them access to a device, review this helpful guide on what to do. Also visit identitytheft.gov for more tips on what you can do when your personal information gets lost or stolen via a scam.

How to avoid a social media contest scam

If you ever feel uneasy about something – trust your instincts. Always do your research and search online with words like “scam” or “reviews” using the contest or advertiser name, or the prize. It’s also important that if you do have a social media account, that you keep your personal, demographic, and even company pages you follow – private and not public information. Many of these scammers are very sophisticated and will target certain social media users who follow various product pages and online shops, so that they can advertise their scam later on.

When I went back to the contest page afterward to report it to Facebook, I noticed a few comments from people saying, “this is a scam” and similar. However, a few minutes later, all those comments disappeared. When I looked at the Facebook profiles of the people who said they had won and posted photos of their bags, all of their profiles were all created within the last three weeks, they had no friends or activity on their pages, and only a public profile picture. I wish I had thought to check those out before I had unknowingly given my credit card information to fraudsters.

In the end, I luckily was able to catch this scam right away and took it as a very big learning lesson. I hope my experience helps others avoid these types of scams in the future and be more mindful of online contests and ads that target their victims through social media – I know I will!

If you ever see something suspicious online, you can always contact one of our financial experts to help you determine if the offer or website is legitimate. Should you see any fraudulent activity on one of your First Financial accounts, contact Member Services at 732-312-1500 or visit one of our branches.

Get scam savvy and look out for more fraud trends by subscribing to First Financial’s monthly newsletter.

Event Ticket Scams

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Looking for event tickets? Identify scams before handing over your money.

A packed show or competitive playoff game can make for a memorable time, but if you’re scrounging for tickets, be careful. Sold out and high-demand events like concerts, festivals, and professional sports can be prime targets for ticketing scams.

In some cases, a scammer may create counterfeit tickets, complete with forged barcodes and real company logos. At other times, a scammer might make copies of a legitimate ticket and sell it to multiple people. In either scenario, the ticket holder won’t know it’s a scam until their ticket is scanned at the gate and they are denied entry. Sometimes a seller will insist on upfront payment with a promise of putting tickets in the mail, but the tickets never arrive – and the seller disappears.

If tickets are being offered at a price that seems too good to be true, or if the seller is pressuring you to send money right away to seal the deal – those are warning signs of a potential scam.

How to Avoid Becoming a Victim of a Ticketing Scam

Buy only from trusted ticket vendors. When possible, purchase tickets directly from the venue. When buying online, purchase tickets from vendors you know and trust. Look for the lock symbol in the web address to indicate a secure purchasing system. You can verify their authenticity by looking them up on the Better Business Bureau or checking to see if they are a member of the National Association of Ticket Brokers.

Check the fine print. You should only purchase tickets from a seller that provides clear details about the terms of the transaction, including the location of the seats, how the tickets will be received, and what the refund policy is.

Use payment methods that come with protection. Be suspicious of sellers insisting on being paid through digital payment apps and keep in mind that certain payment types can’t be refunded (such as person-to-person payments). A credit card is usually the best payment method for event tickets because many credit card companies offer built-in buyer protection for cardholders. Always check the terms and conditions of your credit card to see what protections you have before purchasing.

Be wary of promotions. When you search the web for online tickets, advertisements for inexpensive tickets will often appear. Some of these ads will be ticket scams, especially if the prices are inexplicably low.

If you’re unsure, verify your tickets. Pay a visit to the venue where the event will be held. Present your ticket at Will Call or customer service, and have them verify if your ticket is legitimate.

When it comes to ticketing scams, remember to slow down and ask questions. If you detect suspicious activity, report the seller to your online marketplace or ticketing platform.

At First Financial, our goal is to help protect our members from scams and identity theft. If you have any concerns or questions about any of your First Financial accounts, please call member services at 732.312.1500 or visit one of our branches.

To learn more about scams and ways to protect yourself, visit zellepay.com/pay-it-safe.

Zelle and the Zelle related marks are wholly owned by Early Warning Services, LLC and are used herein under license. 

 

Fake Jobs, Phony Recruiters: Job Scams are on the Rise

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Finding a new job can be a big undertaking. It’s hard to search through countless job descriptions and submit dozens of applications, so when a promising offer comes along – it’s easy to be excited.

But be careful. Fake postings and phony recruiters make up a growing number of scams, known as job or employment scams.

It can happen through email, social media, and on popular job sites. These scammers are generally after two things: your money and/or personal information. You can protect yourself by knowing what to look for.

Spotting a Job Scam

Fake jobs that appear too good to be true. In some cases, a scammer may post an opening appearing to be from a real company, promising a tempting salary and great benefits for little experience. Do an online search of the company, the hiring manager, or the recruiter to determine the legitimacy of the job.

Requests for money. If your potential employer asks you to send them money upfront for things like training or equipment, immediately withdraw your application. A legitimate employer will never ask you to pay for a job.

Recruiters asking for compensation. If you are approached by a recruiter asking for compensation in exchange for helping you find a job, there’s a strong chance the alleged recruiter is really a scammer.

Requests for personal information. Job applications tend to require information like your name, contact information, and work experience – but it shouldn’t go much deeper than that. Companies that require a background check will typically wait until much later in the interview process before asking for personal information like a Social Security Number. Similarly, never provide your banking information for setting up direct deposit until after you are hired. A legitimate company will not ask for those details on a job application.

Urgency to hire immediately. Beware of potential employers who show a sense of urgency to hire you immediately or within the same week of the application. They may want you to “seal the deal” by sending money or personal information. This urgency is to get you to act on emotion before you realize the company or job is fake. If the interview process does not include an in-person or on-camera interview, that should also be considered suspicious.

Key Takeaway

To protect yourself from a job scam – research the company and role, and reject any offer that asks for money or sensitive information upfront or promises great pay for little or no professional experience. When it comes to job scams, remember to slow down and ask questions.

At First Financial, our goal is to help protect our members from scams and identity theft. If you have any concerns or questions about any of your First Financial accounts, please call member services at 732.312.1500 or visit one of our branches.

To learn more about scams and ways to protect yourself, visit zellepay.com/pay-it-safe.

 

Zelle and the Zelle related marks are wholly owned by Early Warning Services, LLC and are used herein under license.