This type of scam can take on my variations.  It could be someone is offering to pay you for a service or to buy an item that you advertised for sale.  There may even be an offer that promises an “advance” on some sweepstakes that you have supposed to have won, or to pay for the first installment on the millions of dollars you are going to receive for agreeing to have money from a foreign country transferred into your bank account for safekeeping.

In most instances of fake check scams the one doing the scam will request that you to send money back to them in some way.  What they will do is send you a check for goods or services for more than the amount that is requested.  They will tell you to go ahead and deposit their check and then you are to wire them back the additional money.

In some instances, the scammer will ask you to wire them money for processing, legal fees, taxes, shipping, or any number of other expenses that you are going to have to pay before you will receive your reward or money.  The checks that the scammers will send you will feel and look real no matter if they are a cashier’s check or a personal check.  These checks have even been known to fool a bank teller.  These checks could have been written fraudulently or may be from a legitimate corporation or business.

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This type of scam is when someone calls you claiming that they are from your credit card company and asks you to confirm personal information.  This could be anything from your credit card number, the security code from the back of the card, or even your mother’s name.  If you give the caller any of this information after the call is over the caller will take the information and start making charges on your account.  This identity theft may even create a new account in your name.  Sometime these identity thieves or scammers will even leave a number on your answering machine or in an email to get you to call them.

If you should get a phone call of this type make sure that you do not give out any information even if they sound legitimate for the simple reason is that you did not initiate the call.  Some of these scammers are so smart that they can even have your credit card company’s number show up on the caller ID by spoofing your caller ID.  Only trust calls that you make by using the number on the billing statement or on the back of your credit card.  If you get any numbers in an email or left on your answering machine that you do not know do not call them back and give them any personal information.

Call your credit card company immediately if you mistakenly give out your personal information.  The credit card company may give you a new credit card number or even a new credit card and deactivate the old one to prevent fraudulent charges from being made on your account.
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There are so many identity theft scams that it would take a long time to list them all and each day there seem to be even more.  When it comes to identity theft scams the scammer will use a variety of “hooks” to get you to fall for their scam.  Those hooks can include “you have won a prize”, “you are being considered for a great job”, or “someone died and left you a fortune.”  Here are just some of the many identity theft scams that are making their rounds.

The Lottery Winner

In this scam you will either receive a phone call or a letter telling you that you have won some foreign lottery that you do not even remember entering.  This should be the first red flag.  They then proceed to tell you that all they need is your address and name to make the check out too and for tax purposes they are going to need your Social Security number.  What this identity theft scammer is hoping is that the person they contacted is greedy enough to let them in the front door, so to speak and be able to steal your personal information.
You are Hired

You know that you have put your resume on various online job-seeking websites but have not been interviewed nor offered a job so how can you be ready to be hired.  When the company calls you to let you know that they would love to hire you for a fabulous position.  They fax you tax forms and a job application and all you have to do is fill them, return them, and you get the job.  Unfortunately this company is also asking you for personal information.  This should give you some indication that it is very possible that this is a scammer or identity thief and you should not give them any personal information.
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This type of identity theft is also known as The Silent Swindler.  It will typically happen when the identity theft uses either a mixture of real and fake or totally fake information in order to create for themselves a new identity. Typically the identity thief will use a real Social Security number with a different or fake name that is associated with that number. This type of identity theft is difficult to tract, report, and detect since the individuals were not aware of it happening.

The reason that the individual is not aware of it happening is that it does not appear on your credit report.  It is a combination of addresses, names, Social Security numbers and more so all this information does not ad up to a single person to claim fraud but a combination of different people.  Most of these will go unreported and eventually will be written of and become charge offs within the financial institution before anyone is aware of the problem.

You can protect yourself from Synthetic Identity Theft by making sure that you shred sensitive documents and mail because identity thieves have no problem going through your trash to find any type of personal information that they can use to steal your identity.  When you get those Social Security benefits booklets make sure that the income that is reported is accurate and there are no discrepancies.

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Many people are taking advantage of online shopping because it is easy and convenient.  You do not have to leave the house, fight the crowd in the store, fight for a parking spot and deal with rude store clerks.  When you decide to shop online there are some things that you should remember to make it a safe experience.

You should always know who you are buying from and if it is a store that you have not shopped at before make sure that you take some time to research the store to see what other customers have to say about their experience shopping at this store.  You can even call the number for customer service and ask about their guarantees and policies.  If you cannot find a phone number send them an email and ask them these questions and any others you might have before you buy anything from them.

Make sure that the store’s website is encrypted so any personal and financial information is secure before it is sent over the internet.  One way to make sure that the site is encrypted is to make sure that the website address begins with “https” and not “http” before you hit the send button.  The “S” on the end of “http” means that the site is secure and it is safe to send your personal and financial information.
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