Same scam, different name. As people work hard for their money, someone works equally hard to steal it.
To help protect and educate consumers, the Better Business Bureau has released its list of the Top 10 scams of 2011.
The Utah Division of Consumer Protection said it agrees with the list and will release its own list in March. Local law enforcement investigated all of the same crimes as well.
“Pretty much every scam that is out is being used in Weber County,” said Weber County Sheriff’s Detective Scott Sorensen.
The report lists the top scams in nine major categories — such as jobs, social media, home improvement and financial ripoffs — along with the scam of the year. Most are common scams that simply use the name of the latest popular company or are upgraded with new technology.
“It’s the same scam, they’re just using it through Facebook or email or whatever,” Sorensen said. “They just tweak it a little bit to make it work for them.”
Nationally, the top check-cashing scam uses Craigslist and Western Union.
In this scam, a con artist buys an item through Craigslist but makes out the check out for more than the item is being sold for. The scammer asks the victim to refund the difference through Western Union. The victim is left with a bounced check and without the item originally put up for sale.
Sorensen said this is the most common scam he investigates, substituting KSL.com for Craigslist, but the principle is the same.
Sorensen said another common scam he sees targets elderly residents. The elderly person receives a call from someone claiming to be a grandchild needing money to get out of a tough situation, such as a foreign jail, and is asked to wire money to help out.
Included in the Better Business Bureau’s list is the top sweepstakes and lottery scam, which involves an email claiming to be from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announcing a $1 million prize.
As in all of this type of scam, the recipient is asked to send money in order to claim a larger prize.
The top social media/online dating scam invites victims to click on a video link, usually on a social media site, which then asks the victims to “upgrade your Flash player.” By doing so, the victims download a worm onto their computer.
The top identity-theft scam targets sleepy hotel guests. In this scam, victims receive a call in the middle of the night from someone claiming to be from the front desk and saying the system crashed. The scammer then asks the victims to read their credit card number over the phone.
The top scam of the year involves the Better Business Bureau itself. This scam involves emails that appear to be official notices from the Better Business Bureau. When the recipient clicks on the link or attachment, computers can be infected with viruses that steal bank information and passwords.
Those are not the only ways scam artists access personal information, however. Sorensen said one easy way is just accessing a person’s Wi-Fi account.
“A lot of people don’t know you have to secure your wireless router, so wireless accounts are being used by scam artists all the time,” Sorensen said.
Other people hand out their credit cards without a second thought.
He said every time people let their card out of their sight, such as handing it off to a waiter at a restaurant, their credit card numbers are at risk.
These scams are only a small sampling of those out there.
“They probably could have done a Top 100 scams, and they probably could have done 100 on top of that,” Sorensen said.
Arresting the criminals is difficult as well.
Most of the scams originate in other states or worse yet, in another country, more than likely Nigeria, Sorensen said.
The best way to stop attacks is to be careful.
Sorensen offers three tips:
• If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
• Do not release credit card information to anyone you do not already know and trust.
• Never let credit card information out of your sight.
For more information about scams, click here.
Utah Division of Consumer Protection is available by clicking here.
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