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WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today the National Consumers League (NCL)
released its
annual lists of the top telemarketing and Internet scams
plaguing consumers in 2006, with Fake Check Scams topping the
Telemarketing Fraud list and ranking 3rd among
Internet-based scams. Fake Check Scams, in which victims receive
a realistic-looking phony check and don’t discover it’s no good
until after depositing it and wiring money back to the crook,
have been on the rise since NCL created a category for the scam
in its fraud database in 2003; in 2006, Fake Check Scams ranked
#4 and #5 in the Fraud Center’s Internet and Telemarketing scam
reports, respectively.
Other trends in 2006 included a dramatic increase in the number
of wire transfers involved in scams reported to the Fraud
Center. This method of payment outnumbered all others, including
credit cards, bank debits, and money orders, in both
Telemarketing and Internet Fraud reports.
“Consumers are losing money to Fake Check Scams in frightening
numbers, and they’re losing the money permanently to
crooks that are operating from foreign countries,” said Susan
Grant, Director of NCL’s Fraud Center. “Con artists are growing
increasingly creative with their pitches to victims, but the
bottom line is the same. Whether you’re being offered a ‘prize,’
a ‘job,’ or overpayment for something you’re selling, if someone
is offering to send you a check and have you wire some amount of
it back, you’re in for trouble.”
NCL suggests that banks can help to prevent customers from
becoming victims by handing them information about fake check
scams whenever they deposit sizable checks, training tellers to
explain that just because customers may have access to the funds
they deposit does not mean that the checks are “good,” and using
technology to detect unusual amounts of deposits by customers
and contacting them before the checks are sent for
processing.
To help consumers avoid scams and rip-offs, NCL’s Fraud Center
has added a new feature at
www.fraud.org, a calendar with tips of the month. In
January, the tips focus on avoiding counterfeit drugs. The
September tips are on fake check scams. To see each month’s
tips, or to read the full Internet and Telemarketing Fraud
Report of 2006, visit www.fraud.org. |
