Good morning!
For at least a year now I have been blogging scams from Scambusters for all of you, in HOPEs that you don’t get scammed. Well…how did your year go? Did you fall for any, or have these been helpful in preventing you and your livelihood from getting into the hands of scammers? If you haven’t been paying attention to these in the past you might want to read today’s write and catch up.
Here’s the latest:
Top 10 Scams of 2010 and 2011
Ten years have passed since we started our Top 10 scams list and it’s amazing, looking back, how many of the scams we predicted a decade ago continue to plague victims, as you’ll see if you check out that original list.
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=8JUKO&m=1bu4NGLMJWtWfo&b=NrvGOHvY50lGvBEXNEz8Vg
Those were relatively early days of the Internet, of course. Users were fewer and so were the number of crooks using the web to hook their victims.
Since then, the rapid change in the shape and operation of the Internet, notably the huge growth of social networking, has introduced new techniques for delivering scams, and the number of victims has gone up by leaps and bounds.
Reporting recently on the 10-year trend, Internet security outfit PandaLabs noted the high incidence of the Nigerian fee scam, which was Number 3 in our charts 10 years ago, Number 4 last year, and, we predict, will hold the same position in 2011.
Check out our earlier reports for more about Nigerian scams.
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=8JUKO&m=1bu4NGLMJWtWfo&b=TZPsPNhUn7UqWUIOrl7KBA
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=8JUKO&m=1bu4NGLMJWtWfo&b=7pSDwFuu4Q0Q7MI45e21YA
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=8JUKO&m=1bu4NGLMJWtWfo&b=32IFlcz6V866RcLJm0rSqA
Lottery and advance fee scams and bogus jobs — both work-from-home and outside employment — have remained consistently high in the charts.
PandaLabs also mentions the high incidence of hijacking of Hotmail and Facebook accounts by hackers who then claim to be the account holder in urgent need of cash.
But, surprisingly, the security specialist didn’t specifically single out one of the root causes of this offense: phishing – the crime of stealing personal information for identity theft – which is by far the biggest scam and remains firmly at the head of our Top 10 scams list for 2011.
Results for 2010
Let’s now take a look at the Scambusters top scams chart, which is based on the feedback we get from many thousands of subscribers and readers, plus our own in-depth research and monitoring of crime reports.
For 2010, our Top 10 scams predictions again proved to be fairly accurate, with just a couple of switches at the lower end.
Here’s how the outturn looks, against our forecasts.
10. Travel and vacations (Predicted as #9). As forecast, the Soccer World Cup in South Africa drew in thousands of ticket scam victims, while an increasing flow of travelers to China found themselves at the center of numerous tourist con tricks. However, the economic recovery we expected to see wasn’t as strong as everyone hoped and many Americans decided to vacation more safely at home.
9. Investment scams (Predicted as #10). In the wake of the Madoff scandal, more incredible Ponzi schemes were exposed and crashed, while art investment frauds targeted celebrities. Rock bottom interest rates lured more people into phony real estate and “green” investment projects (including the BP Gulf disaster clean-up) and foreign exchange funds promising unrealistically high returns.
8. Work from home schemes (Predicted as #7). Still a major source of crime, bogus home-working schemes received a lot of publicity throughout the year, so, although there were just as many crooks pushing these scams, slightly fewer victims may have fallen for them than we expected. One bit of good news!
7. Auctions and classified ad scams (Predicted as #8) move up one more place in our Top 10 scams list, as they did in the prior year. As much as anything, this reflects the growing use of the Internet for buying stuff, so we included bogus retail websites in our research this year, which, as you’ll see below, is likely to push the crime even higher up the charts in 2011.
6. Doorstep scams (Predicted as #6). We forecast that the 2010 Census back in April would attract scammers, mainly “phishing” (see #1 below) for information they could use for identity theft. And we were right. The annual crop of disasters, including floods and, this year, the San Francisco gas explosion, also brought out the bogus contractors in force.
5. Lottery scams (Predicted as #5). Sadly, as we reported a year ago, this crime targets the elderly. There’s apparently still no shortage of victims willing to pay up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in bogus fees to collect non-existent winnings.
4. Nigerian scams (Predicted as #4). The continuing efforts by the Nigerian government to clamp down on this scam seem to be having little effect. A TV documentary broadcast a few months ago showed how whole towns in that country have become dependent on the proceeds of scams.
3. Economy-related scams (Predicted as #3). Foreclosure and loan modification scams, together with bogus job offers – usually a prelude to identify theft or simply a means for charging an upfront fee — were the most common crimes in this category. The BP Gulf disaster added significantly to the number of phony job schemes.
2. Malware (Predicted as #2). This is the broad term for harmful software that installs on home and business computers to steal information, wreck hard drives, disrupt business activities and recruit computers into “zombie botnets” for sending out spaham (misspelled intentionally). Internet security specialists McAfee say they’ve identified 14 million unique malware programs, up by 1 million over the year as a whole.
1. Phishing and identify theft (Predicted as #1). The invasion by scammers of social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, together with malware downloads (see above) kept this crime firmly in the top slot.
Changes for 2011
We don’t see much change in the running order of our Top 10 forecast for 2011, only, sadly, an overall rise in the number of incidents, especially those relating to social networking which are now used by around 30% of the global population, and a significantly higher percentage of Americans.
However, for the New Year, we’re merging work-from-home jobs with our economy-related scams to make way for a newcomer that we expect to grow significantly in the coming months.
This is “skimming,” which embraces a whole clutch of crimes including thefts from ATM machines and capturing of credit card information at restaurants, gas stations and other retail outlets.
We’ve previously reported on some types of this crime.
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=8JUKO&m=1bu4NGLMJWtWfo&b=3o.Ikm8gxAZaGtUfvS9TZA
Look out for more information in future Scambusters issues.
So, with that in mind, here’s our 2011 forecast of Top 10 Scams.
Predictions for the Top 10 Scams of 2011
10. Travel and vacations. Americans are still vacationing at home in the weak economy and amid safety fears about traveling to Mexico. But with the world economy still unsteady, scammers are more desperate than ever to catch out those who do journey abroad. Watch out especially for a huge ticket scam for the forthcoming London Olympics 2012.
9. Investment scams. Investors have become more cautious about Ponzi schemes, which draw in new money to pay earlier investors until the whole scheme collapses. But low interest rates will continue to push investors into high-risk and shaky projects. Expect also to see more computer trading programs
with dubious claims that they can “beat the market.”
8. Doorstep scams. With the Census out of the way, this crime drops two places, but bogus contractors, charity collectors, utility workers and others who knock at your front door bent
on crime keep it strongly in the charts. And, of course, a major natural disaster, such as hurricane, earthquake or floods, could push this higher.
7. Skimming. European banks report a huge increase in debit and credit card information theft, especially at ATMs that have been rigged either to collect card details or to trap the card so the crook can use it. Expect to see a similar trend in the US during 2011.
6. Bogus and fraudulent Internet sales. As mentioned above, this category now embraces bogus retail sites selling nothing but thin air, as well as online auctions and classified ads. We think this will be more than enough to push this category up one further place in our Top 10 scams list.
5. Lottery and gaming scams. We’ve also broadened this category to include online gaming scams, featured in an earlier Scambusters report. We expect to see significant growth in bogus gambling-related sites, and a continuing stream of phony lottery schemes.
4. Nigerian scams. In their report referred to earlier, PandaLabs points out that the latest version of the Nigerian scam claims that a compensation fund has been set up and invites previous victims to put in a claim. Then, of course, the scammer requests a fee before the supposed compensation can be released.
Nigerian crooks are also muscling in on the bogus girlfriend scam previously dominated by the Russians. Victims, befriended online, end up paying supposedly for airfares and other
expenses for their new but non-existent sweetheart.
3. Economy related scams. The economy is taking much longer to recover than hoped, so expect to see foreclosure and load modification scams to continue. Plus, as mentioned above, we now include work-from-home scams in this category.
2. Malware. As many as 60,000 new pieces of malicious software appear every day, says McAfee. The growing use of USB drives to store and transfer data may also contribute to the spread of malware.
1. Phishing and identify theft. The growth of malware mentioned above, coupled with hijacking of social networking accounts and more sophisticated hacking technology, means that identity theft will remain the Number One Internet crime for the foreseeable future.
Compiling our annual forecast of the Top 10 scams is not a pleasant task. Nor is being proved right about our predictions for the past year.
However, it does reinforce our determination to do everything we possibly can to reduce the impact of these despicable crimes. By highlighting the risks and publishing this top scams list, which we invite you to pass on to friends and relatives, perhaps we can do just that.
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Ethel: I saw your comment, but I doubt that Chas saw it. As I mentioned a few days ago, please keep your comments contemporary so that everyone can see and read them, by commenting on the most current day and referring to the blog that you are commenting on, if necessary. Thanks!
Ai-Shi: Of course. I only wish you the best. Congratulations!
Zen Lill: You and me both. Whenever I think of moving, the only place I want to live if not somewhere else other than California, and really just the Bay Area, it is overseas either in Europe or SE Asia. I could use a change. If he had his druthers, Doug would go right now.
In regards to us having a little chat, I have clients all week, so the best time to reach me will be in the later afternoon or the evenings. So give me a try whenever it works for you. It would be nice to catch up. The “clear” hasn’t hit us up here yet, but it is damn cold.
Have a great Sunday everyone! Peace out.
PS. I know I have been a tad lazy in getting my blog out before 9:00 AM. The holidays are over, but I haven’t quite gotten back into my normal routine. Thanks for your patience.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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