Hijacked Accounts Lead To New Shipping Scam
Posted by Michelle Moquin on January 4th, 2011
Good morning!
I spoke with my dear friend in Indonesia the other day. It had been 3 years since we had spoken in person, and over a year since we lost contact completely. I hadn’t even heard from her via e-mail which made me very concerned. I knew that she had gone through a rough time like many of us here in the states, but I had no idea that her life challenges were because she had been scammed. When I finally spoke with her, she informed me that she and her family had invested everything; their life savings into a company that turned out to be fraudulent.
She and her family are okay. Like many they have lost their material possessions, but they are working and not on the street thankfully. The worst thing is, she was scammed by a friend of the family…a long time friend.
It is the new year – why not be as informed as you can be so you don’t end up with a challenging year? I am posting another write by Scambusters. We never know where a scammer is going to show up in our lives.
This scam below most likely won’t bankrupt you, but as always forewarned is forearmed. Being a victim of a scam in any manner can make your life miserable.
A new twist in shipping scams uses hijacked UPS and FedEx account details from business customers. And, as if it isn’t enough that the target firms have to pay the hijackers’ bill (at least if they don’t notice the crime), the crooks also use the victim company’s good name to hoodwink consumers with advance payment scams.
Hijacked Accounts Lead to New Shipping Scam
<>~<>~<><>~<>~<><>~<>~<><>~<>~<><>~<>~<><>~<>~<><>~<>
We’ve previously reported on shipping scams via email, using the names of FedEx and UPS, which ask recipients to click on an attachment that supposedly contains details of a shipment to them, when it actually contains a virus.
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=8JUKO&m=1f.r1TjVrWtWfo&b=v5tBIIalnVp5E1GX.DX3CA
Now crooks have turned their attention to small business fraud by hijacking firms’ UPS and FedEx accounts, which they then use for their own benefit, often for sending out fake advance payment checks and shipping drugs.
This means, of course, that there’s no way of identifying the crooks, since the packages go out through the accounts of innocent companies.
In the case of bogus checks, the use of legitimate company accounts also helps the scammers in their efforts to convince recipients that the deal, in which they’re supposed to wire money, is genuine.
Business account numbers may be printed on shipping labels, making them an easy target for the crooks.
In other cases, businesses actually post their account details online for employees and others who genuinely need to use them.
Or crooks may simply hack their way into business computer systems with poor security and steal the information there.
The crime offers a double lesson to both companies and consumers.
For businesses, it underlines the need to protect this vital piece of information and to closely monitor accounts from the shipping companies (which do normally reimburse fraud victims).
For consumers, it emphasizes the value of being skeptical that anything you receive actually comes from the purported sender. And, as we always stress, you should never wire money to someone you don’t know.
If you receive a check with such a request, you can be pretty near certain it’s a scam.
According to the Chicago Tribune, which recently reported a rise in the incidence of this crime, both UPS and FedEx advise customers to “vigilantly guard their account numbers.”
The two shippers also confirmed that they do investigate all fraud complaints and work closely with law enforcement.
Bogus food inspectors
Small business scam artists love to target restaurants — busy locations, often with inexperienced staff and plenty of members of the public milling around.
Latest tricks include crooks posing as food inspectors. In the past, they’ve imposed on the spot fines, but, in a new twist, the scammers phone and ask an employee or owner to “confirm” business information, ahead of a scheduled visit (which, of course, never takes place).
The motive isn’t clear but law enforcement officials say the aim may be to set up bogus business identities for online trading.
As restaurateurs should know, food inspections don’t work this way and inspectors never seek confidential business information over the phone.
Paying for free or unnecessary documentationP
In this small business scam, websites offer a pay-service to supply official documents and services like state business registration and a Federal Employer Identification Number, both of which are usually free from state governments and the IRS respectively.
They may also offer sales tax certificates, even for states that don’t have a sales tax! Some states do charge a small fee for these certificates but, again, you should check with the state rather than trying to buy from a third-party agency.
In fact, for all business documentation, your three best sources of information are government offices, the IRS and, at least as a starting point, your local Chamber of Commerce.
Phony contractor license renewal
Most states require contractors to hold and display a license (different from the simple registration service mentioned above), renewable annually.
Since these licenses are public documents, it’s a short step from this legal requirement for scammers to send out bogus renewal notices, as reported recently in South Carolina.
The notices look like official state demands but the payment addresses don’t tally with the real ones — usually, they’re out of state.
Action: When your license is due for renewal, check the address and confirm it’s the same as that on the previous year’s license. If in doubt, contact your state Labor Department.
Better Business Bureau accreditation
Accreditation with the Better Business Bureau may be regarded as a kind of stamp of approval. Knowing this, scammers posing as BBB employees visit small businesses offering to sell them
accreditation certificates.
They popped up in Washington State recently, soliciting business door-to-door. In a couple of instances, they also invited victim companies to enter an “official BBB lottery.”
The local Puget Sound Business Journal quoted a BBB spokesperson saying: “Better Business Bureau does not have a lottery and does not solicit door-to-door.”
Action: Check out the credentials of anyone who contacts you claiming to be from the BBB by contacting the bureau’s local office — details in the phone book.
Pay to be in the running for official contracts
Finally, a quick and easy small business scam for all firms to watch out for.
Here’s how it works: You get a call supposedly inviting your company to be a candidate to provide a product or service at City Hall (or the police or some other local authority).
To get on the short list, however, the scammer wants you to pay a fee, usually around $100.
The scammers may have set up a bank account with an official sounding name to which you have to send payment. They clear it out before their con comes to light.
Action here is simple: Don’t pay charges to get on a short list. Governments don’t work this way.
For more information on common business scams, please see these earlier issues.
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=8JUKO&m=1f.r1TjVrWtWfo&b=ynYwnnOOQ_c2m3ZVEqYjAA
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=8JUKO&m=1f.r1TjVrWtWfo&b=Oo2pi4fjIo.kFQz85MyYsA
And whether you’re in business or a consumer on the receiving end, please watch out for those shipping scams.
************
Bob: Good things are worth repeating. :) In answer to your new question, how about, “No Ballroom”?
Ooops…that’s all you’re gonna get out of me this morning – time to go. “The Blog” is open :) Blog me.
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 :)
If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)
January 4th, 2011 at 9:15 am
Michelle you are too much. That is the correct answer “No Ball Room.”
Okay that one was on the males. Here’s one on the females.
——————————————-
How do Arab women lose 20 pounds every night?
——————————————–
This one is because you are a designer.
=======================
A gorgeous young woman asked the manager of a designer boutique, “May I try on that dress in the window?
“Go ahead,” the manager replied. “Maybe it’ll attract business.”
January 4th, 2011 at 10:34 am
Hafa adai
So now the government is telling us that it is okay to drink water from the Fena Reservoir with such high levels of iron and manganese in the water that it gives it a brownish tint.
Really?
However, the Navy which is responsible for those high levels says they have initiated treatments to remove those elements and return the water to its normal appearance.
We are being told that noticeable improvement in the water clarity should be apparent within two days. And normal water conditions are anticipated within seven days.
Here’s the explanation we were given. “The high levels of iron and manganese were caused by planned maintenance on the system at the Fena Reservoir.”
My god, if this is what we get from them when the maintenance “is planned,” I don’t want to see what they do when it is not.
Peter
January 4th, 2011 at 11:10 am
Hi Mischa, I’m sorry for your friend.
The no ballroom is hilarious…hmm, 20lbs overnight, I’ll have to think on that, now if you said 200 lbs you know what my answer would be ; )
I called for a pizza the other night and after waiting 55 minutes I called to see what was up, the harried chickie on the phone told me, ‘your pizza is on its way’ I laughed and asked ‘is my pizza driving or walking?!’ She cracked up and thanked me for that one, apparently it was scary busy pizza night around town. Just thought I’d share the laugh…
I love how they’re explaining thousands of birds falling out of the sky, the newscasters don’t sound like they don’t believe the noise that’s coming out of their own mouths.
Luv, Zen Lill
PS Burt, you out there? What, no answer to my q?!
January 5th, 2011 at 7:43 am
[...] Bob: Cute. I like it. [...]