Scam Artists

1. Cyber criminals are being a lot more edgy with their scams. Rather then making up a name for a company, they are using ACTUAL company names, and behaving as that company would, sending out mail, making telephone calls, and even text messages.

2. Cell phone scams probably work well because you figure that only important people and your bank/financial institution will have that number.

3. I get alot of junk mail that tells me about getting online degrees, not having to go to school to get a job, and how they can help change my life. Blah blah blah.

4. I would say that you have to be extremely careful. As they explained in the article, if you get something in your mail or inbox you should call the company directly to make sure it isn't a falsity. Don't open emails that have a name you don't recognize. They use alot of normal names you might think are just a friend you met, and even the subject lines will say things like, "where have you been?" They're tricky, but the best bet is to only look out for email from contacts. And, set your spam filter pretty high. You can always check your junk mail to make sure nothing important got sorted out.

5. CIRCULATION OF FRAUDULENT E-MAIL CLAIMING TO BE FROM U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION (CBP): in this scam, there is a group that sends out an email that says the recepient has inherited a great sum of money. The only thing they need to be able to hand over the "inheritance" is your name and personal information.

FAKE MILITARY TWIST ON VEHICLE SALE SCAMS: the criminals are posing as military members that have to sell their cars because they're going to Iraq or Afghanistan. So they put "their" cars up for sale online, and while they go through the transaction, they ask the buyers for full or partial payments. But the buyers never recieve the car.

6. Auction fraud is when you go in and bid on an item online, and they can do many different things, send you a product that isn't what you bid on, send you an un-authentic item, not send you an item at all, and etc. Sometimes if you don't win the bid, they still contact you saying they have more of that item, but it's still a fraud.