Weasels on wheels
Last month, The Los Angeles Times reported about a sophisticated, Southern California-based crime tourism ring perpetrating crimes in several states. Citing a U.S. Attorney's office press release, The Times explained that the lead defendant in the case, Juan Carlos Thola-Duran, owned a car rental business that provided vehicles specifically for crime tourism groups arriving from South America. From at least January 2018 to July 2024, the U.S. Attorney said, Thola-Duran directed associates to travel to various parts of the country (including California, Colorado, Arizona, New Jersey, Kansas and Illinois) to commit thefts, including shoplifting goods from stores, burglarizing residences and commercial businesses, and—listen up, SCAM GRAM readers—stealing victims’ credit cards and debit cards. The stolen cards were used at retail to purchase electronics, gift cards, designer purses and other high-end luxury goods. A quick look at the U.S. attorney's indictment reveals plenty of ordinary consumers becoming targets and getting dragged into the schemes: One person in a beach area in Santa Barbara, California, had their car broken into and their American Express Card stolen and used to purchase $1,500 in gift cards at a nearby Home Depot; another person, while shopping at a Whole Foods in Denver, had their wallet stolen and their credit card used to buy a $200 Target gift card and to attempt a $5,000 purchase at a department store. In addition to the U.S. Attorney's vital reminder that the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty, another important reminder we can take away from this story is to keep an eye on our credit and debit card activity and make sure we are able to receive security alerts from our card issuers.
A crypto reckoning
You may recall, as previously reported by the Associated Press, that Sam Bankman-Fried, the "messy and bushy-haired" founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange platform, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March for defrauding hundreds of thousands of customers. Now, citing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Reuters reports that a U.S. court ordered the bankrupt FTX to pay $12.7 billion in relief to customers. In a statement, CFTC Division of Enforcement Director Ian McGinley said that the multibillion-dollar recovery for victims was not only the largest such recovery in CFTC history, but that it was achieved with remarkable speed. "In the 21 months since FTX’s massive fraud collapsed, the CFTC investigated, filed a complaint, and achieved what many thought was impossible at the time of the collapse—a resolution to compensate victims...," McGinley said. In its recent findings, the CFTC release explains, “the [federal] court noted that FTX touted itself as ‘the safest and easiest way to buy and sell crypto,’ and that customer assets, including digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ether, were held in ‘custody’ by FTX while stating FTX segregated customer assets from FTX’s own assets as a general principle, when in fact customer funds were commingled and misappropriated.” Although the recent consent order resolves the CFTC’s litigation against FTX, litigation against four individual defendants, including Bankman-Fried, is ongoing. The CFTC continues to seek restitution to defrauded victims, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, civil monetary penalties, permanent trading and registration bans, and permanent injunctions against further violations of commodities laws. We'll stay tuned for additional information on relief for victims.
Home improvement gotchas
Scammer at the scanner? Last week, several local district attorney's offices in California announced the nearly $2 million settlement of a joint civil case against Home Depot for allegedly charging customers prices that were higher than the company's lowest advertised or posted price. The prosecutors' offices accused Home Depot of committing “scanner violations" in which the prices on items, or on item shelf tags, did not match the prices charged when UPC codes were scanned at the register. Although Home Depot did not admit any wrongdoing, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price's office said in a statement that, per the terms of the settlement, Home Depot will be prohibited from engaging in false or misleading advertising and charging an amount greater than the lowest price posted for an item. The settlement also requires the implementation of a price accuracy program, which adds more audits and training, and eliminates price increases on weekend days (when employees responsible for changing shelf price tags are usually not working). For his part, LA County District Attorney George Gascón noted that “When companies engage in deceptive practices, they not only cheat consumers but also gain an unjust advantage over businesses that operate ethically and transparently." Hear, hear.
Nice man at the door. A recent community alert from the Boston Police Department serves as a good reminder for homeowners across the country to always be wary of door-to-door solicitors offering to perform home improvement work. As summer came to an end, Boston police reissued a warning about potentially increased solicitations. The Department is especially concerned about solicitations by international travelers, and states that most of the identified scammers in the area are traveling from Ireland and the United Kingdom. Regardless of who shows up at the door, we suggest taking note of the scammer tactics described in the alert. These include door-to-door solicitation and distribution of paper flyers with "uninspired" business names, such as A1 Paving, City & Town Paving, etc. (hmmm, those names don't seem too shabby to us); discount offers due to supposed “left over materials” from neighborhood jobs; high-pressure sales exaggerating the urgency of work needed; a threatening or intimidating demeanor after starting work; and requests that checks be made payable to the individual rather than to the company. For any work on your property, Boston police recommend obtaining a minimum of two estimates from reputable companies who are licensed, insured and provide references, who apply for required permits, and who will cover you if there are any post-completion problems. We also suggest checking with your state consumer protection office to learn about your state's contractor licensing requirements. You can also try this resource for state-by-state contractor licensing rules.
Tips
Not so smooth landing at SEA(ttle-Tacoma airport). As of early this month, things were on the mend over at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA). Late last month, the airport was hit with a cyberattack that, according to International Airport Review, resulted in over 400 flight delays and cancellations, outage of flight reader boards, shutdown of the baggage system, and required hand-issuing of international flight tickets, among other problems. By Labor Day weekend, The Seattle Times reported, travelers were getting through security, shops were open, and common-use gates appeared to be running normally again. However, The Times also explained that few details had been released about the cyberattack or what was at stake. Our ears perk up any time we hear about a cyberattack. We want to know if consumer data has been compromised, whether consumers might become vulnerable to scammers offering "help" related to any breach, and what security tips consumers might want to keep in mind to stay safe. In its most recent statement, late last week, the airport confirmed that the incident was a “ransomware” attack. The airport refused to pay the ransom, but will continue to investigate what data was taken. They will notify employees and passengers if any personal information was accessed. While we stay tuned for more updates, a couple of suggestions in the International Airport Review article serve as good reminders for those of us who want to help keep our workplaces safe: Practice good password hygiene (for example, don't reuse the same password for multiple accounts) and use multi-factor authentication. Great tips to keep in mind whether on land, air or SEA.
Three steps to smartphone safety. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) consumer affairs specialist Alvaro Puig authored a no-nonsense consumer alert with simple tips for keeping your smartphone safe: Lock it, update it, and back it up. Should everyone heed this advice? The answer would be yes, except maybe for that rare person whose phone does not contain long strings of private conversations, photos and videos, or account numbers, usernames and passwords. For most of us, Puig points out, our phones contain all this and maybe more. We like Puig's reminder that we can back up our phones not only to the cloud or to our computers, but also to external devices—good to know if you're short on space on your computer or don't want to pay for more cloud storage. To learn more about backing up your phone to an external hard drive, check out this article for iPhone owners, and this one for Android phone owners.
Wonder-filled Hollywood. While research findings differ on whether celebrity endorsements are effective for selling products (some sources say yes, while others suggest no), one celebrity is urging fans to pay no attention to currently circulating ads that are touting "wonder drugs." According to The Hollywood Reporter, Tom Hanks has warned fans about multiple ads on the internet that falsely use his name, likeness and voice to promote miracle cures and wonder drugs. Hanks warned that the ads were created fraudulently, without his consent, using artificial intelligence. As The Hollywood Reporter explains, Hanks acknowledges having type 2 diabetes, but says that he only works with his board-certified doctor regarding his treatment (which sounds like a wise practice worth emulating, versus relying on celebrity advice—whether real or fake—about new miracle cures). As you may imagine, Hanks is not alone among the stars who've seen unauthorized ads with AI-generated versions of themselves. Check out the article for more on other impacted celebrities. And, for tips on avoiding "wonder drug" scams and other false health claims, now's a good time to review this FTC article on spotting and avoiding common health scams.
Handy alert from the Cornhusker state. You'll want to bookmark this alert from the Nebraska attorney general's office because of its handy links for reporting scam emails to email service providers and for reporting scammers' crypto wallets and addresses to online crypto scam databases. The alert warns of an email extortion scam that's been reported to the attorney general's office numerous times. Some Nebraskans, the alert explains, have received highly personalized emails threatening to release allegedly embarrassing content unless the victim sends a large sum of money to a Bitcoin address. The alert includes a screenshot of a scam message in which a scammer apparently demands $1,950 and tells the recipient: "You got one day to sort this out. (I have a special pixel in this mail and at this moment I know that you have read through this...)." The alert explains that scammers also use personal information, such as an address—and even an internet street image of the address—in the scam email, making the message more frightening and believable. If you get one of these messages, make use of the alert's handy list of where to report the scam, and then quickly move on to the email messages you like to read (like messages from us!).
"Good" telemarketers pay to protect you. Ever wonder how a law-abiding telemarketer knows not to call you when you're on the National Do Not Call Registry? As the Federal Trade Commission explains here, all telemarketers calling consumers in the U.S. are required to download the numbers on the National DNC Registry to ensure that they do not call consumers who have registered their phone numbers. Although the first five area codes are free for telemarketers to download, additional area codes cost $80 (the new rate, effective in October), up to a maximum of $22,038 to access all area codes nationwide. The recent announcement of the new rates for telemarketers serves as a good reminder for consumers not to be left out of the Registry if we want to make a dent in the calls we receive from legitimate telemarketers. You can add your number(s) to the National Do Not Call Registry here. But keep in mind that, as the FTC explains in an FAQ, although the Registry stops unwanted sales calls—whether live or recorded—from legitimate companies that follow the law, it won’t stop calls from scammers or others unconcerned with legalities. To help stop calls from scammers, you'll want to look into call-blocking and call-labeling services, which you can learn all about here.
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