"Scam/Safety Alerts" – Watch Out For These!

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Shopping Specials Mind Teasers Movies Subscribe to one of our informative newsletters Why not join iCop yourself - and become known as a reputable company? Click on the iCop seal to find out more. Double ii's Services iCop Member Would you like your AD to appear here? Tell A Friend! About This Site! Type In Your Name: Type In Your E-mail: Your Friend's E-mail: Your Comments: Receive copy:  Sponsor ~~~~~~~~~~ Overpayment Checks - Beware of anyone giving you a cashiers check or personal check which is made out over the amount it should have been. More often than not, it's a scammer who gives you the check and asks you to give him the difference in cash. Chances are - he will walk off with your goods PLUS change, and the check you got is not even valid or will bounce, may be a stolen check, etc. Do not accept cashier's checks at all - they are very easy to duplicate and look official. Money orders are also suspicious. Many a seller has taken these forms of payment, even for a car, and the scammer has taken the goods and disappeared. The seller has a worthless piece of paper and no goods. ~~~~~~~~~~ Businesses Beware - Items Returned - there is a scam going around the Denver area (at least) in which a man or one of a couple younger women enter a fabric or craft store, wander around and pick up a knitting machine. They take it, openend or unopened, to the cashier and say they have brought it in to return it and would like a refund. Mind you, the person did not bring it into the store but picked it up from the store. The cashier I spoke to asked the man for a receipt. Of course, he didn't have one, but said it might be in the car. He tried to leave with the machine (apparently so he can walk into the next store with it in hand) but she would not let him take it, telling him to leave it at the counter. He got into his car and just drove off. Stores can counter these claims by making sure the cash registers are at front of store, or a person is at the entrance and putting stickers on anything brought in. That way no one can go into the store and come out with an item without being noticed (this may be too cost prohibitive for some stores). A store can REQUIRE a receipt with no exceptions. Another deterrent is to have a store policy which does not give direct refunds - but rather a refund from corporate office in which a form is filled out and then mailed to corporate offices with refund coming to the person in about 10 days. This has worked in many cases - the scammer doesn't want to give an address, and doesn't want to wait for a refund. This becomes more problematic for legitimate shoppers with a receipt - perhaps those with a receipt could get an immediate refund. ~~~~~~~~~~ Wedding Crasher Scam - If you are getting married, have someone keep a watch on the wedding gifts while at the reception, or set the gifts well inside the room so no one can get to them unwatched. There are people who "crash" wedding receptions in order to steal the gifts when no one is noticing - taking the envelopes with the cash and gift cards at the least. If you can secure the gift area, perhaps placing all gifts in a monitored coat closet, or have a friend place them in a car and drive off to store in your home, you can avert a lot of heartache when you are missing gifts, and people are asking about them. Take extra care to make sure you recognize every person at the reception - either you or your spouse, or the mother who invited other relatives - every person at the reception should be indentifiable - if not, go introduce yourself and see who that person says he is - then check with that side of the family to verify. ~~~~~~~~~~ Last Chance Calls - Even if you are on a "Do Not Call" list - there are companies that have call centers lined up to call houses - often looking for names of people who have credit cards out, or mortgages, or other public records that can give them a clue that their service might be needed. Then they call with the most general message that will apply to most people - "your eligibility for a lower credit card rate is about to expire - to lower your rate, speak to a representative" or "there is a new medical insurance plan that is now available to everyone, even homeworkers" or "To lower your mortgage rate" - there are so many types of thee lines that are used. DON'T fall for them - they are generic, not specific to you or your accounts. Even if you hit the button to be removed from the list (this immediately clues you in that it is NOT specifically about your account - if it is about your credit card or account, they won't give the option to remove the number), they won't quit calling. I have hit the remove option several times, but the calls continue - they pay no attention, so I now hit to speak to the representative, and ask for hte company name, telling them they are breaking the law by calling a number on a "Do Not Call" list. Then they hang up immediately, no other word. This is a RED FLAG as well. We'll see if I get another call from these companies - I bet I do - they'll stop at nothing. ~~~~~~~~~~ Foreclosure Scams - there are so many foreclosure situations these days, with people losing their jobs, or going hevaily into debt. If you are in that situaiton, be careful - there are a lot of companies that claim to help you get out of foreclosure - check them out carefully. Don't give them any money - if you can afford to pay them, you can afford to talk to your mortgage company and try to work something out - that should be your first priority - to talk to the mortgage company. Just as it's a good idea to talk to your credit company when in trouble, talk to your mortgage company whenin trouble - try to work out a different payment schedule or some arrangement through the mortgage company. Scamming foreclosure companies will tell you they'll make arrangements with your mortgage company to put off the foreclosure and arrange payments. They'll ask you for up-front money - cash or check, no credit card. Then they wil take your money, and perhaps run, but in any case will spend it so there is no way you can get it back if they are found out. They will not make payments to your mortgage company, and they won't even contact the mortgage company. Do not make any mortgage payments to ANY other entity other than your mortgage company - it is likely the mortgage company will see none of the money, but the scamming foreclosure company will pocket it. If you have paid a company to help you, do call your mortgage company and verify that some payment arrangement has been made on your home. If not, alert the authorities immediately. Be very wary of these companies ~~~~~~~~~~ Those Tricky Spam Emails - Those spammers never give up, and always find a new trick to get your attention and trust. Now you see "Login Information" and "Thank You for Joining" and other such subject lines that make you think you're getting a reply from some program you joined. Then there are those that say you were sent an e-card and must go to a site to retrieve it. It could be a problem clicking on the link - try going to the main site by googling it - then try to retrieve it. Sometimes these are legitimate, many times not. Use common sense. If you can't identify the sender, forget about it. Don't hit the link unless you know it came from bluemountain.com, hallmark.com, or another we'll-known site. Whatever you do - DON'T click on the link or even paste the link off of the email into your browser - you don't know what site you'll go to - could look legitimate but it will ask you information about yourself that should remain personal. Or it can lead you to a site that will start downloading a program, or spyware, or cookies - so that they can harrass you from that point on. Just ignore these emails and trash them, or report them. ~~~~~~~~~~ Check Your Credit/Debit/Check Charges This may not be a scam, but you need to address the problem right away. Sometimes clerks make typing mistakes when entering the amounts of a bill or charge. If the amount that is showing up on your account is not the amount of the charge or check you made, then call the bank and dispute it. It might be a decimal point or two off (it happened to me - I gave a check for $99 and my account showed that the check cashed for $990.00 - it was a clerical entry error). They immediately corrected everything the next day - I was lucky that the guilty party wired the money back into my account - but don't expect to be so lucky as to get it resolved that quickly. In any case, check your accounts regularly - it might be useful to have online access to your accounts. Keep all receipts and make sure your checkbook has a receipt copy for each check entry so you can show what you wrote. Use your debit card as a credit card - it takes much longer to correct a debit entry, if you even can. Credit rights itself pretty quickly with the help of the credit companies. ~~~~~~~~~~ P. Roe writes "Scam Alerts" – how to spot scams and the latest scam report. To subscribe for free, click here. Scam Tips More Articles ~~~~~~~~~~ Health Alerts Do you know that bad breath problems may be the cause of something else - a health problem or tooth problem or something else? You might have a sinus infection or drainage that will amke your breath smell foul. There could be other symptoms that need to be looked at. Don't just cover up your breath - find out of there is something else going on that might be more serious. Click here for more information. Health Tips Blog - find out the latest in health tips and alerts here - updated often. ~~~~~~~~~~ More ALERTS Find out about alerts on spam scams, on viruses – and other alerts as they come up! Alerts! ~~~~~~~~~~ Scam Resource of the Day IDTHEFT Check out scams here! Tom Martino - the Troubleshooter ~~~~~~~~~~ TOOLS Safety Tips Need Financing or Funding? Identity theft See our NEW sites here. More Articles, plus find Ebooks and Tips here. NO Cost to You! Lots of GREAT FREE STUFF here. Win Contests Here! ~~~~~~~~~~ FOR FUN =>>Gladys Dunn Gladys Dunn recently moved into a retirement community in a small town. One beautiful Sunday morning she walked down the street to a church not far from her apartment. Gladys was in awe of the big beautiful church building as she stepped inside to attend the worship service. Gladys however, wasn't too impressed with the sermon. She thought it was kind of boring and, as she looked around the church, she noticed that many of the members were nodding off. When the preacher finished his sermon he encouraged the congregation to greet those sitting close by. Gladys turned toward the man sitting on her left. He, too, had fallen asleep and was yawning and stretching trying to wake up. He smiled at her, and Gladys returned the smile. She politely offered her hand and said, "I'm Gladys Dunn." "You and me both!" the man replied. ~~~~~~~~~~ Advertising You can order sponsor ads and site links for VERY low prices here. You may refer this issue to a friend it in its entirety. Subscribe here. This week's subscriber winner is listed at our NEW SITE. Find out if it's you and how to claim your prize! Put in more entries here. P. Roe Email Scam Tips Relief for your back & neck when using a laptop Laptops are ergonomically awful - the screen and keyboard aren't in the right places to keep yourself healthy - you have to lean over to work with it, and then there is the problem of heat - which can and does cause other health problems. One wonderful invention is the LapGenie - it is an adjustable desk to set your laptop into the best position it can be. It folds up for easy travel, and has many other uses. Check it out. It's made a huge difference to me and a lot of people. Double ii's Services 303-349-7096 P.O. Box 631746, Highlands Ranch, CO 80163 Email Privacy Policy About Us URL: http://www.doubleii.com/safetyscamalerts.html Home  About  Newsletter  Privacy Policy  Email   Quality Links Complete the phrases: Fill in the words for the capital letters: D. and N. of the G.F D. in a Z.C. H. in a D. The answer is "Days and Nights of the Great Flood, Digits in a Zip Code, and Hours in a Day" Visit here for MORE Mind Twisters!