The Better Business Bureau Serving Southern Alberta and the East Kootenays has released a list of the top 10 scams of 2010.
With 45 per cent of Albertans using the Internet for shopping, according to Statistics Canada, it’s not a surprise that hackers, online classified advertisement schemes and many other web-based scams dominated the list of top scams for this past year.
“With more and more people logging online to shop, bank and perform other security-sensitive tasks, scammers are adapting their traditional scams to function in the online sphere,” said Kara Hendriksen, spokesperson for the BBB. “The best way to protect yourself from scams is still to educate yourself – at their core, scams are the same both online and off.”
• “Free” trial offers – Misleading free trial offers online for diet supplements, penny auctions and money-making schemes blanket the Internet. The offers seem no-risk on the surface, but BBBs across North America receive thousands of complaints from consumers each year who think they were getting a free trial, and end up losing hundreds of dollars in recurring charges.
• Itinerant repairmen/pavers – BBBs across the country received complaints from consumers who answered a knock from a door-to-door salesman or itinerant worker who eventually failed to deliver on promises to conduct work to the home. Residents in southern Alberta often have issues with paving companies that go door-to-door saying that they have leftover pavement and will pave your driveway for cheap. They are paid, perform shoddy work and then disappear, leaving no recourse for the victim to have repairs performed.
• Phony invoice scam – This year, an increasing number of businesses were the victims of a scam where a business receives unsolicited goods with an attached invoice. If the business doesn’t return the unexpected goods or fails to pay for them, they will receive harassing phone calls asking for payment. Another invoice scheme was prevalent this year where companies were blanketed with faxes requesting them subscribe to a service with a very similar logo to that of the Yellow Pages Group. Consequently, many companies have ended up with a useless subscription to an obscure company database.
• Emergency scam – Also known as the ‘grandma’ or ‘stranded traveller’ scam, the base of this scam is that someone, usually a close friend or relative, is in trouble and needs money wired to them. After the money is wired, the story turns out to be a hoax and the wire transfer is untraceable.
• Employment scams – Scams targeting job hunters vary and include attempts to gain access to personal information such as bank account or social security numbers and requirements to pay a fee in order to even be considered for the job.
• Work-from-home schemes – Some work-from-home schemes promise to teach the secrets to making money online, others claim you can make money assembling items at home or get paid to be a mystery shopper. The end result is that instead of getting paid, you can end up losing hundreds of dollars.
• Lottery and sweepstakes scams – The victim receives an email, letter in the mail or phone call from someone pretending to be with Reader’s Digest or a phony foreign lottery. The scammer claims that the victim has won millions but must first wire hundreds or even thousands of dollars back to the scammers to cover taxes or some other bogus fee. The victim wires the money, but the prize never arrives.
• Identity theft – Each year, more than 12,000 cases of identity theft are reported to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. Several ways Canadians become victims of identity theft are through low-tech theft, emails, phone calls, text messages, or even through no fault of their own as the result of a corporate data breach.
• Online buy and sell scam – These scams come and go, but in 2010 we saw an outbreak of online scams on classified sites such as Craigslist and Kijiji in the area. Scammers post fake, desirable Christmas presents, rental houses or other sought-after items, leaving the buyer without their gift and out the scammer’s fee. Scammers may also seek out someone selling an item, over-pay for the item via cheque and then ask that the excess money be wired back to them. The cheque is fake and the victim is out the money wired back to the scammers.
• Advance fee loan scams – A perennial problem, advance fee loan scams prey on consumers and business owners who are struggling financially. Victims are told they qualify for large loans but must pay upfront fees — often more than a thousand dollars. The victim wires money to the scammers, but never receives the loan.
Consumers or small business owners victimized by a scam can file a complaint at www.calgary.bbb.org
