5 Scams You Might Be Falling For

By Kimberly Palmer
Posted: March 10, 2009

At least one group is finding the recession to be a boom time: Fraudsters. The Better Business Bureau reports an uptick in complaints about scams, especially those relating to the stimulus package and mystery shopping. "There are definitely going to be more rip-offs because of the economy," says Ed Magedson, founder of the Tempe, Arizona-based Ripoff Report.

Here are five scams you could be falling for:

Paying for information on how to get money from the stimulus package. Almost as soon as the stimulus package was signed into law, scam artists created blogs and websites purporting to help people receive grants from the bill, according to the Better Business Bureau. Blogs that were set up to look like someone's personal story on how they received thousands of dollars of stimulus money directed visitors to websites that charged as much as $69.95 per month for information.

The Better Business Bureau, which has already received hundreds of complaints on stimulus-related scams, warns consumers off any website claiming to help them win federal grant money, and to avoid paying any money for information. The Federal Trade Commission also issued a warning after it noticed websites using images of President Obama in an effort to look official. Government websites, which always end in ".gov," such as www.grants.gov, www.recovery.gov, and www.govbenefits.gov, provide information on the stimulus package and government grants for free.

Getting hired to be a mystery shopper by a fraudulent company. Becoming a mystery shopper sounds like the perfect job, paying you to do what you're already doing. Because so many people are out of work, interest in mystery shopping has grown, says Alison Southwick of the Better Business Bureau. So have the scams associated with it.

Here's how the typical mystery shopping scam works: You are offering a few hundred dollars to become a mystery shopper. The company sends a check for $3,000 to be deposited in your bank account. You're told to spend part of it at various stores, to keep $300 as payment, and to wire the rest—often a couple thousand dollars—back to the company, which is frequently based in Canada. Then, after wiring away that money, it turns out the original check was fake, and you have just given away thousands of dollars to a scam artist.

Of course, mystery shopping is also a legitimate activity. To tell the real offers from the fakes, Southwick recommends sticking with one basic rule: Never wire money to anyone. That is how most victims get tripped up. Also, she adds, mystery shopping usually pays around $20 per assignment, or perhaps a free lunch. Offers of more money, in the hundreds of dollars, should raise a red flag. The Mystery Shopping Providers Association, an industry group, adds that shoppers never have to pay a fee to become a mystery shopper. It lists legitimate opportunities on its website, www.mysteryshop.org/shoppers.

[Read "Beware the Latest Credit Card Scam."]

Paying an illegitimate company to modify your mortgage. With thousands of homeowners looking for mortgage relief, Magedson says that an increasing number of companies are offering mortgage modifications for upfront fees. "They're slick sales people, taking these fees upfront and then doing nothing," he says. If any company asks for an upfront payment, Magedson recommends walking away.

Believing that you won money in the form of a grant or lottery in the mail. The old "You are a winner" trick might pre-date the Internet, but it's still going strong; in fact, says Magedson, he calls it one of the most popular scams today.

Typically, consumers receive mail that says they've won something, usually the lottery, sweepstakes, a grant, or some other form of money. Then, the company sends a check with instructions to deposit the money and then pays taxes on it by wiring money into an account. If the check is for $5,000, they might pay $2,300 in taxes.

Of course, as with the mystery shopping scam, the check turns out to be bogus and the consumer just lost the wired money. "Consumers should know that nobody's picking them out. Nobody would give them money," says Magedson. In other words, any offer that sounds too good to be true probably is.

Corrected on 3/11/09: An earlier version of this article provided an incorrect Web address. The correct address is www.govbenefits.gov.

source: http://www.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2009/03/10/5-scams-you-might-be-falling-for.html

Boy Sues Mother For Changing His Facebook Password

Posted by Neil Vidyarthi on April 7th, 2010 4:16 PM

Share194 13 Comments

A disgruntled Arkadelphia boy is hitting back at his social media savvy mother after she went through his Facebook and posted things that “involve slander about his personal life”. His preferred method of revenge: litigation. He’s filing charges against her and is requesting a no contact order.

The son cannot be named, but the mother, Denise New, proclaims that she’s within her rights to watch her child and have a conversation with him about his activities.

“You’re within your legal rights to monitor your child and to have a conversation with your child on Facebook whether it’s his account, or your account or whoever’s account. It’s crazy to me that we’re even having this interview,” said Denise. “I read things on his Facebook about how he had gone to Hot Springs one night and was driving 95 m.p.h. home because he was upset with a girl and it was his friend that called me and told me about all this that prompted me to even actually start really going through his Facebook to see what was going on.”

Arkansas’ harassment law is defined as “A person commits the offense if with purpose to harass, annoy or alarm another person without good cause, he engages in conduct or repeatedly commits acts that alarm or seriously annoy another person.”

What’s interesting here is that New and her son had a great relationship, and this really drove them apart, as they’re both going to fight. Denise thinks this may be a precedent-setting moment for mothers who want to get involved in their sons’ and daughters’ lives. Facebook in this case acts as a medium which allows a higher level of visibility into family members’ lives, and brings the issue of how to raise your children squarely into the light.

source: http://www.allfacebook.com/2010/04/boy-facebook-password/#more-13322

The Latest Facebook Scam Uses Your “Friends”

By Kimberly Palmer

Posted: March 31, 2010

If you get an email from a friend telling you that he’s been mugged and needs you to send cash immediately, you might want to give him a call first. Chances are, he’s safe at home and doesn’t need your help at all.

The latest scam to circulate on social networking sites works like this: Fraudsters hack into an unsuspecting Facebook user’s account and change his status update to read something like, “I’ve been robbed and need help now!” That person’s friends receive the alert by e-mail or by logging onto Facebook, and, as any good friend would, spring into action. They send cash or money orders to their “friend,” but in reality, they are sending the cash to scammers who steal it.

“If a cry for help arrives from a friend, and his picture is next to it, it’s pretty easy to fall for,” says Bob Sullivan, author of Stop Getting Ripped Off. On his blog The Red Tape Chronicles, Sullivan describes how Bryan Rutberg of Seattle discovered his Facebook account had been hacked into and a message had been posted that he was in urgent need of help. His friends tried to help him; one sent $1,200 to the hackers.

Why do people believe such fraudsters? “Facebook friends enjoy a trust level that others do not,” Sullivan says. It’s also easy to be lulled into a false sense of security when you’re using social networking sites – the same sites you post baby pictures to, talk about your dinner plans on, and use to communicate with close friends. It’s easy to start to think of Facebook as the local coffee shop, full of familiar faces, instead of the anonymous website that it can sometimes be.

Facebook, which has gotten some bad press because of this and similar incidents, says users should use anti-virus and anti-phishing programs to help protect themselves, and to be skeptical of anyone who asks for money. Never send money, the company says, without verifying with your friend on the telephone first. Facebook also says that people should be savvy about their passwords, and not use the same one for multiple accounts.

The folks at Google are also on the case. The company recently launched a warning system that lets users know if the company detects any suspicious activity. If it seems like something fishy is going on, it posts a warning that alerts the user.

[See Fraud Protection: Debit Versus Credit Cards]

There’s also a lower tech way to alert your friends to potential trouble with your account. If you have any reason to believe that your account has been accessed, then send an email to your contact list explaining your concern. After my former high school teacher suspected he might be at risk for an attack, he sent out the following message: “Over the past several weeks, a couple of my friends have had their identities stolen… Since I travel a lot and since the [scammers] have my E-mail… it is not impossible that the same thing might happen to me. So, if you get such a request from me, ignore it. If I need money, I know who to call and will do it by phone.”

Have you been the victim of a Facebook scam? Share your experience and tips for others.

source:http://www.usnews.com/money/blogs/alpha-consumer/2010/03/31/the-latest-facebook-scam-uses-your-friends

Facebook Lite

Facebook Lite

Facebook Lite is a stripped down version of the website that runs fast and eliminates a lot of the current clutter. The first thing you will notice missing are apps, you won’t see any applications or games/quizzes clogging up your timeline. I use the “Hide” feature seemingly daily on my timeline to filter this stuff out, but now in the new Lite version there are gone. Also noticications now appear in the Lite version on the bottom of your screen, keep an eye out for them because at first you may miss them as they pop up. Highlights are gone in the Lite verion, these were all the photos, videos and notes that were most viewed in your network.

The new Lite version was originally built for foreign countries where high speed broadband was less likely to be found. But the interface was so fast and furious that it was introduced this week on a wider scale, including here in the States, as an alternative option.

Below you can see several screen shots. The first is the “old” Facebook timeline, followed by the new Lite timeline. The third shot is the new Lite profile screen, which features bigger buttons and a much cleaner interface:

Facebook Tagging

Another very cool feature rolled out this week is Facebook Tagging. Very similar to Twitter, you can now tag people as you post a status update. You can see this in the screenshot above. It is done by using the “@” symbol before their name. You can also tag groups and pages. What is cool is that when you start to type in a name or group, Facebook automatically pops up suggestions to make it easier. The person you tagged will be notified (same as Photo Tagging works now) and also if someone is reading your status update they can click on the person’s name to go direct to their profile.

Facebook Tagging is available now for some and will roll out for everyone in the coming week or two, so keep an eye out for this powerful new feature.

If you would like to try out Facebook Lite, just go to http://lite.facebook.com

Facebook has been focused and agressive on improvng their service and these two great options are very welcome. I already love the new Lite version after using it for only a day or so and will

source: facebook.com/franklinmcmahon