Scams are appallingly common online these days, and among the more despicable ploys are those that aim to take advantage of desperate job-seekers. Our friends at the Better Business Bureau have some advice on how not to get conned.
Would you trust a stranger to keep your financial secrets? That's exactly what customers do every time they call a bank and talk with a customer service rep. But how much oversight can a bank really have when those reps are in another country?
Why did banks give this little girl credit cards, home mortgages, and car and boat loans? And how did she keep getting them after defaulting time and time again? The answers should be a warning for every parent in America.
It's call remote deposit capture technology, and you've probably seen it advertised: Snap a smartphone picture of a check, send the image to the bank, and your deposit gets credited. Easy. And while only 3% of banking customers use it now, it could be the killer app that lures most of us into online banking.
Cyberspace is full of scams, and the con artists keep developing new ones. One of the latest is "smishing": It's like a phishing email that comes as a text message on your cell phone, and there's more than one way it can cost you.
With six months of earning, saving, and spending under your belt, you've got plenty of data to project how 2012 is going to play out. So let's lift the hood on your finances and give everything a good once over.
On Tuesday morning, my wife and I discovered our Chase Bank account had been hacked. By that afternoon, I realized we were part of something much bigger. But even a data breach that affected up to 1.5 million accounts is only the tip of the bank fraud iceberg.
Google built its empire on innovations that served consumers well, but it's building its future on serving those consumers, and their personal data, up to advertisers. Not only that, but Google's new focus has the company pursuing projects that may actually be harmful to users.
No one likes to hear that their bank, credit card issuer, transaction processor, or any of the merchants they've used who issue plastic has been hit with a security breach. But it happens: These are the steps to take afterward.
A data breach at a payments processing firm has potentially compromised credit and debit card information from all of the major card brands.
MasterCard and Visa said Friday that they had notified issuers of its credit cards of a potential breach of the security of customer accounts. Visa blamed a third company for the error.
The quantity of counterfeit goods entering the U.S. is increasing, and it gets worse around an event like the Super Bowl. Federal agents recently seized more than $6 million of counterfeits and shut down more than 300 illegal websites. But consumers are at risk for more than just getting a shoddy NFL jersey.
Valentine's Day offers Internet con artists a great cover for their illegal craft: Using love as a lure, scammers sweet-talk their victims out of personal information the can use to rob you. Here's what you need to know to avoid falling for a fraud.
Uncle Sam isn't the only one looking to collect from taxpayers this year: A rapidly growing number of Internet scammers are also using the guise of the IRS to siphon money out of consumers' pockets, security experts say.
You're not going to fall for the old Nigerian prince scam anymore -- but the fraudsters know that, and they've moved on, too. Here are some financial scams that made the rounds in 2011 -- and will likely be back in some form this year.
Traditional phishing -- where hackers attempt to acquire personal data from individuals in hopes of defrauding them -- is bad enough. But even more alarming is the rise of a new kind of attack: "spear phishing."
Each year, a disturbing number of women fall prey to fraudsters posing as U.S. servicemen, who woo them long-distance, then ask for cash. "A couple of years ago we were getting hundreds of calls a year about this scam," says Christopher Grey of the Army Criminal Investigation Command. "Now we get thousands."
This is International Fraud Awareness Week, when various companies and nonprofit organizations work to educate people about how to avoid becoming victims of financial fraud. And we need the help: Last year, American consumers lost more than $1.7 billion to financial scams.
Even as many Americans struggle to make ends meet, scammers are plotting all sorts of sneaky ways to rob them of their money -- and in millions of cases, they succeed. When it comes to these cons, the best offense is a smart defense, so here's an intro course in how to spot the latest scams.
It looks like an ordinary cash machine, and you type in your PIN without a second thought. But there's a hidden device recording your ATM card's magnetic strip, and capturing your PIN. Big money is about to vanish from your bank account. Or maybe not: Here's how to prevent skimmers from getting their hands on your data.
Each year, some 14,000 people are wrongly declared dead by the Social Security Administration, CNNMoney reports. Data-entry errors can lead to major financial turmoil for victims of these mistakes, who they can lose their benefits and credit.
With all the hackers in the headlines, you might be feeling more hesitant to offer up your credit card numbers while shopping online. Virtual credit card numbers offer one possible solution. But don't expect them to be infallible.
At least 16% of Americans have engaged in some kind of identity fraud -- lying about their Social Security number, name or birthday -- on applications for goods and services, a new study reveals. That's 45 million people trying to game the system, and every time one succeeds, he or she may be making trouble for you.
While the number of incidents of identity theft has dropped, the cost to get your identity back is rising. Personal finance expert Jean Chatzky explains who is after your identity (it could be someone you know) and gives great advice on steps you must take now to protect yourself.
Identity thieves are claiming fewer victims, but those victims are spending a lot more time and money resolving the incidents, according to a survey by research firm Javelin Strategy & Research.
