phone scams

The Better Business Bureau recently issued a number of consumer warnings, so to make it easier for you to stay on top of them all, Consumer Ally decided to condense and combine a few below for your convenience. Jamaican Phone Scams The BBBs of Minnesota and North Dakota are warning area consumers...

Scam callers claiming to be government employees are trying to steal personal information by pretending to collect information for a jury pool. In the scam, officials identify themselves as a "clerk employee" and warn that the person on the receiving end has missed jury duty. They then ask for...

It's your mother on the phone -- or so your caller I.D. says -- but that's not necessarily so. You may be amazed at how easily a caller can arrange to have virtually any number other than his own show up on your phone's caller I.D. A bill just passed in Washington establishes strong penalties for...

If a debt collector calls and threatens to sue or have you thrown in jail unless you immediately authorize a payment from a bank account, hang up because it's a scam, says Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Madigan has issued a consumer alert warning people to be on the lookout for scammers...

Unless you harbor some sort of digital death wish, you've undoubtedly spent time worrying about the ever-multiplying ways high-tech scammers can make life miserable by stealing your money, creditworthiness or identity. Forewarned is forearmed, so here are some of the hottest scams to be aware of...

The FBI is warning consumers to be on the alert for scammers who tie up their phone lines while emptying their bank accounts. These "telephone denial-of-service" attacks are similar to ones that have been used by hackers for years to crash websites by flooding them with Internet traffic. But...

The West Virginia attorney general's office is warning consumers not to be tricked by callers posing as Medicare or Social Security Administration representatives -- the latest version of a nationwide phone scam. Aimed at seniors on Medicare, the caller asks for personal information so a new...

Another day, another scam.Given that this one has been attacking Bloomington, Indiana, the college town of my alma mater, Indiana University, and the surrounding towns, I felt compelled to mention this. After all, it could happen anywhere: Over the weekend, several dozen people began receiving...

An article in today's Columbus Dispatch showed that the *72 scam is alive and evolving, this time in the guise of a caller pretending to be a state highway patrol trooper. The way the scam typically works is something like this: I call you, and spin some tale such as, "Sorry about the wrong number,...