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Charities
The Holidays are approaching faster than
we’re probably prepared for and soon our phones will be ringing and our
mailboxes will be filling up….”please make a donation”. Each of us gets way
too many of these requests during the holidays.
Sometimes they have a name
just like a real charity. Sometimes it's a charity that spends 95
percent of your money on fund-raisers and sweepstakes, with only a little bit actually
helping people. Before you donate, check out any charity. Make
sure that it's real, and that most of your donation will actually help
people.
Following is a suggestion to help you
investigate the organizations you might have concerns about.
Take a moment to check out the charity
on web sites like
www.give.org. You can learn facts ranging from how much of
the money goes to programs that actually help people (it should be at least
75%) to how much their CEO makes.
If the name of the charity sounds
familiar but you have doubts about it, you can check it out through the
Secretary of State’s Office at 602.542.4086 or the
Attorney General’s
Consumer Protection Department at 602.542.5763.
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The following article is from CALL 12 FOR ACTION by Rick DeBruhl
printed in the Arizona Republic.
Lottery scam robbing its
victims
It was a long shot and she knew it. But you could tell
by her voice that she didn't just want it to happen, she needed it to happen.
She needed to win El Gordo.
Don't laugh. El Gordo is a real Spanish lottery.
Last year, "The Fat One" handed out 19,000 prizes worth more than $1.7 billion.
The woman calling me was not one of those winners. She
was the victim of a crime.
Her husband had gotten a letter from the "El Gordo Sweepstake
Lottery Company." In bold letters it declared this was the final award
notification. It claimed they had won $6l5,810.
How could they have won without ever buying a ticket?
According to the letter, 25,000 names from Europe and North America were entered
as part of a promotion.
When they called the contact in Spain, they were told there
was just one catch. They had to pay a $2,200 currency transfer fee.
On the phone, she told me they didn't really have the $2,200.
But they managed to scrape it together.
But instead of getting their winnings, they got another call
from Spain. This time the man told them there was an additional fee that
had cropped up. As soon as they paid $9,000, their $615,810 would be on
its way.
She panicked and called me to ask how they could get their
money back. They can't. They were robbed.
Foreign lottery scams are nothing new. For a while the
Canadian lottery was the scam of choice. Now it's El Gordo. They all
work the same. You've won a huge amount of money and you'll get it as soon
as you send them some.
On the phone she sounded like someone who truly needed the
money. She wasn't sure she could afford the phone calls to Spain.
She thanked me and hung up, no doubt wondering how she was going to repay the
$2,200 she had probably borrowed.
Reach
Call 12 for Action from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays at (602) 260-1212 or
1-866-260-1212.
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The following article is from CALL 12 FOR ACTION by Rick DeBruhl
printed in the Arizona Republic.
Weather is cooling,
Con
Artists coming
As the leaves begin to change in colder climates,
scam artists are looking for warm weather.
For years those of us who live in the Valley have
joked about snowbirds. The reality is that the vast majority of them are
welcome neighbors. The travelers are not.
Travelers is just one of the
names attached to people who wander about the nation conning people.
Often it's a contractor scam. They show up
at your door explaining that they noticed your roof needs repair. They say
they have leftover materials from a roofing job around the corner, and since
they're in the neighborhood it won't cost much to do yours.
They take your money up front and
either do a poor job, or skip before they're finished. Sometimes they'll
demand more money to finish.
The scam can involve concrete, paint or any home
fix.
And that's only the beginning. There are
snowbird crooks who specialize in insurance scams. They stage accidents
and then take advantage of insurance companies or unsuspecting victims.
The current crooked fad is
counterfeit cashier's checks. You advertise a car, or any item, for sale
and they show up to buy it with a cashier's check that looks legitimate.
By the time you discover the check is a fake, they're gone.
Just to make it worse, sometimes they'll pay with
a cashier's check worth more than the item they're buying. They ask for
cash back and since everyone trusts a cashier's check, they get it.
How do you protect yourself?
Get references and use a licensed contractor. Don't fall for a deal that's
just too good. Treat people fairly but don't pay up front to anyone who
hasn't earned your trust.
Travelers often target the elderly. Take a
moment to talk with your older relatives and friends about the scammers.
________________
Reach Call 12 for Action from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays at (602) 260-1212 or
1-866-260-1212.
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The following was excerpted from an article in
the Arizona Republic.
Be aware of the scams that are out there:
Automatic debits
Questionable companies get your bank
information and debit your account for a service you don't need. They
count on the fact that some people rarely check their monthly statements.
You have only 60 days to dispute an automatic debit, so watch your account.
Contractor scams
Fake contractors
claim that they've got leftover roofing or paving supplies and offer to
repair your home for a fraction of the regular cost. They start the
job and then either disappear or demand more money to finish the mess
they've made. Don't just check their contractor license (scammers
"borrow" legitimate license numbers); ask for references.
Deceased
rip-offs
Your relative dies. As you're wrapping up
the estate you find a bill for an unknown credit card. It's not a huge
amount, but it says "past due." You pay it with the other bills.
That bill wasn't real. Some slime-ball saw the death notice and sent
the bill. Consider getting a credit report for someone who has passed
away so you know which bills are legitimate.
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Area code scams
| Some scam
artists are using the 809, 284 or 8
area code to trick consumers into
running up high charges on their
phone bills. Be alert when
responding to e-mails, phone calls,
numeric pages or voice mail messages
that tell you to call a phone number
with an 809 area code to collect a
prize, find out about a sick
relative, etc.
If you dial the
809 area code from within the United
States, you'll be connected to a
phone number outside of the United
States. Most victims don't find out
about the higher international call
rates until they receive a large
phone bill.
The 809 area
code (a legitimate area code in the
Caribbean) can also be used as a
toll number, equivalent to 900
numbers in the United States. Scam
artists take advantage of the fact
that the public may not know the 809
area code is a "pay-per-call"
number.
To minimize
the risk of Area Code Fraud:
- Be wary
of messages or pages to unknown
area codes.
- If
suspicious of area codes you do
not recognize, check the
telephone directory or call the
operator to determine the
location of the area code before
making your call.
- If you've
been scammed, first
contact the carrier with whom
the charge originated, whose
name and toll-free telephone
number should be printed on the
same bill page as the charge in
question. Often, the problem can
be resolved with a single phone
call.
- If the
carrier with whom the charge
originated does not agree to
resolve the problem, contact
AT&T
www.sbc.com/contact_us. AT&T
will work with the customer and
the carrier to help get
fraudulent charges removed from
the phone bill.
- To file a
complaint with the Federal
Communications Commission about
this and/or related phone scams,
visit:
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/809.html.
"809" is the
area code of the Dominican Republic.
"284" is the area code of the
British Virgin Islands. "876" is the
area code of Jamaica. Since these
numbers aren't subject to U.S. laws,
there is no legal requirement to
inform callers in advance of any
special rates or fees.
Perpetrators
con victims into dialing the numbers
by leaving messages claiming that a
relative has been injured or
arrested, an unpaid account must be
settled, or a cash prize can be
claimed, etc. When recipients call
back, they are kept on the line for
as long as possible to run up
additional charges. The bill for
such a call can be substantial
(though not nearly as high as $2,400
per minute claimed in the email).
AT&T advises
that consumers always check the
location of unfamiliar area codes
before dialing. This can be done by
visiting
www.consumer.att.com or simply
Googling the area code (e.g.,
area code 809) and viewing the
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Most scammers probably won't be caught or prosecuted. The amounts are
usually small and the trail is too complex.
Your best defense is
knowing that these scams are out there. Here is a link to the
top ten consumer scams in Arizona.
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