Our society today has growing appetite for social media and most of us use it for legitimate purposes: connecting with our friends, pursuing our hobbies or building our businesses. Unfortunately, part of the population has a more insidious use for social media: they want to scam you. Thankfully, a little vigilance can go a long way in protecting you from these cyber criminals. Here is one list you can use, from Norton Antivirus, showing the top five social media scams:
1. **Hidden URLs** – Those shortened URLs are convenient, but they may be links to websites you don’t want to visit, or worse, they could install malware on your computer.
2. **Phishing Requests** – When you get an invitation to click on a link to see a picture of yourself at some wild party, think twice. Once you click, you’re taken to a fake Twitter or Facebook login page where you enter you user name and password. Doing this gives the cyber-criminals complete control of your account.
3. **Hidden Charges** – Be wary of those on-line quizzes that offer to tell you interesting information about yourself like which 1960s sitcom star you resemble. If the quiz asks you for personal information, such as your phone number, stop. If you continue, you many end up subscribing to some service that charges a recurring monthly fee.
4. **Cash Grabs** – It’s great to make new friends, but maybe not by “friending” strangers on Facebook. That person you just friended on Facebook may soon be asking you for money. You can avoid this situation by limiting your social media connections to people you know personally.
5. **Chain Letters** – Sure, you want to be sure that Microsoft will donate the millions it promised to some worthy charity if you keep the on-line chain letter going. However, such “chain letter” e-mails are a way for scammers to access your friends to connect with them later.
Sites that are popular with users are popular with criminals, too. Be vigilant, keep your anti-virus and anti-malware software up to date and think twice before clicking on a suspicious link!
Monthly Archives: September 2014
The real problem facing retirement plans? Not saving enough
Recently, two debates have been brewing over 401(k) plans. Specifically, are they too expensive and should we cap the amount Americans can accumulate in the total balance of their defined benefit and defined contribution plans as well as IRAs. Is that really where the debate should be?
A recent PBS.org retirement study revealed some alarming statistics about Americans’ retirement savings habits. Specifically 30% of workers have $0.00 in retirement savings and 40% are currently not saving anything for retirement. Even factoring in Social Security, the average savings shortfall of a U.S. household will be $250,000 at retirement.
For many, if they are contributing to their retirement plans, they are contributing too little. The current belief that contributing just enough to maximize an employer’s contribution will fund your retirement is irresponsible. Only a small number of Americans will amass $1million in their retirement plans by the time they retire. According to Don Phillips in his recent Morningstar article, Fighting the Wrong War, “At a 4% withdrawal rate, $1 million in savings will provide just $40,000 a year.”
While the cost of the plans and amount we can accumulate in our retirement plans can be interesting debates, they don’t address the real issue. Will we, as future retirees, be able to fund our own retirement?
Be wary of these scams – IRS and investments
It seems that we hear of a new internet or phone scam on a weekly basis. These scam artists are getting bolder and more sophisticated with each new endeavor. So, we wanted to alert you to a few new ones where the scammers are pretending to be IRS agents and financial planners.
**Taxpayer Scams**
This past year, the IRS issued a strong warning to consumers against an aggressive telephone scam. The scammers call taxpayers to inform them they owe outstanding taxes and demand payment over the phone. To lend to their credibility, the scammers will have the last four digits of the taxpayer’s social security number. If the taxpayer refuses to make a payment, the caller threatens the taxpayer with jail time, loss of driver’s license and, in some cases, deportation. When the taxpayer refuses to provide this information, the scammers call back pretending to be a local police officer.
If you receive one of these calls, the IRS requests that you take these steps:
• “If you know you owe taxes or you think you might owe taxes, call the IRS at 1.800.829.1040. The IRS employees at that line can help you with a payment issue, if there really is such an issue.
• If you know you do not owe taxes or have no reason to think that you owe any taxes (for example, you’ve never received a bill or the caller made some bogus threats as described above), then call and report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1.800.366.4484.
• If you’ve been targeted by this scam, you should also contact the Federal Trade Commission and use their “FTC Complaint Assistant” at FTC.gov. Please add “IRS Telephone Scam” to the comments of your complaint.”
The IRS wants you to know that they never initiate contact with taxpayers via email to request personal or financial information. They also never ask for PINs, passwords or similar confidential access information for credit cards, banks for other accounts. If you receive an email claiming to be from the IRS, you should forward it to phishing@irs.gov.
**Investor Scams**
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) recently published a warning to registered representatives about three different scams where registered representatives may be subject to “Firm Identity Theft”.
The first scheme involves scammers fraudulently using the identity of legitimate registered representatives and brokerage firms to con investors out of their money by building websites that mirror legitimate websites of broker-dealers and registered representatives. The scammers claim they are registered with FINRA and SIPC. Victims who fall for this tactic are tricked into making payments or investments through the site. The scam artists collect the money and then disappear.
The second one puts a new twist on an old tactic by perusing international investors with and “advance fee scheme” or “mirror fraud.” Again, scammers use the identity of a legitimate broker-dealer and contact investors with an attractive offer. Examples of these offers include lifting a stock restriction or purchasing investors’ shares for an amount significantly above their market value. In return, the investor is asked to pay certain fees and expenses in advance. Once the investor has paid the fees, the fake broker-dealer steals the money and disappears.
The last scheme involves fraudulent checks. The scammer, using the stolen identity of a registered broker-dealer, contacts a customer is an attractive offer, like offering to overpay for an item on Craigslist. When the scammer sends the check, it’s for a much larger amount than the agreed-upon price. The scammer then requests the seller to mail the difference back to the scammer. In an effort to convince the customer of the stolen identity, the fraudster will use the broker-dealer’s true address as the return address on the mail sent to the customer. Believing they are dealing with a real broker-dealer, the customer is persuaded to send money. But, when the seller cashes the original check, it bounces.
Protecting yourself from these scams requires vigilance. If someone contacts you with and offer that’s too good to be true, it likely is!