Online Fraud Prevention
Residents are still falling for the online scams, from "your have a package at UPS" we just need your name, address, phone etc to you won Millions, just open the attachments!
I have been in shipping business for decades and I continue to get calls arguing that someone has a package and that they could not open the attachement. Yes! People call us daily to tell us that the attachement couldn't open so they can retreive their package that is waiting for them at UPS or Post Office.
You want to believe it!
Consumers are often misslead to believe that the check they received is good, or that the unexpected package is theirs and they want it! This time of the year, online scammers are sending millions of emails phishing and steling unsuspecting residents. Here are few rules and hints:
- If it is too good to be true, it is!
- Never open attachments mostly when your computer refuses to do so.
- If UPS, DHL or Fedex sent you a notice, their email should not be Yahoo or gmail.com!
- Never disclose your personal information online.
- When buying online make sure a Lock is showing on address bar, it means that your data is being encrypted during transmission.
- If you are applying for a job from Craigslist, call the company to verify the listing before sending your ids and I-9
The latest trend the I have noticed is that online identitythieves will post an ad on Craigslist asking for personal shopper to collect and forward merchandise. They even used our company name to list job openings we did not event have! So two things will happen when you apply:
A- You will be collecting merchandise purchased through stolen credit cards and forwarding it to the thieves. Then you will be paid by a Money order or a company check that looks good but is 100% fake.
B-Id forms you submitted with your I-9 will be used to apply for credit cards and assume your identity.
Please keep in mind that Nigeria is not the only hot bed of identity theft anymore, our mail forwarding security is currently red flagging UK, Indonesia, Vietnam and Egypt.
