Credit Card Fraud

If your credit, debit or check cards are lost or stolen, you can help prevent their fraudulent use by immediately notifying the credit card company or financial institution that issued the card. Make a police report as soon as possible, then contact the three major credit reporting companies.

Identity Theft

Identity theft occurs when your personal identification information (name, social security number, driver license number, etc.) has been used fraudulently to open credit or bank accounts, to obtain loans, arrange for utility services or to make other purchases.

When identity theft occurs, immediately contact the fraud department at the company or financial institution where your information was used, advise them of the theft and have the account closed or cancelled.
Make a police report as soon as possible and contact the three major credit bureaus. Confirm that a fraud alert is placed on your personal credit file to help prevent any future misuse of your personal identification information.

Forgery and Counterfeiting

Check Forgery

If your blank checks are stolen, or if your signature has been forged on a check, immediately notify your financial institution. Make a prompt police report with the law enforcement agency holding jurisdiction where the theft occurred and obtain a case number. Provide a sworn statement to the deputy or officer; listing your bank or credit union name, account number, the check numbers of the stolen checks and any possible suspect information. Include a statement that no one had your permission to take, possess or use your checks.
Contact the three major credit bureaus and request a fraud alert be placed on your personal credit file. This should help prevent any future acts of fraud.
If your checks have been forged, you are considered a victim of the theft of checks only. Provide your bank or credit union with the original forged checks and complete and sign forgery affidavits for each forged check. Your bank or credit union will normally take the financial loss and should credit your account. Once this is done, they become the victim of the uttering of a forgery. A victim of uttering of a forgery is ultimately determined by whomever suffers the money loss. Even though your signature has been forged, you will be considered only as a witness in this case. If the bank or credit union determines that you were negligent and does not credit your account, then you will become the victim of uttering of a forgery.
If you are the recipient of forged checks (stolen or counterfeit), take the original forged checks to your bank or credit union and complete and sign fraud / forgery affidavits for each check. Your bank or credit union will investigate to determine exactly how and when these stolen or counterfeit checks entered your account. Generally, they'll do one of the following:

Contact the three major credit bureaus and request that a fraud alert be placed on your personal credit file. This should help prevent any future acts of fraud.

Counterfeit Documents

If you accepted a counterfeit document (false credit card or currency) as payment, contact the police agency where the incident occurred. You will need to turn over the counterfeit item and sign a property receipt. If the counterfeit involves currency (bills or coins), the reporting agency will contact the U.S. Secret Service.

Computer Related Crimes

If you store information on your computer's hard drive, pay bills online or order merchandise over the Internet, remember that your information is subject to theft by computer hackers. Protect yourself by:

Commonly Used Scams

There are a variety of scams commonly used to steal money from unsuspecting victims. Here are a few:

The Ponzi Scheme

Many investment opportunities are actually Ponzi schemes, in which early investors are paid off with money contributed by later investors. This makes the early investors believe that the system actually works and encourages them to invest even more. Ponzi schemes eventually collapse because there are not sufficient incoming funds to continue stimulating earnings with the ever-growing number of investors.

The Pyramid Scheme

Pyramid schemes are really just plans that move wealth in only one direction: up to the top of the pyramid. This creates incentive for the investor to get to the top of the pyramid. At the heart of each pyramid scheme is the representation, expressed or implied, that a new participant can recoup his original investment by simply finding and inducing two or more prospects to make the same investment. It sounds easy, but what promoters fail to tell investors is that this is mathematically impossible. For everyone to win, an infinite number of investors are needed to fill the chart from the bottom up.

Multi-Level Marketing (A legal pyramid scheme)

Multi-level Marketing (MLM) plans are a way to sell goods or services through distributors. These plans usually promise those who sign up to be distributor’s commissions on their own sales of the plan's goods or services and on the sales of the people they recruit as distributors.
The reason MLM schemes cannot succeed is because MLM marketing is, in essence, a legal pyramid scheme. The basic idea is for a sales person to recruit more sales persons. This is a very advantageous to those who own the company and supply the products, especially since the sales persons MLM's, are also customers. But it is puzzling why a sales person would think it is to his or her advantage to increase the number of competing sales persons.

The safest bet is to remember the old adage, "If it sounds too good to be true," IT IS, don't take the chance!

Winning Lottery Ticket Scam

A victim is approached, usually in a parking lot, by one or two subjects claiming to have a winning lottery ticket. They explain that due to their illegal or otherwise un-recognized immigration status, they are unable to cash the ticket. They either ask the unsuspecting victim to purchase the ticket from them or request good faith money from the victim before they hand the ticket to the victim to be cashed.
In either case, the suspects flee with the victim's money and the ticket (if one is produced) is invalid.

The Nigerian Letter or 419 Area Code Scam

The victim receives a letter or an E-mail from a person, usually from an African nation, stating the victim is the last known relative of a recently deceased wealthy person from that country.
The message offers to assist the victim, for a fee, in claiming a substantial inheritance left by the decedent. The victim is instructed to phone the suspect (be wary of 419 area code calls) for more information and/or to provide their bank account information so that funds may be wire-transferred to the victim's account. In some cases, victims are asked to wire thousands of dollars to the suspect as part of the processing fee.
If an account number is provided by the unsuspecting victim, the account is usually depleted within hours.