FROM CONSUMERAFFAIRS.COM

Promises of prize money are made, but there’s a catch

The phone call sounds official, and to many, convincing. “Hi, I’m calling from the Federal Trade Commission to tell you that you have won $250,000…”

You have to hand it to these scammers — they really have chutzpah.

The newest con involves a call from someone who claims to work for the Federal Trade Commission to inform you that you have won a lottery or sweepstakes. To receive the prize, all you have to do is pay the taxes and insurance. The caller asks you to wire money or send a check for an amount between $1,000 and $10,000.

What should you do?

FOR THE COMPLETE STORY:     http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/10/ftc_impersonation.html

~Sandy G.

By BRAD STONE
New York Times

The Federal Trade Commission won a preliminary legal victory against what it called one of the largest spam gangs on the Internet, persuading a federal court in Chicago on Tuesday to freeze the group’s assets and order the spam network to shut down.

The group, which used several names but was known among spam-fighting organizations as HerbalKing, sent billions of unsolicited messages to Internet users over the last 20 months, promoting replica watches and a variety of pharmaceuticals, including weight-loss drugs and herbal pills that supposedly enhanced the male anatomy, according to the commission.

“This is pretty major. At one point these guys delivered up to one-third of all spam,” said Richard Cox, chief information officer at SpamHaus, a nonprofit antispam research group.

FOR THE COMPLETE STORY:      http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/15/technology/internet/15spam.html?th&emc=th  

~Sandy G.

Commission says scammers taking advantage of woes in financial markets

FROM MSNBC

E-mail scams that “phish” for personal information may increase amid the current financial crisis, the Federal Trade Commission warned consumers Thursday.

Separately, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said it has received numerous reports of a fraudulent e-mail that appears to be from the government agency. Its subject line reads, “Funds wired into your account are stolen.”

“Scammers are taking advantage of upheavals in the financial marketplace to confuse consumers into parting with valuable personal information,” the FTC said in an advisory note on its Web site.

FOR THE COMPLETE STORY:   http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27103548/

~Sandy G.