If you received a text message that you’ve won a $1,000 Walmart gift card, the big box retailer says it just isn’t so.
The texts aren’t from Walmart – and the real prize may be identity theft.
As more people switch to smart phones, scammers are adapting, too.
The use of phone-based technology to deliver scams isn’t new, but a bump in reports about wireless scams in recent months suggest the bad guys are increasingly turning to the phones.
Watch for these phone scams:
• Smishing. These text messages try to trick you into visiting a web site and inputing sensitive information, like account or Social Security numbers, passwords and PINs. The Walmart gift card scam is a classic example.
Typical pretexts include prizes (who doesn’t want to win?) and, ironically, fraud alerts.
Smishing scams may borrow the names of any well-known institution – a big retailer, your bank, a government agency.
The name of the scam is a mash-up of SMS, the short message system technology used for text messages, and phishing. And many smishing scams – including the gift card scam – may come to you as both emails and texts.
• Vishing. This cousin of smishing relies on live or automated voice messages to scare you into sharing sensitive information.
Vishing emails can be prize notifications, but often, they’re dressed up as fraud alerts from banks and credit unions. Typically, the messages warn people that their accounts or credit cards have been frozen because of fraudulent activity. When people call the number given to get more information, they’re prompted to input their account numbers and PINs.
• Bogus charges. (Sorry, there’s no cute name for these.) These texts are precursors to billing scams. Several Better Business Bureaus have reported complaints about the text messages, which offer entertainment or other services to your phone. The BBB says consumers’ phones are often billed even if they don’t text back approval to the sender. Texting “stop,” an option the fraudulent messages suggest as a way to avoid billing, doesn’t stop messages or the billing the BBB says.
The BBB advises against responding to a fraudulent text, which could let the scammers know the phone number is an active account. Clicking a link also could infect your phone with malware.
Report the caller’s phone number or SMS number to your wireless provider. And check your account carefully for fraudulent charges.
Diabetic supply scam
People with diabetes should be on alert for scam in which callers offer free testing or medical supplies. Some callers purport to be from Medicare or a diabetes association.
Although marketers claim the supplies are free, they bill Medicare, sometimes multiple times, warns the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Health and Services Department.
The FBI has warned about a related in-person scam in which marketers who set up booths at health clubs, malls and senior centers offer consumers “free” diagnostic tests that trigger insurance or Medicare billings.
The inspector general offers this advice for avoiding the scams:
• Avoid sharing Medicare or other sensitive information with people you don’t know.
• Report suspicious calls to the inspector general (1-800-447-8477 or oighhs.gov/fraud/hotline). If you can, get the company’s name and phone number.
• Check your Medicare or insurance bills for supplies you never ordered or never received. Watch, too, for multiple billings for the same item. Report any unusual billings to the inspector general or your insurer.
• Refuse delivery on or return items you didn’t order. Get the shipper’s name, address and phone number and report the shipment to inspector general or your insurer.
Homebuyers win round
Homebuilders can issue limited warranties, but that doesn’t let them escape an obligation to construct homes in a “workmanlike manner using ordinary care,” the Ohio Supreme Court said in a ruling last week.
Jones vs. Centex began in Franklin County, when two homebuyers sued Centex Homes, alleging that their homes were constructed with magnetized beams that corrupted their computer hard-drives and kept their TVs and cordless phones from working.
Centex contended that by accepting the builder’s contract, the buyers waived their rights to sue over problems that weren’t listed in the limited warranty. A trial court and appeals court agreed.
But the state Supreme Court found that builders can’t require buyers to waive their rights to a sound home.
“The duty to construct a house in a workmanlike manner using ordinary care is the baseline standard that Ohio home buyers can expect builders to meet,” the court said in a 7-0 decision last week.
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