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October, 2007

Grocery Store Scammed for $10,000,000. Really.

Who would have thought that a big company like SuperValu would be susceptible to an e-mail scam and almost lose $10 million?! Well, it happened just a few months ago. In February they received e-mails supposedly from American Greetings Corp. and Frito-Lay indicating new bank accounts had been set up and payments should be wired to these new accounts.

Has anyone at SuperValu ever read about "phishing' or other email scams? I guess not...

SuperValu Email Scam

Without making any inquiries with the two companies about the change in accounts, SuperValu just started sending payments to the accounts indicated in the e-mail. After a week, nine payments and $6.5 million later, it was discovered that the new account with American Greetings was fraudulent. Meanwhile, another $3.6 million was being sent to the fraudulent Frito-Lay account. Luckily, for SuperValu, the FBI was able to get right on it and recover the money before it disappeared.

“SuperValu was the target of attempted financial fraud,” company spokeswoman Haley Meyer wrote in a prepared statement. “We were able to quickly discover and report this to the FBI. As a result of the quick work of the Boise FBI Office and the U.S. Attorney, any funds lost are minimal.”

Fortunate as it may seem, it’s not quite time to break out the bubbly. American Greetings and Frito-Lay are demanding that they get paid – and rightly so. But the matter has been turned over to a judge to decide how the money is going to be allocated. It’s a shame that such fairy-tale endings don’t happen for most individuals who fall victim to e-mail scams. Here's the link the the whole tale from the Idaho Statesman.

October 23, 2007
2 comments

Ready to Celebrate the Fifth Anniversary of the Do Not Call Registry?

Angry Telemarketer

Maybe you're not ready to celebrate, but telemarketers all over the country are excited about the big day. Why, you may ask? Because your telephone number will automatically come off the Do Not Call list and back onto the desks of telemarketers. How can that be? Well, here's a refresher course on how the Do Not Call Registry works:

After years of research, workshops, and meetings, as well as much consideration and input from over 64,000 people like you and me, the FTC and FCC came up the Do Not Call Registry. The registry was created to give you the right to opt out of annoying telemarketing calls. To sign up, you only have to call or fill out a form on to a website and submit your phone number. Telemarketers then have 31 days to remove your name from their call lists. Beautiful!

Not so fast...

Apparently the telemarketers didn’t like the idea that once someone signed up they might never hear from a telemarketer again. Out of their concern for you (right!), the telemarketers pushed the FTC to create a rule that after five years of being on the registry a phone number would automatically be removed and put back on call lists. The FTC agreed and this is why the DNC Registry’s fifth anniversary has telemarketers salivating. Your telephone is ready to start ringing again. Are you ready?

So what can you do?

Just re-register your number for the Do Not Call list. It takes less than 2 minutes and you can do it by phone or web site.

Get all the details on how to re-register your name...

UPDATE: It appears that the "FTC Pledges Not to Drop Any Numbers From Do Not Call Registry, Pending Final Congressional or Agency Action on Whether to Make Registration Permanent the registry pending"

October 17, 2007
4 comments

Warning: Your Identity Could be Stolen by a Frog

Who would have thought that befriending a frog could be dangerous? Well, it is, if that frog has access to things like your e-mail address, birth date, home address, work info or school info. You may say to yourself that you would never be so foolish, but what kind of info do you post on social network pages?

The security company Sophos did a study and to find out what kind of information people are sharing and how easy it is to get hold of it. So, they created “Freddi Staur” - a fake Facebook user - then sent out 200 friend invites.

“Of the 200 people contacted, 87 responded and agreed to be friends … 82% of them gave "Freddi" an open view of their profiles … 72% divulged at least one of their e-mail addresses, 84% gave up their date of birth, and 87% offered details about where they went to school and where they work.”

Having personal information on your profile isn’t the problem. The problem is who has access to the info because it could be used to steal your identity. While it may be cool to have lots of friends - even if it's just a frog - you need to stop and think what kind of information you are giving them and how safe you really are.

Read all the study details on the Sophos web site.

Update:

If one study isn't convincing enough, here is another.  The BBC show Watchdog did a very similar study to Sophos study.  They created a false identity and befriended people on facebook. Then they took their study one step further.  They actually opened bank accounts and credit cards using the information of an individual that was provided on their profile!  Social networks are not as safe as we would like to think.  Read all the study details on the BBC web site.

Need another reason to be cautious of social networks?  Here's one, facebook employees can track what profiles you are looking at.  Yep, not only can the look at anyone's profile they can track the profiles that people look at.  While it may weird you out, it also helps keep people safe.  Check out the story and decide for yourself.

October 15, 2007
0 comments

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