The internet is an amazing tool for information gathering and dissemination.
Unfortunately, from its beginnings in the late 1980’s, it has also been a hotbed for
scams, con artists, and outright fraudsters too.
No, internet-based fraud didn’t begin with the recent stablecoin and Alt-coin frauds,
NFTs, or Reddit board pump and dump stock schemes, it’s been around for 35 years.
Internet scams are continually evolving.
The FBI documented a record $3.5 billion in losses due to internet crimes in 2019.
Those numbers are before the 2020 Covid lockdowns, that sent 10’s of millions of newer, less
technologically savvy users flooding onto social networks looking for information and
entertainment.
The AARP even has a huge portion of its website and mountains of resources devoted to money
scams and frauds for retirees and their community.
The link to that site is in the description below.
https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/ I’m Chris Perras, Chief Investment Officer
with Oak Harvest Financial Group.
And This is our investment team’s mid-week release when we examine a news item, headline,
or stories making the rounds from publicly available sources and ask, “Is it News or
Noise?”
for your money.
This week’s topic is the myriad of internet scams and ploys that exist trying to separate
retirees, widowers, and the unknowingly good-hearted elderly, from their hard-earned savings.
Over the last 2 years, Scammers and fraudsters are taking advantage of the increase in COVID-19
communications by disguising their scams as legitimate messaging about the virus.
Common types of COVID scams include: Fake health organizations posing as health
authorities like the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
to offer cures, tests, or other information.
Websites selling fake products or other high-demand products that never arrive.
Faked government sources claiming to work on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS) or local tax authorities.
Fake nonprofit donation requests preying on your kindness or willingness to help others
in times of crises and finally Fraudulent financial offers posing as banks,
debt collectors, or investors with offers designed to steal your financial information.
This is in addition to the myriad of long-time internet-based scams including email phishing
scams, fake shopping websites, fake tech support, and fake antivirus software scams.
If this is not enough, there are still fraudsters using 20- and 30-year-old scams such as grandparent
emergency money scams, pre-approved loan or credit card notices, and fake money transfer
and check bouncing schemes.
Just this past week, we had a client that asked us to help them ferret out the legitimacy
of an investment offer they had received from an internet-based acquaintance.
Our team did a little sleuthing on their behalf and advised them this looked remarkedly like
one of the oldest internet scams out there.
Something commonly referred to as 419-fraud or an advance fee scam that was one of the
first to hit the internet 30 years ago, however still, the FBI reported that almost 15,000
people fell victim to this fraud for more than $100 million in 2019.
Those are the reported numbers.
Who knows how many cases and how much money was lost without it being reported due to
embarrassment?
The bottom line.
Assume that anyone on the internet that you do not already know intimately, or have met
in person, that is asking for your financial, bank or personal information, you’re being
scammed.
You should never give out personal information to anyone on the internet who contacts you
directly.
Make sure your financial transactions on the internet are on a secure server and reputable
site.
If you believe you’ve been scammed or defrauded, immediately change your passwords and delete
software you may have downloaded.
Call your credit card company and bank, if necessary.
Contact your local law enforcement agency to report the scam and get help with the next
steps.
You can also report the scam to the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Postal
Inspection Service, and your state attorney general's office.
We advise our Oak Harvest clients to give us a call if something isn’t passing the
sniff test or feels out of place before they proceed down uncertain paths including the
internet.
Yes, we are here to help our clients in whatever way we can including advising on issues like
these.
We care about our clients on a personal level.
Are the reports of new internet frauds and scams, news for your money?
100% they are, and the Oak Harvest team is here to help you navigate those treacherous
waters as your advisor as well.
At Oak harvest, we think our clients are best served by us helping them plan for their future
needs, instead of focusing on the past.
The future is always uncertain and that's why our advisors and retirement planning teams,
plan for your retirement needs first, and your greed’s second.
Give us a call to speak to an advisor and let us help you craft a financial plan that
helps you meet your retirement goals.
Call us here at (877) 896-0040, and schedule an advisor consultation.
We are here to help you on your financial journey into and through your retirement years.
I’m Chris Perras and from everyone here at Oak Harvest Have a blessed week.