It's 2021, and just like every previous year, it seems like scammers are just becoming even
more prevalent.
So I'm going to go over in this video a bunch of different scams that are either brand new
that I really have never heard of, or that are becoming at least more prevalent, even
if they're not exactly new, so you still need to be on the watch for them this year.
So starting off, we have the so-called car wrap scam.
And in this one, you'll either see some kind of job posting, or maybe even get an email
or see an advertisement for something that claims to be able to pay you to just drive
your car around.
And the idea is that you'll answer this ad and they'll say, "Yeah, all you have to do
is put an advertisement car wrap logo on your car, drive around like you normally would,
and we'll pay you several hundred dollars a week for that."
If you accept this, they'll usually send you a check that is a bogus check for a few thousand
dollars.
It will initially cash in the bank before they realize it's fraudulent.
But in the meantime, they will tell you, "Oh, use this money and go to our supplier who's
a specialist in car wraps, and just give him the money and pay him and he'll handle it."
And they'll tell you to do this in some way that's not really reversible, like a wire
transfer or a money order, something like that.
At some point, probably not too long after you make this payment to the so-called specialist,
who just is part of the scam, then the bank will realize that the check is fraudulent
after a couple of days.
And then they'll deduct that money out of your account, because it never should have
been deposited.
So then you're out both the money that was deposited from the check and whatever money
you have sent to the scammer.
So you lost it all.
So again, this is just another variation of the fake check scam.
Always be wary of any company that says, we're going to send you a check and you go and use
that to buy something.
That's kind of sketchy.
All right, next up, we have the so-called family emergency scams.
You may have heard of these.
These have been around for a while, but apparently they're becoming a lot more prevalent.
With this one, you'll get a phone call claiming to be a relative of yours, and they're in
some kind of emergency that requires you to give them money.
This is often like they're out of town on vacation and they just got arrested.
They need money for bail, for example, is a common one.
This scam frequently targets older people and then they'll pretend to be grandkids.
And they'll say, "Oh grandpa, grandma, I'm in jail.
I need a bail," whatever.
And then they'll also say something like, "Please don't tell mom and dad.
They'll be so mad.
Please just send the money over now, and I'll sort it out and then tell them."
And the idea is to get them to send the money before confirming this story with anyone to
find out if this person is even out of town at all.
So they try to get you to urgently send the money, for whatever reason.
It's always very urgent.
They need the money now.
Maybe the hearing is tomorrow and they need the money for a lawyer, or they need to get
out of jail now, because I don't know, there's scary people in jail, that sort of thing.
And these scammers are more clever than you may think.
I saw one post where someone questioned why they sound different.
They're like, "You don't sound like my grandson."
And they said, "Oh, well, I broke my nose while being arrested, and that's the reason
I sound different."
So needless to say, if you ever receive a phone call from anyone, even someone you know,
claiming to need money right away, and you need to wire the money or something else like
that, it's best to, first of all, not answer any phone call from a number you don't recognize,
but at least verify the story somehow and know that this is a scam going around, so
if you do get a phone call from someone needing bail, it probably is a scam.
All right, moving on, the next scam is fake phone calls from people claiming to be Apple
or Amazon support.
This is basically a variation of the fake order confirmation scams you may have heard
of in the past.
Usually this, up until now, they would have been an email.
They send you a fake order confirmation, and they say to cancel this order, go in here.
And it's a phishing thing.
Well, this is different.
They actually call you up on the phone and do a robocall.
And they may say something like, "This is Amazon support, and this is alerting you to
an unauthorized purchase of an iPhone for a thousand dollars.
Press one to talk to customer service to cancel this."
And of course, if you pick up and you're like, "Oh, I didn't order that," you press one,
you talk to a scammer, and then they'll usually ask for your credentials.
They'll try to get your bank account number to say, "Oh, to cancel this, we need your
original credit card info," anything like that.
But just note that it's a scam.
And actually, the FTC does have a couple sample audio clips.
I'll play one right now to kind of get an idea of what this might sound like.
An unauthorized purchase of an iPhone XR 64 gigabytes for $749 is being ordered from your
Amazon account.
To cancel your order or to connect with one of our customer support representative, please
press one or simply stay on the line.
So that's just one example for Amazon, but apparently Apple is another one that scammers
are using.
They'll call you up, again with some kind of robocall, and say something like there's
unauthorized access to your iCloud account.
Again, press one, or talk to customer service, or call this number to access customer service.
And then you go and you connect to a scammer.
So if you get one of these phone calls, never call the number that they tell you, just if
you're really unsure about it, then go on Amazon or Apple's official website and contact
them through the official number listed on the website, not some number that a phone
call gives you, because it could be fake.
As a side note, if you ever get a robocall from this type of scam or any other, never
press any numbers on the phone.
Just hang up right away.
Because if they hear you press the number, then they know now that it's a live working
number and then that may be added to a list and you'll start getting even more and more
spam calls.
So it's best to just not answer if you don't recognize it and just hang up immediately
when you realize it's a scam.
All right, now the next type of scam is the overpaid utility bill scam.
And with this one, you'll get some kind of phone call, usually a robocall, maybe a voicemail,
that'll say, "Hey, you overpaid your latest electricity bill," or whatever.
"And you're eligible for a cash refund.
All you have to do is press one or call this number to talk to customer service."
It might not be a cash refund.
They might say, "Oh, well, confirm it and we'll apply a discount to your next bill."
Something like that.
Of course, when you press one or connect to this customer service, who's actually the
scammer, then they'll usually require some kind of confirmation for the payment in the
form of your bank account number, where to deposit.
We need to know where to deposit the money, or something like that, your personal information
that they'll use to steal your identity, any type of thing they'll be able to collect from
you.
And even in the best case scenario where it's not an outright thief trying to steal your
money away, at the best case scenario, it's like a really sketchy marketing company trying
to get you to switch to their crap utility company, and they're basically still lying.
So you don't want to even interact with them.
They're still using sketchy, lying marketing tactics.
So it's either a scam or someone you don't want to deal with anyway.
All right, moving on, I think we're onto number five.
We have the so-called package waiting scam.
And what's new about this is they've been actually sending out text messages, where
previously it's a variation of kind of like a fake order confirmation email you receive,
like I mentioned before, but now you may start getting text messages, and they may even know
your first name or something from data brokers and that sort of thing.
And they'll say, "Oh, you have a package waiting from USPS or from Amazon.
Click this link to find out more and how to receive it," that sort of thing.
But then if you do click the link, it's going to take you to what looks like a login page
for probably Amazon or whatever website they're saying they're from.
But of course, it's a phishing page and they're going to immediately steal your credentials
and then use it to order from your real account and then take your money that way.
But again, if you receive one of these, never click the link.
Even if you know it's a scam and you're curious what the website's going to look like, don't
do it, because they definitely have trackers on those links to know who is clicking the
links and who's not.
And then you're going to start to get even more text message spam because they know you're
a working number.
So just don't even do it.
All right, next up, we have really a whole category of scams, which are known as income
scams generally.
And these have become so much more prevalent in the past year that even the FTC has started
a new campaign to spread awareness, called Operation Income Illusion, to let people know
that these scams are becoming more common.
These scams come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.
Actually, that car wrap scan we talked about in the beginning was basically a form of this.
But usually you'll see some kind of job posting or maybe an advertisement on social media.
You may even get an email.
And basically, it'll claim, oh, work from home and you'll make all sorts of lots of
money in a short amount of time.
And it'll basically be something that's just too good to be true.
And regardless of the pretext they use to get your attention, they may take your money
in any sort of number of ways.
They may, again, do the fake check scam and say, "Oh, for this job, you're required to
go out and buy a printer or something from our supplier."
They may say it's an investment opportunity or a business opportunity, "Oh, you'll start
your own business and you'll be using our proven business method," that sort of thing.
And of course, you have to put your money in, but you'll never, ever get anything out
of it.
But usually with these, the common thread is they're going to require you to put in
your own money up front somehow.
And then, of course, they'll disappear right after.
I said several times, it's like a fake check scam.
So they'll kind of hide the fact that you're using your own money, but really, you are.
Or maybe, again, it's like some kind of multi-level marketing thing where you have to buy the
product before you sell it.
But with all of these, you can just ask yourself, wait a minute, if they're going to say they're
going to reimburse me for going out and buying this thing, why don't they just go and buy
it themselves?
And that's obviously because it's a scam.
All right, up next, the next category of scams are coronavirus relief and stimulus scams.
Basically, with the combination of the United States tax season coming up and talk of stimulus
bills, there's a lot of opportunities for scammers to take advantage of people and trick
them.
One common tactic is scammers will contact you in any number of ways, whether it's email,
text message, phone call, whatever, and they'll say, hey, you're now eligible, congratulations,
to get your stimulus check of $2,000, whatever.
And all you need to do to claim it is XYZ.
And then they can steal your money or personal information in any number of ways after that.
For example, they might say, "Hey, your coronavirus check is ready.
We just need your bank information to deposit it.
Maybe your bank account number or your bank login."
And then of course they'll go in and drain it, if they can.
Or they may contact you and say, "Hey, to even receive this coronavirus check, you're
going to have to sign up to even be eligible.
You're not signed up yet."
And then they give you a link to some website, of course, that is going to either steal your
information and use it to steal your identity, or they might, again, steal your bank login,
stuff like that.
If you're curious about whether or not you're eligible to get some kind of stimulus or when,
it's always best to just stick to official news sources.
I think there's plenty of news outlets out there that are official for your local news
or national news that will tell you and describe who's eligible, if you have to sign up at
all, I don't think you really have to, and you don't have to rely on these sketchy emails
that come and you don't know who they're from.
All right, now the final type of new scam we're going to talk about are vaccine related
scams.
I'm not talking about the vaccine itself being a scam, of course, but the FBI and state and
local governments have said that scammers have been using the vaccine as an excuse to
lure people in to scam them in any number of ways.
And you may come in contact with these scammers in any number of ways.
You might see an advertisement on social media.
You might get a text message, again, an email, the ones we've talked about.
And then if you click the link or respond to the ad, they'll probably, for example,
either try to get you to put in a whole bunch of personal information, say, "Hey, to sign
up to be put on the vaccine list, you have to give us all your information, your social
security number, your bank info for payment," anything like that.
Or, they might say, "Oh, you need to put in your credit card number to pay the processing
fee."
Another example I've heard is they may try to say, "Hey, if you just pay us a fee, we'll
get you to the front of the line.
You can get the vaccine first."
Again, that's a scam.
There's no way to pay to get to the front of the line.
Now, again, your state or local government may actually have an official way to sign
up to get the coronavirus vaccine, so always go, though, to your official state or local
government's website and look for information on there about how to do that.
Don't be signing up by clicking on links for social media or unsolicited emails you receive,
but just be aware that it's a scam, so you can kind of just double check if you get an
email and double check that it did come from an official source.
And again, you can always just go on the official website, and don't click any links, if you
want to be sure.
So hopefully now you're better prepared for these scams that I mentioned that are more
prevalent now, or you might be able to recognize similar scams, say, hey, that sounds a lot
like that other scam.
It might just be a variation of it.
And you can be well more prepared going forward.
If you guys want to keep watching, I'd recommend watching last year's video about new scams
in 2020.
Those scams have not stopped.
They've not gone away.
So you can even be more prepared by watching that.
You can just click on that right there.
So thanks so much for watching, guys, and I'll see you in the next video.