It’s obvious that scam artists are opportunists and I think it’s save to presume that they are a lot like sharks that smell blood in the water more so than usual in recent years due to the lousy state of the economy.

Scams come in many different flavors, and although we tend to focus a lot on internet-based scams, there are many other scams that are more “old school” in nature, including telephone calls and letters that arrive in the mail.

A recent scam warning out of Pennsylvania has police warning residents about a telephone scam that involved callers with foreign accents who are telling residents that they have won a lottery. Naturally, the callers are requesting that potential victims send money in order to receive their prize.

This is a classic “red flag.” When anyone is claiming that you have won some kind of prize or award and then advises you that you need to send money before you can receive your winnings, you are dealing with a scam artist. There should be no reason for anyone to pay to receive something they have won.

These lottery phone scams are quite widespread with reports coming in from Oklahoma and Vermont. These are essentially telephone versions of the well-known “419” internet scams where someone from overseas e-mails potential victims advising them that they are poised to receive a large amount of money. The goal is to ultimately get the victim to send them money by making them believe they have to pay some kind of fee before the money can be sent to them.

Anytime you receive a e-mail, phone call or letter asking you for money before you can receive a large amount of money, you’re dealing with a scam artists.

Another scam out of Massachusetts appears to be targeting businesses. This scam involves trying to convince businesses that they need to comply with a state law that requires corporations to submit corporate minutes.

Massachusetts law does require corporations to file annual reports, there is no requirement to submit corporate minutes. The scammers running this scam are using the name “Compliance Services.”

The Better Business Bureau is advising corporations to decline to fill out any forms from “Compliance Services” or send them any money.

Rounding out our collection of scams is another one that involves scammers that are claiming that they represent businesses in New England that offer advance-fee loans.

These are scammers that advertise these types of loans on the internet and with no shortage of consumers in financial trouble these days, there are plenty of potential victims out there who need money now.

A consumer from Virginia was led to believe she was set to receive a $5,000 personal loan from one of these scammers after she had sent them the first six payments on the loan before she had actually received it.

Unfortunately, she never received the loan she was promised. Since many of these scams involve wiring money to overseas accounts, it makes it all the more difficult for authorities to track down the scammers or recover victims’ money.

As the BBB points out, and as we have probably beat to death in this article, if someone wants money from you before giving you a loan or a prize, it’s extraordinarily likely that you are dealing with a scammer.

Many of us have seen the advertisements on television. A motorist driving a General Motors vehicle is involved in an accident and the OnStar system automatically notifies OnStar operators who are able to call emergency services and provide them with the information they need to come to the rescue.

The system also boasts other capabilities like being able to track a stolen vehicle and shut off its motor when it is located by police. It can also unlock the doors for the forgetful driver who happens to lock their keys in the vehicle.

There are probably other OnStar features that I’m forgetting about at the moment, in fact it’s been a while since I have seen an OnStar ad on TV, so perhaps they have added even more nifty features for owners of OnStar-equipped vehicles to enjoy.

One “feature” that might make a lot of OnStar customers less satisfied is one that was revealed when the contents of an up-coming change in the “terms and conditions” were revealed. You know, all that “fine print” that details the pesky legal stuff most people don’t care to read and big corporations so often reserve the right to change at their discretion.

Scheduled for implementation in December, this change is reportedly one that will allow OnStar to collect data from OnStar-equipped vehicles whenever they feel like it. OnStar, you see, is really just a souped-up cell phone that’s built into the vehicle. In addition to the ability to converse with a friendly OnStar operator, the OnStar system also knows where your vehicle is most of the time. I say most of the time since I presume the vehicle has to remain within range of a cell phone tower to operate as intended.

Anyone who watches crime dramas or even the nightly news probably knows that cell phones can be tracked due to the constant communication they engage in with nearby cell towers. Using either GPS that’s built into the phone or another method known as “triangulation,” the location of a cell phone can usually be pinned down pretty accurately by the cell phone companies when they want to. In many cases this is extremely helpful to cell phone users if they are lost in the woods or in some other type of distress.

Before I stray too far off-topic, let’s get back to OnStar. I suspect the OnStar systems installed in certain GM vehicles include GPS since the new terms and conditions that are set to be rolled out in December state that OnStar may collect data from users which includes location as well as vehicle speed, seat belt usage and other data. The “location” part of it would have to include a lot of cooperation from many cell phone companies if the OnStar system did not include its own built-in GPS.

Previously the OnStar terms and conditions stated that data like that would be collected only during a theft recovery or to send help in the event of an emergency.

OnStar also plans to reserve the right to sell the data to third parties but claims it will release the data only "on an anonymized basis." In other words, they’re claiming that your personal information, such as your name and address will not be included with the OnStar data they may decide to sell and therefore, the data will be impossible to associate with a particular vehicle owner.

It’s interesting to note that it will be possible for OnStar to collect this data even if a customer cancels their subscription. The only real way to stop the data collection would be to physically disable the OnStar system in some way. Something I would seriously consider doing if I was the owner of an OnStar-equipped vehicle.

There is probably a wealth of information on the internet regarding how to disable an OnStar system, so if you’re considering that, spend a little quality time with a search engine and you’ll probably have all the information you need in a jiffy.

Many of us love our high-tech toys and wonder how we would ever get along without them. As convenient as they are, there’s often a dark side to be considered. I realize some people just don’t care about that kind of thing and would prefer to just keep using their modern devices and not worry about it. It’s a personal choice.

As long as it’s an informed choice, I suppose there’s not much that I or anyone else can do about it. I guess OnStar customers may want to ask themselves if they trust a big corporation with data that includes where they drove their vehicle, how fast they were driving and whether or not they were wearing their seat belts.

This one is breaking new ground in the world of telemarketing. Or should I call it spam? I’m a bit uncertain about this one since it is a voice message that’s delivered to unlucky users of the popular Skype voice/video messaging service.

Any internet user who has received their share of spam has probably seen the e-mail messages or ugly websites that flash “warnings” on your screen advising you that your computer has been infected with a virus or that your computer is not being protected against malware.

That kind of spam is bad enough, but the obnoxious idiots making use of this new Skype tactic are taking it to a whole new level. This goes beyond annoying. In addition, it’s clearly set up to take advantage of computer users who are not particularly savvy and may be alarmed by this kind of message.

An obviously computer-savvy internet user made a YouTube recording when he found himself on the receiving end of this obnoxious tactic. You can view the video below, but if you are sensitive to what some people consider profanity, you may want to skip it. Personally, I think what the guy says is right on the money!

I must admit I was a bit puzzled when I came across this article that reveals Bank of America’s plans to exit the credit card business in the U.K. It seemed to fly in the face of my last posting which seems to indicate that the Big Banks are searching far and wide for new customers. At least that appears to be the case for J.P. Morgan Chase.

The idea of Bank of America pulling out of a business that the article described as “profitable” wasn’t making sense to me. Until I got to the end of the article.

Down at the bottom there are some links to related stories including this one:

Bank of America posts record quarterly loss of $8.8bn

I guess the idea to pull out of the U.K. credit card market may make sense if Bank of America is contemplating cuts as a result of their huge losses (excuse me while I wipe away the tears).

Considering that the article says that Bank of America’s revenues for the quarter were down 55% when compared with the same period last year, the magnitude of the loss becomes a bit more clear.

Despite the massive losses, “analysts” seem to be painting as rosy a picture as possible regarding this situation.

“Excluding the charges, analysts said the BoA’s core operations were making progress,” the article says.

Is that kind of hearing a doctor say something like this? “Excluding the fact that both the patient’s legs were severed in the accident and has lost 75% of his blood volume, this morphine should help with the pain.”

And we all thought that all that “stimulus” and “bail-out” money would turn things around and having us all out in the streets singing “Happy Days Are Here Again.”

Do you think it’s time to start warming up our singing voices?

This is a follow-up on the last post, “The Future of Credit: Who Will They Lend Money To?”

I have not forgotten about that post I originally made to this blog back in January. As the economy sinks deeper and deeper into recession, the big banks may be starting to show some signs of desperation.

I’ve believed for some time now that there was further trouble ahead for this economy. The politicians and their big-money puppet masters have put on a good show with “stimulus packages” and “bail-outs” for mega-companies that are “too big to fail.” (By the way, are you feeling too big to fail these days?)

They knew these measures would not revive the economy and when we reached the national debt “ceiling” what do they do? They raise it, of course! That’s how anyone with any sense gets out of massive debt, right? Borrow more!

Anyway, I’m veering into territory that goes beyond the scope of this post, so let me get straight to the point.

A couple of days ago, I received this in the mail (be sure to continue reading below):

Nothing particularly odd about that, right?

I must admit that’s not a fair question because I’ve blurred out the name, address and other information that might identify someone from this document.

What’s odd is that the address on this offer is indeed my address but the name is not my name or the name of anyone else that lives here. The name is the name of the previous owner of this property who has not lived here for well over ten years!

We haven’t seen mail with the names of the original owners for a very long time. The last time was probably a year or so after we bought the place.

What this tells me is that the big banks like J.P. Morgan Chase in this case, are digging deep into their databases to find people to sign up for credit cards. The couple we bought this house were elderly when we bought it. I know the husband has since passed away and for all I know the wife, whom this was addressed to, may have also passed away since then.

I’m picking up the scent of desperation in the air. The big “bail-outs” were just a stop-gap measure. People are continuing to lose their jobs and as a result losing their homes and defaulting on credit cards. This is bad news for the big banks who are seeing their obscene profits continue to shrink at an alarming rate. Why else would they be sending this “great” credit card offer to someone who has not lived here for well over ten years and may not even be among the living?

This economic nightmare is not over quite yet. Giving big banks another “bail-out” may not be an option this time because a big election year is coming up soon and the people aren’t likely to be too happy to see fat cat bankers get another helping hand from Uncle Sam.

Check out some of these stories:

Bank of New York Mellon plans 1,500 job cuts
Some big banks are selectively cutting jobs
Capital One, Omni Corp. to cut jobs in Maryland

You think the big banks are starting to feel the heat again?

OK, this one is going to take a little explaining first.

A short time ago I merged this blog with another one. In order to ease the process of merging the two I decided to let most of the original content on this blog be deleted and replaced with content from the other blog, which was a lot older and had more content.

The problem with that is that there were some old posts from the original version of this blog that I want to follow up on and without the original post, the follow-up makes less sense.

So, I decided to dig through my old backup files and I found a copy of the post I wanted to post a follow-up to. Here it is:

Originally posted on January 28, 2011.

It’s no secret that this economy sucks. The politicians and other scumbags keep trying to keep everyone from panicking by telling us that things are getting better, but from where I sit, there has been no “recovery” and I don’t see one in the cards yet.

At this point I’ve given up paying attention to the numbers that are parroted by the state-run media since they’re all just towing the line for the politicians. I like getting my information from the source, you know, the real “grass roots” – in other words, my fellow citizens.

What I’m hearing is not good. I know a number of people who have stopped paying their credit card bills because they simply cannot afford to. When someone loses a job do you suppose they’ll be likely to put their credit card payments ahead of their mortgage, rent or grocery bill? Probably not.

This, of course, does not make the big greedy banks very happy. I mean come on, they’ve worked hard lying, cheating and stealing their way to the top! And if you believe they’re nothing but a bunch of nice people trying to make a buck, you may as well just stop reading this now and go back into your trance in front of the football game or latest episode of Jersey Shore.

What’s interesting to me is how relentless the bank employees are when it comes to recovering money for their bosses. I mean really, who can sit on their ass all day calling to harass people about unpaid bills for $10 an hour? More on that later, but it’s pretty pathetic if you ask me.

Anyway, the main point of this article is to speculate about the potential consequences that consumers may face if they are unable to pay their credit card debt. Please keep this in mind: I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. It is all pure speculation on my part. I guess you could call this an opinion piece.

So what’s the worst thing that can happen to you if you don’t pay your credit card debt? As far as I can tell, being hauled into court and having your “credit rating” lowered is about it.

Let’s talk about court first. My understanding is that the credit card companies can drag you into court and try to get a judge to order you to pay. I have no idea what happens if you are ordered to pay but simply do not have the money. I guess judges can be pretty creative if they so choose, so it probably all depends on the judge.

It’s also my understanding that they can’t come after your house, so that’s probably not a concern. Getting back to the court thing, unless you owe the credit card companies (big banks) a lot of money, I’m guessing they aren’t going to haul you into court due to the sheer volume of consumers in default and the years it would take to get all those cases through the court system. To say nothing of all those expensive lawyers the big banks would have to pay!

Think about it, how many people are defaulting on their credit card debt these days? Hundreds of thousands? Millions? My guess would be millions, but remember, I don’t trust the numbers from the media or any other “official” source. I suspect they would play the numbers down the “official” numbers for two reasons.

Firstly, to help prop up the Big Lie that the economy is rebounding. Secondly, because misery loves company and worse yet (for the big banks) big numbers mean big power. What do you think would happen to the big banks if everyone defaulted on their credit card debt. Yeah, bye-bye big banks.

If it was common knowledge that a huge, and I mean huge number of consumers were not paying their credit card bills, it might give folks a little comfort knowing that the big banks have to be getting pretty desperate to get consumers to pay up. The real power is in the hands of the consumers, but historically, humanity has lacked the intelligence or will to realize it.

What about another bail-out for the big banks? How would that sit with the public? Not too good, I suspect. I reckon there are already a lot of regular folks wondering when their bail-out is coming. Keeping the big bank execs in their mansions and yachts is probably something the folks down at the local diner are not losing much sleep over.

What about that second problem, you know, the whole “credit score” thing? That’s one of the first weapons the big banks will unleash on a consumer who is not making their payments. Nobody wants their coveted credit score lowered, right? Sounds like their wielding a mighty big stick there doesn’t it? Think of the vast armies of minions sequestered in their little monkey-cubicles at Experian, TransUnion and Equifax with their hairy little monkey fingers poised over the “naughty” button just ready to dispatch you to the credit no-man’s-land! The horror!

Let’s think outside the box a bit for a moment shall we? Picture the world a year or five down the road. Millions and millions of consumers have had their credit scores reduced to previously-unheard of levels. How will someone ever get a mortgage, buy a car or rent a place to live? They key lies in the “millions and millions” I just mentioned.

A huge number of consumers with lousy credit scores is also a huge number of consumers that the big banks cannot lend money to, right? That’s more-or-less the conventional wisdom. What if the numbers of consumers with lousy credit scores is so vast that the big banks find themselves short of people to loan money to? What do you suppose would happen then? You don’t have to be a Harvard economist to realize that without consumers to loan money to, the big banks go out of business. Oh the humanity!

You don’t suppose the big banks would set up some “special programs” for people with bad credit so those poor deadbeats could borrow money again do you? By now I think you get the point.

It is my opinion that the big “We’ll report you to the credit bureaus” threat that the big banks love to throw around is a paper tiger. Face it folks. This country is in tough shape. The powers-that-be have allowed our manufacturing base to be exported overseas and unbridled greed and corruption is doing serious damage to the housing industry.

Feel free to think I’m full of crap. Hell, maybe I am full of crap! However, if just a few of you come away from this feeling just a little better, I will feel it was worth the 30 or so minutes of my time I used to slap this together.

It’s just common sense. The banks need us. Without customers there would be no banks.

Sure a lot of us are going through a lot stress these days due to mounting bills that cannot be paid due to job loses and other economic circumstances, but personally I’m not going to spend much time fretting over my “credit score.” I think the sheer number of people with lousy credit is going to make it a non-issue in the future.

Like I said, I hope this makes at least a few people a little less stressed out. You may be facing some tough times, but know this without a shadow of a doubt: You have a lot of company.

I can almost guarantee that you are going to end up with some nasties (malware) on your computer if you don’t take the time to add extra security measures to your browser programs.

The most popular browsers are probably Firefox and Internet Explorer these days. Since Internet Explorer is the browser that comes pre-installed on Microsoft Windows systems, it has enjoyed tremendous popularity for many years.

I’ve been a dedicated Firefox user for years and I don’t use Internet Explorer that often. Firefox has had the unique ability to install user-written add-ons to it that perform various functions for years now. I am aware that Internet Explorer has made progress in allowing add-ons in recent years, but I still firmly believe Firefox is a better browser with a larger selection of add-ons to choose from.

One add-on that I recommend for everyone is called NoScript. This particular add-on can be a bit of a hassle for some users since you have to “train” it to recognize sites that you trust. Before you allow it to trust a particular site, NoScript blocks a lot of web functionality that makes web pages look the way they do. At the same time, it also stops most (if not all) browser exploits.

I realize that Internet Explorer has been working towards adding filters that may help block harmful sites and content, but still, I think Firefox with NoScript is the way to go.

A recent report reveals that there are literally millions of web sites on the internet that have been set up to take advantage of known browser exploits and inject harmful programs onto the computers of people who visit these sites without the proper protection.

Many of these malicious web sites are set up to install malware on visitor’s computers that allow them to be controlled by cybercriminals without the computer owner’s knowledge. Unless someone is very computer savvy, they are likely to be completely unaware that their computer is being used by a cybercrook who may be thousands of miles away in another country.

Once the cybercrooks have control of your computer, they will work in the background and make your computer do whatever they want it to. Some of the most common tasks these criminals execute on victim’s computers involve attempting to break into other computers on the internet, send out spam and flood other computers with so much internet traffic that they become unusable.

Yes, although it’s a bit of a hassle to install and use NoScript, I can almost guarantee that you will be infected with malware at some point with it or some other adequate protection.

How do I know? I’ve found myself infected after using Internet Explorer to visit just a few sites on more than one occasion. I don’t have any extra protection installed on Internet Explorer and do not even know if protection is available or how good it might be if it is available. I primarily use Internet Explorer only when I visit trusted web sites, but I sometimes push my luck and visit other sites even though I know I am taking a chance by doing it. Trust me, I’ve paid for that mistake a few times!

If you are a very light web surfer and visit only a few well-known and trusted web sites all of the time, you may get away with surfing unprotected. There have, however, been very popular and very well-known websites have been hacked or tricked into running ads or other content that attempts to install malware on the computers of those who visit the site.

I know a lot of computer users are not “into” computers and all of this talk of malware and NoScript may sound like an alien language, but I believe it’s vitally important to protect yourself from browser exploits. If you know someone who is a “computer geek” see if they will take a few minutes to get Firefox and NoScript running on your PC.

Alternatively, give yourself a little more credit than you might otherwise do and see if you can download and install Firefox yourself and then install the NoScript add-on. You might be surprised to find that you are more computer savvy than even you realize!

The “Grandparent” scheme has been around for a while now, but according to the Better Business Bureau, the scam has been given a makeover and unfortunately, it’s one that’s likely to make it more effective.

The Grandparent scam involves a scammer calling someone and claiming that they are their granddaughter or grandson. The scammer says they are in some sort of trouble, oftentimes claiming to be locked up in jail, and they request money to be wired to them to get them out of trouble.

Bringing an old scam up-to-date, these scammers are now gathering personal information about victims and the relatives they are impersonating. Rather than using their old tactics that involved tricking people by calling and claiming to be a favorite grandson or granddaughter or using language like “Guess who this is.” in order to obtain names, the scammers are arming themselves with personal information before they even make the call.

As a result, the scammers are able to make phone calls to their victims and use the names and other personal information that make their impersonations more believable.

It’s no surprise to me to hear that scammers may be collecting personal information from social networking sites.

I’m continually amazed to see the kinds of personal information people are willing to post on social media sites like Facebook. I know people who put just about every detail of their life online through social media sites.

I suspect it would not take too long to look around Facebook and come up with enough personal information on someone which would allow a scammer to identify someone’s grandparents. There are other sites online where it’s easy to look up someone’s name and phone number. All the scammer needs to do at that point is make the call.

The BBB is reporting that scammers are not limiting their victims to grandparents. They are also contacting other relatives. Oftentimes, they are claiming to be a relative that has been jailed in another country and using the embarrassment of being jailed as a reason to convince the potential victim to stay quiet about it.

As usual, the best defense is vigilance. Always be 100% sure who you are dealing with if you receive a call for help from a relative. There are surely ways to authenticate someone’s identity by asking questions that only a family member would know the answer to.

It’s getting to the point where you can’t even trust e-mail messages from your friends – or perhaps I should say messages that appear to be from your friends.

Malware that collects e-mail addresses from victim’s address books has been around a while now and it was often used to spread malware from one victim to another. E-mail addresses are also being harvested to use in clever scams where cybercrooks pretend to be someone’s friend who needs help.

In a recent news story from Georgia, a businessman’s computer was infected with malware that siphoned e-mail addresses from his e-mail program’s address book. When the cybercrooks got their hands on the e-mail addresses, they sent e-mail messages to the businessman’s friends that were made to look like they were coming from the businessman himself.

The criminals concocted a scam in which the e-mails being sent to the businessman’s contacts claimed that the businessman was in London, England and had become the victim of a robbery and was in need of money so he could fly home.

The scam tried to convince the potential victims to wire money to cover the cost of the airplane ticket. Luckily, the businessman’s friends recognized the scam for what it was and although one of them almost fell for it, he decided to call the businessman by phone instead of simply wiring the money as requested, and as a result, he learned that he was almost the victim of a scam.

I guess we all need to be suspicious of anyone who is e-mailing us and asking for money – even if it looks like it is e-mail that is coming from a friend. As the old saying goes, “Trust but verify.”

When it comes to scam artists and cybercrooks, it’s hard to imagine just how low these scumbags will stoop to bilk money from others.

A TV station in Ohio is reporting on scams that take advantage of people who are out of work. The scam artists place ads in newspapers or online classified websites that advertise jobs that sound quite attractive to job-seekers.

When a job-seeker contacts the scammer to inquire about the job, the scammer informs the job-seeker that they must send money to the scammer so they – posing as someone who is hiring people – can conduct a background check.

I’m not saying it’s impossible but I’ve known people who have had to have background checks on them before being hired for a legitimate job, but I don’t recall hearing that any of them had to pay for it.

A background check should be funded by the employer just like drug tests are in every instance I have ever heard about.

The key tip-off to these scams is the request for money. Anyone or any company that is advertising a legitimate job is not likely to be asking for money for any purpose. This is a huge red flag that indicates you are dealing with a scammer.

Other things to look out for is if the job advertiser is using a free e-mail account like those available from Hotmail or Yahoo! These are the favorite e-mail services that just about all the scammers and spammers like to use.

Additionally, just like those e-mail scams you see, these types of classified job scams may also contain misspellings or other errors and may try to convince people to provide personal information.

Be smart, be savvy, put your emotions aside as best you can and you can avoid being scammed by these scumbags.