Our View: Fresher breath, whiter smile if you read this? No way!
Here in the High Country — and throughout the nation — everyday is a good day for phishing, and many of us are roped in hook, line and sinker by scam artists offering the improbable that is sweetened with almost irresistible bait.
Yet phishing — an attempt to acquire personal information such as user names and passwords by establishing false trust — is just one of the Better Business Bureau's Top 10 scams of 2011.
As the new year progresses we need to be wary of those who would part us from our financial resources in myriad ways, but especially these No. 1 scams from the BBB's top categories:
• Phishing: That communication from the National Automated Clearing House Association alerting you that one of your electronic transfers failed to go through? Don't help them out. It's not your account that will be at the end of the line.
• Home improvement: Some contractors that solicit you for unrequested work will leave your home worse than they found it. Check out your contractor on the BBB website before pursuing the relationship.
• Check cashing: Craigslist and Western Union, two legitimate companies, are often used as intermediaries for check scams. You get a check for more than the purchase price for an old chair you advertised on Craigslist. You're asked to send the difference back via Western Union. Western Union clears the transaction. Your bank doesn't — a couple of days later.
• Identity theft: A call from the hotel's front desk in the middle of the night asking you for your credit card information — because the hotel computer crashed — won't lead to a very restful night of sleep.
• Financial: Companies masquerading as a government agency or other service to help you get out of debt can leave you mired in more.
• Sales: Not all online penny auctions (be the last bidder to get that camera for 22 cents) are scams, but many are under investigation for online gambling. Be wary. The BBB suggests you treat them as if you were gambling in a casino — know the rules and set limits.
• Online dating: Who are your “friends” on Facebook? Be careful in giving out too much information on a dating site — you could be setting yourself up for a scam artist.
• Sweepstakes: OK, you really didn't win $1 million, even if a celebrity is telling you that you did. Don't click on the link and open your computer up to a worm or invasion of your privacy.
• Jobs: Legitimate employers don't pay secret shoppers thousands of dollars weekly to shop or work from home. What these scammers are looking for is your personal information so that they can “pull a credit report” during the “interview” process — thereby putting you to work … for them.
• Top scam of the year: the BBB lists itself in this category as millions of people get emails appearing to be an official notice from the BBB with a subject line such as “complaint against your business.” What's waiting inside the message is often a virus for your computer.
Beyond the Top 10, the BBB warns of other scams. Visit BBB Scam Source at http://www.bbb.org for more information and to sign up for scam alerts.
Yet phishing — an attempt to acquire personal information such as user names and passwords by establishing false trust — is just one of the Better Business Bureau's Top 10 scams of 2011.
As the new year progresses we need to be wary of those who would part us from our financial resources in myriad ways, but especially these No. 1 scams from the BBB's top categories:
• Phishing: That communication from the National Automated Clearing House Association alerting you that one of your electronic transfers failed to go through? Don't help them out. It's not your account that will be at the end of the line.
• Home improvement: Some contractors that solicit you for unrequested work will leave your home worse than they found it. Check out your contractor on the BBB website before pursuing the relationship.
• Check cashing: Craigslist and Western Union, two legitimate companies, are often used as intermediaries for check scams. You get a check for more than the purchase price for an old chair you advertised on Craigslist. You're asked to send the difference back via Western Union. Western Union clears the transaction. Your bank doesn't — a couple of days later.
• Identity theft: A call from the hotel's front desk in the middle of the night asking you for your credit card information — because the hotel computer crashed — won't lead to a very restful night of sleep.
• Financial: Companies masquerading as a government agency or other service to help you get out of debt can leave you mired in more.
• Sales: Not all online penny auctions (be the last bidder to get that camera for 22 cents) are scams, but many are under investigation for online gambling. Be wary. The BBB suggests you treat them as if you were gambling in a casino — know the rules and set limits.
• Online dating: Who are your “friends” on Facebook? Be careful in giving out too much information on a dating site — you could be setting yourself up for a scam artist.
• Sweepstakes: OK, you really didn't win $1 million, even if a celebrity is telling you that you did. Don't click on the link and open your computer up to a worm or invasion of your privacy.
• Jobs: Legitimate employers don't pay secret shoppers thousands of dollars weekly to shop or work from home. What these scammers are looking for is your personal information so that they can “pull a credit report” during the “interview” process — thereby putting you to work … for them.
• Top scam of the year: the BBB lists itself in this category as millions of people get emails appearing to be an official notice from the BBB with a subject line such as “complaint against your business.” What's waiting inside the message is often a virus for your computer.
Beyond the Top 10, the BBB warns of other scams. Visit BBB Scam Source at http://www.bbb.org for more information and to sign up for scam alerts.