Scam Squad

August 17, 2019. Beware of using those big blue US Post Office mailing bins to mail out your checks. Crooks are increasingly fishing out mail from those big blue US mailboxes and later searching for mailed checks. They will alter the checks so that they are the payee and cash them. Listen how they do it as well as how to protect yourself when mailing out your checks.

August 10, 2019. The phony email from your church is a new low for scammers and crooks. They send out a phone email to church members, asking for donations to help an emergency situation at church. Learn what the Red Flags are for this and other kinds of phony email requests for money for phony emergencies.

August 03, 2019 The Sweepstakes Scam is an old scam that remains quite prevalent even today.

July 27, 2019 - Vicki & Patti have a guest on the show who witnessed up close an attempted CAR WASH SCAM at a senior trailer park. The crooks easily obtain a list of seniors who may be vulnerable to falling for scams. They go to the victims residence and act as if a Car Washing and Auto Detailing session was set up by the victim. When the victim says they didn't not schedule such a cleaning, the c...

Two Fraud Specialists from Montecito Bank tell us how to detect, prevent, and resolve all types of fraud that can happen with bank customers. This also includes fraud scams such as the ever popular Romance Scams. Learn how to recognize the Big Red Flags of the various scams.

Beware of people trying to get you to do a FREE Genetic Screening test that is supposed to be covered by Medicare. Listen to this episode about this latest scam cooked up by crooks and scammers in our neighborhood and cities.

Watch out for misleading ads on Vacation Packages that offer to good to be true prices. Learn how to have a successful vacation without the scams.

A victim loses $11,000 by scammer posing as a Social Security investigator. Learn important tips on how not to be a victim of this type of scam.

The new Scam Tracker Risk Report is out and gives everything you'd want to know about Scam Risk Statistics. Very interesting results this year.

May 25, 2019 - BEWARE OF PEOPLE YOU MEET ON THE INTERNET AND ESPECIALLY FACEBOOK who try to get you interested in applying for a free GOVERNMENT GRANTS. There are many scams out there right now where people you meet on social media sites will try to get you to apply for grant money. They say it's free, but then end up charging you hundreds or thousands of dollars up front for fees such as shipping...

Learn how to protect against your bank accounts from being drained out by crooks who obtain your personal information.

Beware of fake police and sheriff's department calls about owing for back traffic fines where the caller keeps you on your cell phone the entire time while having you get green dot cards or similar money vouchers. The crooks know how to spoof their telephone numbers to show up on your cell phone as law enforcement agencies. Listen to the podcast to learn how to detect and prevent scams.

Beware of door-to-door contractors knocking on your door trying to talk you into repair or cleanup jobs. Also, beware of out of town contractors that call you at home with too good to be true low cost repairs and cleanup work. There is a high risk of them being a crook.

Two different incidents last week where crooks stole social security numbers from private medical records and were able to steal two different people out of their entire life's savings bank accounts.

Be on guard against Robo Calls that are Impostor Scams that pretend to be the IRS, police, utilities, and other entities trying to pressure you into acting too quickly to resolve some threat they make up such as threat they will arrest you, or cut off your water, or take you to court unless you send them green dot cards or cash immediately.

There are so many IRS scams today, mostly because it is so easy to hack into tax preparation services computers and steal sensitive data on you. Expert Laurel Sykes tells Patti and the rest of us about the leading types of IRS scams now being thrown at us at the peak and frenzy time of the tax season.

Telephone scammer picks the wrong victim, a former CIA and FBI dept head, and gets extradited and a lengthy prison sentence

Beware of calls from fake utility collections reps. Crooks saying that you haven't paid your utility bill will try to get you to send them money asap under the threat of cutting off your utilities. Learn what to do.

Beware of unrealistic low priced rental ads you see on Craigslist and other scam plagued housing rental sites. Chances are a crook who are not the real landlords are trying to get you to send money to them instead of the real property owner.

We have been seeing an increase in tax return theft where the crooks steal your identity to file early in your name and steal your tax return money before you probably have a chance to file your return. Learn how to prevent this.

Crooks are always looking to make friends with goodhearted, innocent people so that they can trick them into being a money mule who will unknowingly launder thousands of dollars of illegally obtained money for them. Learn how to avoid being tricked into being used by crooks who need to launder their illegal money.

Well selected and trained scammers operating out of India were arrested for running a phony Social Security office scam. The scammers were selected and trained to have little or no foreign accents and called threatening prosecution unless you pay out up to $3,400 to fix the problem.

Beware of anything to do with receiving packages from the Ukraine on behalf of a friend or relative or anyone. Since US involvement in overthrowing the democratically elected government in Ukraine and replacing it with a facist neo-nazi regime, you cannot trust anyone who has anything to do with Ukraine. Be very suspicious of anything Ukrainian or anything from Ukraine. Don't get involved, it is v...

While Vicki is on vacation, Patti and Laurel discuss talk online scams that happen while you are paying onlline. There are many fake websites out there that have url names which are similar to real businesses, but people accidentally misspell the url slightly and are sometimes fooled into thinking the fake business they are on is real and thus give out personal information. When their package does...

What are the risks and safeguards when we depend on family, friends, and others to help us manage our money as we become weaker, more forgetful, and frail. Laurel Sykes, Vice President of Montecito Bank and Trust tells hosts Patti Teel and Vicki Johnson all about it in this week's episode of Scam Squad.