Hanging Up on Telephone Hucksters

Overview: American consumers lose more than billion dollars a year to telemarketing fraud. It is no wonder that con artists in foreign countries want in on the action. Con artists are still swindling consumers with the tried and true pitches for bogus sweepstakes and vacation packages. But telephone hucksters also are playing on consumers' financial vulnerabilities and economic uncertainty. The article talks on credit card loss protection offers. The FTC says worthless credit card loss protection is a popular offering for promoters trying to exploit consumer uncertainty. The agency recommends that one avoid doing business with callers who claim that one need credit card loss protection because computer hackers can access the credit card number and charge thousands of dollars to the account. A different breed of "loan shark" is preying on unwary consumers by taking their money for the promise of a loan, credit card or other extension of credit. The FTC says most promotions for foreign lotteries are likely to be phony. Many scam operators do not even buy the promised lottery tickets. Others buy some tickets, but keep the "winnings" for themselves. In addition, lottery hustlers use victims' bank account numbers to make unauthorized withdrawals or their credit card numbers to run up additional charges. Ultimately the article suggests that if someone is thinking about responding to a foreign lottery one should not do it.

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Format: HTML | Date: Jan 2003 | Pages: 1