Don’t Be A Victim
August 21st, 2008 at 11:26 am by Jamie Shackelford under 10 On Your Side
Hey everyone! I’m Jamie Shackelford, 10 On Your Side Producer working along side Kelly Welsh. The 2 of us are always here to help in any way we can. Check our blog on a regular basis because we’re going to start giving you great tips and useful information on how to help yourself.
Kelly mentioned in a previous post that we get a lot of phone calls about Renter Rights issues. Another topic that we get a lot of phone calls about are SCAMS. As most of us know, scams are all too common in this day and age. They’re everywhere from our telephone to our inbox to our mailbox and there seems to be a scam artist from another country lurking around every corner. In this post I’m going to give you some tips on how to avoid the scams and what to do when you receive one.
First and foremost, if you fall victim to a scam it’s going to be near impossible to get your money back. So, the trick is to figure out if it is a scam before you deposit that check. Here are some things to keep in mind:
- If you didn’t apply for a sweepstakes, chances are… you didn’t win one!
- Look at the post mark. If it’s stamped from an out of the country location look take a second look at it.
- Anything that asks you to deposit a check and then send the person money back, isn’t legit. DON’T DEPOSIT THAT CHECK.
- Legitimate sweepstakes often times don’t send mail under a “bulk rate”.
If you have fallen victim to a scam:
- Contact your local law enforcement. In most cases they can’t get your money back, but they can document it.
- Report it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) : http://https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/
- Contact your state’s Attorney General’s Office. Here is a link to VA’s AG’s office: http://http://www.oag.state.va.us/
Phone Scams: Here’s a helpful link from the FTC regarding phone scams: http://http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/phonefraud/recognize.shtml
Through e-mail: If you receive an e-mail from an unknown person telling you that a ton of money has been left in your name by a long distant relative, delete it and add the sender to your “Blocked Sender’s List”
The Latest Scams: It’s impossible to name every scam that is out there, but there are some websites that do a good job of keeping us abreast of the most current scams. Keep these links handy and check back often:
Consumer Affairs Scam Alert: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/scam_alerts/scam_alerts.htm
FTC: http://http://search.ftc.gov/query.html?charset=iso-8859-1&lk=2&col=full+hsr+news&qt=scams&st=31
Born and raised in the Hampton Roads area. I graduated from ODU with a BS in Sports Marketing. Fell into the media lifestyle and have been with WAVY for over 5 years!
The most recent scams I’ve seen have to do with the acting community and are posted on craigslist. Most of them seem really good, sound good and look good. Please let your viewers know of these. One deals with a casting notice for Hampton Roads and it turns out to be for a workshop where you end up paying upfront. Another one I saw at Lynnhaven Mall recently for a model competition. Most of these just take your money, claim that agents come from across the country, and make other promises. As a local actor, I always try and warn other actors about these potential scams and other shady posts.
I think I left my message under the renter’s rights section. I wanted to report a complaint with Craigslist. I have never been to that website until today because I was trying to find out how to report when someone creates a false ad using your name and cell phone number. I had 29 phone calls on my cell phone last Thursday that were responding to this ad that was falsely created. Again, I have never been to Craigslist before. On Thursday, I had to immediately change my cell phone number once I realized the problem. This all makes me very nervous. Can something be done? Thanks