Report From Congress: 5/21/07

Statement

Report From Congress: 5/21/07

WICKER: HIT DELETE BUTTON ON EMAIL SCAMS

I received an unsolicited email on my home computer last week purporting to be from a British commander in Iraq who had acquired $8 million from "some demised persons" in that country. He sought help in moving the funds out of the war zone and offered 40 percent of the loot in return. The message is typical of countless fraudulent schemes appearing in the email in-boxes of Americans each day. The best advice to consumers who get such inquiries is to forward them to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and then hit the delete button.

This particular investment fraud has many variations, but the premise is the same. After the email recipient pays a few hundred dollars to transfer the millions into the "safety" of a U.S. bank account, the two parties will share the wealth. Unfortunately, once a victim reveals account numbers and other personal information required for the transactions, criminals make off with their "investment" and possibly perpetrate an identity theft also.

FAILING 'COMMON SENSE' TEST

Most of these international scams do not pass the common sense test, yet some are still successful. The principals may claim to be former Third World government officials or businessmen seeking to escape persecution, but say they cannot gain access to their millions without help. Another recent version involves a U.S. Army colonel who said he was implicated in the Abu Graib prison scandal in Iraq. Emailing from "house arrest" in Germany, he claimed to have smuggled $21 million out of Iraq and offered to transfer it to a U.S. account upon receipt of bank routing numbers and other personal data.

An FTC official said the Iraq theme has also been used in another variation, with scammers offering to share the millions they took from the bank accounts of Saddam Hussein's deceased sons, Uday and Qusay.

WIDE-RANGING OFFERS

While these international schemes stretch the bounds of credibility, consumers are bombarded daily with other offers that might spark their interest. Solicitations involving such things as weight-loss products, work-at-home projects, business opportunities, pay-in-advance credit offers, and debt relief programs often pose great risk. The scheme of "phishing" has also been successful for cyber-criminals. These emails claim to be from an Internet service provider, bank, or a government agency such as Medicare. Recipients are asked to "confirm" their account information or face severe consequences. The messages seem official, and many victims comply without verifying their legitimacy.

There are simple tips any consumer can follow to avoid being caught in a scam. Chief among them is to protect personal information. Share credit card and/other personal information only when buying from a company that is known and respected. Approach any unsolicited email offer as suspect until its legitimacy can be verified. And, trust in that old adage: "If an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

FTC WEBSITE CAN HELP

The FTC maintains a website at onguardonline.gov that provides a wealth of information about Internet scams. The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security and other groups are also involved in this effort to help consumers guard against Internet fraud and make their computers more secure from the ever-evolving and creative efforts of criminals on the worldwide web.

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