By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com
June 5, 2006
Scammers have a number of ways to steal from you,
but the credit card is losing popularity among
the criminal class.
As consumers have become more protective of their credit card information in recent years and as credit card companies have improved security, scammers have had to look for alternate ways to rip you off.
Stealing a consumer's credit card is still good for a quick purchase or two but credit card companies have gotten better at spotting odd charges and alerting card holders.
Since consumers are protected from large unauthorized charges, banks are more likely to go after credit card thieves.
Today, a scammer would rather get access to your bank account number than your credit card.
With the bank account number, he can access your account and take all the money in it. The only disadvantage to the scammer is that the bank account may have very little money in it at the time it's tapped.
That's why some scams require the victim to wire the money to the scammer.
The scam is a little more time consuming, because the thief has to screen his victims, finding one who has enough money to make it worthwhile -- and who can be deceived into participating.
By having victims wire the money, the scammer cuts off any trail once the scam has been discovered. The money cannot be traced and it can't be recovered.
Lately, scammers have discovered PayPal, a company that was set up to facilitate money transfers between buyers and sellers on eBay.
While this is a popular way to make transactions via the internet, legitimate enterprises usually accept checks and credit cards as well.
But PayPal payments can't be traced, since PayPal's policy is to keep all customer records private.
The scammer's three financial tools of choice provide three "red flags" for consumers, helping them sort legitimate enterprises from illegitimate ones.
If a deal limits your payment options to direct bank account withdrawal, wire transfer, or PayPay, changes are good it's a scam.
