New Online Military Scammers

I am inundated daily with emails and comments from people around the world thinking they are being scammed online by people professing to be Soldiers or Marines in a combat zone. I want to reiterate a few points about how to easily determine if the person you are speaking with is a real service member or not. 

1) They ask for money, especially through a money service like MoneyGram or Western Union. These are easy, immediate tip-offs.
2) They send you pictures that don’t match the rank and service they tell you they are. I can’t tell you how many times I get emails and comments asking me to look into someone saying they are a Staff Sergeant and wearing Major rank or a supposed Colonel wearing Sergeant Major rank. Educate yourself on military ranks and uniforms and do due diligence before wasting my time with these obvious indicators.
3) They tell you that they are assigned to a secret intelligence unit. People really assigned to secret intelligence units won’t say they are assigned to secret intelligence units.
4) Ask them to send you an email from their military email as confirmation. If they send you one, respond to it and ensure they didn’t make it up. You’ll find that most – if not, all – of these emails will come back undeliverable. If they say they can’t give it to you for security reasons, it’s a scam.
5) They need your help with “special leave.” This leaves will usually need to be signed by a general officer and will come with additional fees. Military personnel do not need a civilian’s help with processing leave. I’m married and I don’t even need my wife’s help if I want to take leave. It doesn’t cost military personnel a single penny to take leave – EVER!
6) Check the photos. Often time, these scammers are such complete morons; they’ll send multiple pictures of different people and claim to be the same person. If it doesn’t look right, it isn’t.
7) Uses a sob story about being a widower (usually say widow). Most of the photos these guys steal are from married troops and will contain photos with kids or a woman. To explain these images away, they “kill off” the spouse somehow and pull on the heartstrings with sob stories of having to raise children alone. Most obituaries are published online and a simple Google of obituaries will prove this scam. Hearing all these stories, one would think that the most dangerous place in the world isn’t Afghanistan, but it sounds like the truth is America’s roads.

With that said, in addition to the other names I’ve already given on other websites, I want to add a few here that have recently come to my attention. Please keep in mind that the real Soldiers – if, in fact, these names were real – are not the scammers, but criminals using their names and images. Be aware, Be safe and Be careful..

Frightening Calls From Fake Debt Collectors Threaten People With Jail for Payday Loans. It’s a Scam.

Phantom phony debt collectors with Indian accents are calling people trying to scare them into paying debts that are not theirs. Some of the company names they use are American Credit Services, TAC Evolution, Allied Financial Services, CashNetUSA, Sonic Bank, Sonic CashNet, CashLand, American Credit Services, American Law Associates and Cash America. If you know of others, please add them in the comments section below.

 

The fake debt collectors call and say you will be arrested and thrown in jail unless you send money immediately. The amounts claimed seem to be $400 or $2,500 and a smattering in between. The calls most often arrive on a Friday when all government office was closed so you can’t check out their story. The callers use the names of real attorneys they found on the internet and specifically use your locality or near by area attorney or law firm information to scam you. 

Just to be clear, these are not collectors trying to collect legitimate debts. Most of the complaints on involved consumers who either never took out a payday loan, or who may have initiated one but never actually secured the loan. In some cases, the “collector” has detailed information about the victim – such as name, address and Social Security number – which makes the debt appear to be real.

Here’s what to do if you get a call like this:

• Ask the collector for the name and address of the collection agency for which he or she works. Then ask him to send you written information about the debt.  Any legitimate debt collection agency will do this because it’s required under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
  
• If the caller won’t give you this information, hang up. If a phone number is available through caller ID, report the call on our forums and to your state attorney general and the FTC.
  
• Don’t let one of these companies scare you into making payments if you’re not sure you owe the debt. In most cases, collectors must first take you to court and get a judgment before they can go after your wages or property.

By the way, you can’t be arrested simply because you can’t afford to pay a debt. (Warning, though, there are cases where consumers are jailed in connection with debts because they failed to appear in court after a summons was issued.)

 

The goal of the scam is to scare the person getting the call into sending money via Western Union, vanilla cars, pay safe cards and MoneyGram etc or to give up their bank details to hit your bank account, in order to prevent the police from coming to arrest you in the next few hours.

Apparently there are a number of telephone numbers tied to this scammer that I believe is calling from a call center in India, Pakistan and Philippines via voice over IP, (VOIP). So the callers really are not even in the United States although they pretend to be.

Armed with the contact information like address, driver license, SSN, employee information the scammers in India, Pakistan and Philippines call make outbound calls on a VOIP telephone line and forge any outgoing phone ID they want. It’s not hard to do. They might even use a number from a block of VOIP numbers they’ve rented to receive return calls. After a short period of time they dump the number and start using a new number.

I found at least one of the numbers listed as being used by these scammers was issued by a VOIP service provider and some internal sources. The known numbers tied into this scam are:

• 213-221-1002
• 213-286-0210
• 213-286-2016
• 213-550-4189
• 213-995-3046
• 310-362-4305
• 310-362-4319
• 310-362-9386
• 313-332-1091
• 343-729-0397
• 407-506-0424
• 408-317-0831
• 408-355-9951
• 415-223-4108
• 415-880-5599
• 496-900-0000
• 619-342-0094
• 714-333-2945
• 714-333-2951
• 714-400-0563
• 714-409-0208
• 714-409-0250
• 714-845-0766
• 718-831-7157
• 818-936-4699
• 904-425-9141
• 941-961-8518
• 949-743-1049
• 973-200-6686
• 484-589-5524
• 897-218-7212
• 609-318-9574
• 936-132-1354
• 760-512-1382
• 425-320-5012
• 516-453-6940
• 360-461-3770
• 516-453-6940
• 970-589-4341
• 801-855-5492
• 508-455-4473
• 979-705-5787 
• 510-363-3757
• 646-328-2038
• 818-337-3040
• 646-328-2038
• 323-572-8712
• 323-572-8712
• 951-489-0227
• 707-681-9169
• 806-281-8166
• 347-457-3030
• 972-996-3164

Most of the people who have been called in this scam seem to have previously had a payday loan from some company. What I suspect has happened is that one of these payday loan companies used an outsourced call center in India, Pakistan and Philippines and someone from that call center sold the names of the customers or contacts.

Well, I just want to inform these call centers is the time has been changed and now federal government and other legal bodies taking action. They just waiting for the right time to hook up the roots linked to these scamming companies. If anyone need information about the companies or people involved contact me anytime. Thanks

How to Examine the consultant?

One of the hot topics on our mailing list is fraudulent contracts. If you take a close look at any of these frauds you will infer that it is no different from any other scam. There is no free lunch. We all have to work hard to earn money. If a consultant tells you that you can earn big bucks by investing a small amount, forget it. Don't get fooled by the half page/one page franchisee advertisements.

 

• Examine the credentials of the consultant. Majority of them have free email ids. Not a good sign. Most of them don't have professional email accounts.
• Deciding whether you need a consultant is, in many ways, easy. Finding the right one for you and your business can be more difficult. When choosing a small business consultant, look for the following.
• Seek out a consultant with expertise in the kind of problem your business faces. If your business issue is relatively narrow, a specialist, for example, in sales, marketing, technology, human resources and so on may be the best choice. If it is broader and requires more of a big-picture solution, a general business consultant might make more sense.
• Look for proven experience with problems such as yours. Ask for references and check them thoroughly, and request examples of past successes that are relevant to your current business situation.
• Never give upfront money. If the consultant is so confident about the business, let him charge you a higher commission. Try to close the deal for revenue sharing and royalty basis.
• Take a copy of his identity proof like Pan card, Driving License and passport if necessary and mention the Identity number in the agreement you sign. Affix photographs of both parties on the agreement.
• If the consultant is genuine then he/she will never hesitate to share the information, they will act as a open book to you.If they are frauds then they will think twice before cheating you.
• A consultant may approach you with contracts. He will tell you that the prospective client expects certain parameters to be met in a call center before the client can outsource work. Guess what, this consultant will offer you to train your staff. Watch out!

How to avoid getting cheated? Simple, use common sense. Please note, there are good and sincere consultants but they are hard to find. If you want to report or want my help to find these frauds then mail me at fraudslister@gmail.com

I will soon upload some consultants information and ways to find them.