Looking for work but finding a scam

From MSN Money

Job
seekers and social networkers are among the targets of a surge in scams
aimed at bank accounts. Here's how to protect your identity and
finances online.

As
if the negative repercussions of the global financial crisis weren't
enough, now savers have something new to worry about: Scams targeting
bank accounts are on the rise.

One of the newest frauds
involves recruiting unsuspecting job seekers to help launder money.
Those hired become "mules" -- people who never know they're
collaborating with fraudsters, says Uri Rivner, who heads new
anti-fraud technology for RSA, the security division of data storage
company EMC in Hopkinton, Mass.

The job postings seem
legitimate; often the scammers have professional-looking corporate Web
sites. The jobs may involve sending money out of the country through an
international wire agent. Or reshipping computers and other
merchandise, perhaps purchased originally with a stolen credit card.

According
to Rivner, when victims at one jobs Web site clicked on the "careers"
tab, they were invited to apply for a job as a regional manager in the
U.S. responsible for shipping merchandise. The offer by the company,
promising a great salary for little work, involved repackaging and
shipping merchandise, supposedly obtained from an e-commerce Web site
overseas.

More than 1,900 job-hungry Americans applied. Of
those, 33 were hired as unwitting mules. After a few weeks, some became
victims of identity theft because they had provided personal
information, including Social Security numbers, on the fake job
application. Those stolen identities were used to commit check fraud
and other financial crimes.

• Survival guide for the unemployed

Not-so-funny video

Another
hot scam: Fraudsters gain access to the names of your friends on social
networking sites, such as MySpace.com, and invite you to click on a
hyperlink to view a funny video. Victims figure they know the sender,
so they click to watch. Then their screen freezes, and they get a
message telling them their video player needs upgrading.

Click to
upgrade, however, and you have just accepted a Trojan horse, which
follows your movements online. Through it, scammers can capture
personal information, including credit card numbers, Social Security
numbers and even online check photographs when you conduct business
online.

"Trojans (are) distributed on a massive scale," Rivner says.

Video on MSN Money

How dangerous is online banking?
A victim of identity theft through online banking describes her experiences. It all started with a very convincing e-mail.

Identity theft is up

Other
illegal banking activities also are increasing. Identity theft
increased 22% to nearly 10 million victims in 2008, according to
Javelin Strategy & Research, a research firm in Pleasanton, Calif.
And the Federal Trade Commission clocked 313,982 identity-theft
complaints, up from 215,000 in 2003.

Meanwhile, more than 5 million
U.S. consumers lost money to "phishing" attacks in the year ending
September 2008, a 40% increase over the number of victims a year
earlier, according to research firm Gartner in Stamford, Conn.

Even
bank robberies, burglaries and thefts are rising, with 1,645 occurring
in the last quarter of 2008, according to the FBI. The upward trend has
continued into 2009.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network,
a federal agency established to safeguard the financial system, says
banks have become better at tracking suspected mortgage fraud through
mandated recordkeeping. Plus, law enforcement agencies are cooperating
more to catch these crooks.

What you can do

To protect yourself, consider the following tips:

• Be skeptical of messages urging you to upgrade programs or download anything, even if you think you know the person.

• Upgrade antivirus software, personal firewalls and browsers. Let your operating system accept automatic patches with updates.

• Don't respond to work-at-home ads or promises of money or returns that sound too good to be true.

• Be wary of providing personal information to people you don't know.

• Check credit reports annually for free, only at AnnualCreditReport.com.

• Before
  cashing checks and money orders from people you don't know, verify that
  funds exist in the account at the issuing financial institution.

• Avoid paying upfront fees before an expected service is performed.

• Carefully monitor your bank and investment statements for evidence of fraud, and immediately report anything suspicious.

• Don't click on e-mail hyperlinks.

• Change passwords often.

• Avoid your bank branch between 9 and 11 a.m. and on Fridays, when the FBI says most bank robberies occur.

This article was reported by Gail Liberman and Alan Lavine for MarketWatch.

Published May 28, 2009

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