Holiday Internet/Cyber Crime

Intelligence Note - Prepared by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) - November 30, 2009

Holiday Shopping Tips This holiday season the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI) is reminding people that cyber criminals continue to aggressively create new ways to steal money and personal information. Scammers use many techniques to fool potential victims including fraudulent auction sales, reshipping merchandise purchased with a stolen credit card, and sale of fraudulent or stolen gift cards through auction sites at a discounted price.

Fraudulent Classified Ads or Auction Sales
Internet criminals post classified ads or auctions for products they do not have. If you receive an auction product from a merchant or retail store, rather than directly from the auction seller, the item may have been purchased with someone else's stolen credit card number. Contact the merchant to verify the account used to pay for the item actually belongs to you.

Shoppers should be cautious and not provide financial information directly to the seller, as fraudulent sellers will use this information to purchase items for their scheme from the provided financial account. Always use a legitimate payment service to protect purchases.

As for product delivery, unfamiliar Web sites or individuals selling reduced or free shipping to customers through auction sites many times are deemed to be fraudulent. In many instances, these Web sites or sellers provide shipping labels to their customers as a service. However, the delivery service providers are ultimately not being paid to deliver the package; therefore, packages shipped by the victims using these labels are intercepted by delivery service providers because they are identified as fraudulent.

Diligently check each seller's rating and feedback along with their number of sales and the dates on which feedback was posted. Be wary of a seller with 100% positive feedback, if they have a low total number of feedback postings and all feedback was posted around the same date and time.

Gift Card Scam
Be careful about purchasing gift cards from auction sites or through classified ads. If you need a gift card, it is safest to purchase it directly from the merchant or another authorized retail store. If the gift card merchant discovers the card you received from another source or auction was initially obtained fraudulently, the merchant will deactivate the gift card number and it will not be honored for purchases.

Phishing and Smishing Schemes
Be leery of e-mails or text messages you receive indicating a problem or question regarding your financial accounts. In this scam, you are directed to follow a link or call the number provided in the message to update your account or correct the problem. The link actually directs the individuals to a fraudulent Web site or message that appears legitimate where any personal information you provide, such as account number and PIN, will be stolen.

Another scam involves victims receiving an e-mail message directing the recipient to a spoofed Web site. A spoofed Web site is a fake site or copy of a real Web site and misleads the recipient into providing personal information, which is routed to the scammer's computers.

Tips - Here are some tips you can use to avoid becoming a victim of cyber fraud:

• Do not respond to unsolicited (spam) e-mail.
• Do not click on links contained within an unsolicited e-mail.
• Be cautious of e-mail claiming to contain pictures in attached files, as the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from known senders. Virus scan the attachments if possible.
• Avoid filling out forms contained in e-mail messages that ask for personal information.
• Always compare the link in the e-mail to the link you are actually directed to and determine if they actually match and will lead you to a legitimate site.
• Log on directly to the official Web site for the business identified in the e-mail, instead of "linking" to it from an unsolicited e-mail. If the e-mail appears to be from your bank, credit card issuer, or other company you deal with frequently, your statements or official correspondence from the business will provide the proper contact information.
• Contact the actual business that supposedly sent the e-mail to verify if the e-mail is genuine.
  

To receive the latest information about cyber scams, please go to the FBI Web site and sign up for e-mail alerts by clicking on one of the red envelopes. If you have received a scam e-mail, please notify the IC3 by filing a complaint at www.IC3.gov. For more information on e-scams, please visit the FBI's New E-Scams and Warnings webpage at http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/escams.htm.

Smiles

Confirmation: Smiles are wonderful things to have!

Today was hot and aggravating. In and out of the weather and offices and cars on 95+ degree days causes me to drag a little.

So - I happened to notice a couple of friends today that always have a smile and always seem to be in a good mood. We were all at a chamber luncheon and it was just what I needed to sluff off the heat and perk up a little.

There were several people I noticed today - people I always see smiling and enjoying their own 'space'. But for some reason they seemed to shine just a little brighter today.

While watching them, I also noticed everyone they interacted with smiled a little bigger. These people were infecting the entire room and it was wonderful! We all "know" that's the way smiles work! It was nice to see it in action again...!

To those friends I say "Thanks" - your smiles made my day!!

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First impressions make or break long time opinions

I recently spent 3 days at an annual conference in the mountains at a very hoity-toity resort. I've heard for YEARS what a wonderful place this is and how nice it is and all that 'stuff'. And, I had my psychology all 'set' to deal with a hoity environment I'm not naturally comfortable in.

The place was nice and the scenery was beautiful - and everything. However...my lasting impression of the entire resort was tainted by the VERY FIRST person I had to deal with.

Apparently, I arrived during a rush. Attendants have a setup where you drive up to the front door - into one of 3 or 4 lines of cars. You go check in while a bellman gets your bags onto a trolley for you. When you come out - they tell you which side of the building to park on - depending on your room assignment. And in high rushes - they ask you to leave your keys so they can cycle the cars through. Sounds like a workable system.

Here is where it got interesting. I pulled into one of the lines of cars. Before I could get my seat belt off there was a lady pulling on my door handle and knocking on the window. When I got out of the car - with my keys in hand - she started reaching for my car keys telling me I HAD to leave them in the car so they could move my car.

Those of you who know me should expect my response.

I reacted to her impatience, demands and personal intrusion (the reaching) with a definite "NO". And my attitude rose to meet hers.

She actually stopped and stared at me...completely lost as to what to say next. I spoke first and asked her where I could park and be out of their way while I checked in. She continued by insisting I give her my keys...

I only took TWO more "NOs" from me for her to realize I wasn't going to give her my keys. She finally seemed to gather herself and pointed to small side lot for valet and handicap parking I could park while I checked in. From that point on I was out of the way and no one was inconvenienced.

All the years of comments about how wonderful this place is were gone. That one person tainted my perception of the entire resort.

Think how differently that could have gone if she has just slowed down and allowed me to understand the system instead of making quick demands before I could even get my barings.

In fairness, every other staff member I dealt with was wonderful. And our conference went well.

Though, I'll not voluntarily go back to this particular place.

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You'll have to call back...

One of my pet business peeves is to call a company as a client/customer/member and be told that I'll have to call back. If I'm paying for the good/service/membership I should not have to call back. I should be important enough to that company to have someone call me back.

I was talking with a friend this afternoon about this.

She works for a small company with only two employees. Very often she is out of the office 'selling' her services and servicing her clients. Her administrative assistant, who is usually quite busy, has occasional lapses where she tells the caller she can't help them and they will have to call back and talk to 'my friend'.

My automatic knee jerk response was: that needs to be fixed right now. Because if I am calling to purchase your goods or services I may not appreciate being told [you] can't help me and I'll have to spend more of my time trying to catch the owner in the office. NOT!

So - here is how you do this.

If someone calls and the receptionist or administrative person (or any other employee who happens to answer the phone) can't help them - the script should be something close to the following...

"I'm sorry, the person (and give the name of the person) who can best help you is out of the office (or is unavailable). May I forward you to her/his voicemail to leave a message?"

Or "... May I take your name and phone number to have ___ (give name) return your call?"

The person calling does NOT want to hear: "I don't know" or "that's not what I do" or "that person isn't here you'll have to call back".

They want to hear that you are taking their call seriously and are going to make sure their need or question is handled or at least passed to the appropriate person. Then they want to move on to their next project while they wait on that person to call them back.

The KEY here - is to actually call them back. My friend is very good to call those people back within a business day.

After talking to my friend - I started thinking of all the times recently I've been told the same thing and just went along with it. We are becoming WAY too acclaimated to poor customer service and bad business phone manners. Hhmmm

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This Florist has it on the ball!!

This is a good one - Customer service KUDOS to Aberdeen Florist.

I'm from the Aberdeen area. And this florist has been around for years!! Since I left home (college and then my own job/home in Charlotte), I have used this same florist to handle my Mother's Day flowers. They are in the same town, I've known them for years and trust them to handle my 'order' correctly.

And since it's getting close - ordering Mother's Day flowers is on my to do list.

They beat me to it!! This was great!

A very nice lady called me - introduced herself as ___ from Aberdeen Florist. I was a little thrown. Then she told me she could see in her database I had ordered flowers for my mother the past few years and she was calling to remind me that Mother's Day was coming up soon and just wanted to make sure I didn't wait too long and have to pay a rush charge.

Sneaky!

My immediate response was: "Well, let's get this done right now".

To myself I was thinking: I have to order them anyway - and since I've already broken my current project to answer the phone - let's get it done.

Naturally, she was ready for that response. She told me what I had ordered last year and what the price range was for the same thing this year, or she could give me some options if I wanted to change, and even started suggesting delivery dates to fit delivery to my mother's office instead of home. She even had my credit card number on file (only showing the last 4 digits on her screens - very good), so I didn't have to find a card.

It was great - in a few short minutes the whole thing was handled - ahead of time and very easily.

Imagine - a florist who keeps up with their customers, takes the time call and remind them of pending 'flower' events and is prepared to handle the transaction right there and then WITHOUT ever asking - point blank - me to purchase anything. She was only "calling to remind me" of the coming holiday.

So - what can YOUR company learn from this one???

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Make it easy for me to pay you

OK - this time my issue is a service company making it hard for me to pay for their service - in advance!

I have a favorite heat/air service company that I have been with for several years. And my units are starting to age; so I'm keeping my service contracts up to date.

Used to, they would send me an invoice a month early with my annual payment amount and several options I could chose from on other perks. I loved this system - I didn't have to think about it or worry about if I was under a maintenance agreement when I called for a cleaning or service.

Last year, they changed their system and didn't send out invoices. They sent out flyers introducing new maintenance plans and easier payment options. Either the flyer wasn't clear or I didn't read it thoroughly, but I didn't 'understand' that my current agreement would run out and I was responsible for contacting them to renew with this new plan. So, I forgot about it and let the maintenance run out.

Issue #1: They are no longer going to take care of ME - the CUSTOMER - but are going to make me contact them. You would think, they would worry more about me contacting ANOTHER service company...hhhmmm

Naturally, I had an AC problem early in the summer. When I called for my maintenance agreement service I was told my agreement had run out.

To their credit, they told me since they had made the changes, and I had "probably" fallen through the cracks on follow up for the renewal they would allow me to continue the agreement if I could pay for it when the tech came out. OK with me.

I did the annual agreement and gave the tech a check for the year. Not a problem, just aggravating.

This year, I made a note on my calendar to call them the month before and make sure I would get the renewal notice. Remember, my units have some age on them.

Issue #2: Now I am having to keep up with something THEY used to DO FOR me. Again - you would think they would worry about me calling ANOTHER service company if I have to make that first call anyway.

I was told, they still weren't doing the renewal notices. They sent me another flyer with yet another new maintenance agreement program and another set of payment options. OK, this is getting confusing. The very nice lady I spoke to sent me the agreement to fill out and send back to continue my maintenance under the new plan. I was polite and 'cheerful' - but did express my aggravation.

When I got the paperwork, I was even more confused. The options were/are: monthly drafts from a checking account or credit card, or two semi-annual drafts. There was NO option to write a check for the whole amount. I called back. I don't want them drafting anything. I want to write ONE check for the WHOLE year.

Again I called and spoke with another very nice lady. And again, I was polite and 'cheerful' - but expressed my GROWING aggravation.

I was told they would not accept a check for the whole year. WHAT??? I was told the "man in charge" decided and "we can't change it"... WHAT???

Then I was told they would accept a check for 6 months and I would have to write another one for the next 6 months.

Issue #3: Now they are making it HARD for ME to GIVE them MONEY!! Can you imagine a service company making it HARD for a customer - and a long-time, good customer - to give them money!! Amazing.

So - I told this very nice lady I would write the one 6 month check - mainly because I wanted to schedule the cleaning service on my AC. But, that if they continue to make it difficult on me - the CUSTOMER - I will be switching service companies. The very nice lady sounding empathetic and told me she - at least - appreciated my loyalty and business.

Nice touch - but it doesn't mean much if she isn't the one making all these payment decisions.

I don't make changes like this easily or lightly - I am usually a very accommodating customer - but this it getting ridiculous! And for the record I already have that OTHER service company on my radar!

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One of those simple things are sometimes the most fun!

I had a little fun yesterday and I want to share it with you. It didn't cost me anything and may not get me anything in return - but it was fun.

I'm involved with a couple Chambers of Commerce. As an ambassador, I catch myself 'playing the role' quite a bit.

There is a small cafe my husband and I enjoy. We eat there enough so the owner knows our faces and always comes over to speak. We haven't reached the point for him to remember our names. But the visual recognition is kinda neat.

He recently joined one of the chambers I'm active in. I missed his ribbon cutting, but have noticed he still has the ribbon taped to the hostess podium. You wouldn't have any idea what that ribbon was unless you 'knew' - but it's still there three months later. And naturally, I pick at him about it and he just grins from ear to ear!

For this chamber, their newsletter is emailed to the members. A few printed copies are available in the chamber office for people to pick up. The March-April issue arrived yesterday while I was in the Chamber office. Looking through them, I noticed the ribbon cutting photo for this cafe.

So - I decided to have a little fun. I took a couple of the printed newsetters with me and stopped by the cafe on the way home.

The owner was talking to some of his regular customers in the lobby area, so I waited on him to notice me. The hostess was smirking a little - knowing something fun was coming...haha

He looked up and I interupted, and made a big deal of a new cafe in the area that was in the chamber newsletter and asked him if he knew who it was. It only took a couple seconds for the smile to come back - it was his picture!

At that point, I backed off and watched him show the photo to everyone around - pointing to the ribbon on the podium the whole time. It was fun to watch! I slipped out the door with a wave to the hostess and went home. I was still laughing when I got there.

You know, he may never remember my name or know anything about me. But he will remember, someone brought him a copy of the chamber newsletter with his ribbon cutting photo in it. And I'll probably laugh every time we go in there to eat from now on...

It was fun and we both enjoyed it!