Ten New Money Scams, Part 2

Here’s the second installment of money scams to be on the lookout for…

4. Medicare fraud — With the advent of confusing new Medicare drug plan this past January 1st, scam artists are on the prowl selling phony plans, or posing as insurance salesman to steal personal data. Keep in mind that no legitimate Medicare prescription drug plan will send salespeople to your door uninvited. Similarly, participating insurers are forbidden from asking for personal information as part of their marketing.

5. Pretexting — Sometimes ID thieves just ask for your personal information. In one common approach, they claim to be conducting a survey on behalf of your bankm abd ask questions designed to get ahold of your account number, date of birth, social security number, etc. Once they have the data, they can call your bank pretending to be you… And no good can come of that.

6. IRS phishing scam — There’s a new breed of phishing scam going around. In this case, a very real looking e-mail that seems to be from the IRS informs you of an unclaimed tax refund, and urges you to visit the IRS website through a link in the e-mail. Trouble is, the link doesn’t lead to the IRS. Rather, it points to a third-party site that has been set up to harvest your sensitive personal data. I actually wrote about this scam awhile back. I would imagine that it’ll only get more prevalent as tax time draws ever closer.

See also: Money Scams, Part 1 and Money Scams, Part 3

[Source: Reader's Digest]