OF THE WEEK Imposter, debt collection scams top NM fraud list
New Mexico in 2018 ranked No. 15 in the nation for fraud reports and 26th for identity theft reports, per capita, according to the annual Consumer Sentinel Network data book published annually by the Federal Trade Commission.
That translated into 13,573 fraud reports — everything from romance to technical support scams – and 2,000 for identity theft.
The biggest category of scams plaguing the Land of Enchantment was imposter scams, in which someone claims to be an authority figure, business or government representative or even a friend or family member to swindle you out of money. The second most common fraud was debt collection, according to the data.
Identity theft came in third, with most victims reporting credit card scams in
particular. This is when personal information is stolen for use on an existing account or to open a fraudulent new one. Nationwide, the FTC says it took nearly 3 million scam reports in 2018. Younger people (ages 20 to 29) were the ones who most lost money to fraud schemes compared to other age groups. But when people age 70 or older did fall victim, their median loss was much higher: $1,700 for those over 80, $750 for people in their 70s and $400 for people in their 20s.
And despite technology and all the various methods of duping people, nationwide the No. 1 method of contact continued to be the telephone.
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A devious kind of employer scam has reappeared in Albuquerque, costing one local business $500.
A company employee notified the Better Business Scam Tracker about the scheme, which involved a faked email from the boss asking the employee to buy gift cards for clients. The employee would be reimbursed later, the email said.
“That kind of request is not uncommon, so it did not raise any red flags,” the employee reported.
The bogus boss wanted the codes on the back of the cards, and the worker complied. Not a good move.
“Later in the day, (my) actual boss sent an email stating his account was compromised, and he had not asked anyone to make any purchases for him,” the employee said in a written account to Scam Tracker.
The worker filed a police report and is trying to dispute the credit card charges, but no resolution has been reached yet.
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Las Cruces Utilities, a city department that provides gas, water and waste services, is warning of a suspicious person who was lurking on a customer’s property close to midnight recently. The lurker claimed to be busy hanging notices on doors, telling people utility workers would soon be visiting to replace gas meters with a new electronic version, the agency said.
The person claimed to be a city employee but was wearing a black polo shirt and jeans rather than a required uniform. While employees do hang notices regarding upcoming work, they don’t do it after 5 p.m., the utility said. (They don’t do it before 8 a.m., either.)
In another instance, a customer reported someone visiting her home seeking an upfront payment because the city supposedly wanted to place a monitor on her gas meter.
The city says it would never seek such a payment by going door to door.
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Reminder that this column is moving to a twice-monthly schedule — every second and fourth Sundays of the months.
See you on April 14.