Scammers using offer of debt relief

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March 21, 2009

By BURTON SPEAKMAN The Glasgow Daily Times Sat Mar 21, 2009, 02:46 PM CDT

People throughout Kentucky have been getting calls, e-mails and even text messages from scam artists trying to take advantage of the nation’s rising unemployment.

The Kentucky Attorney General’s Office released a report this week about bogus debt relief companies telling people they had qualified for a $1,000 advance because of the stimulus.

“We wanted to get information out because with Kentucky’s unemployment rate reaching nearly double digits people are getting desperate,” said Alison Gardner Martin, spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office.

These con artists are taking advantage of people who might have heard something about the stimulus, but do not really understand it, she said. The questions end up with people providing the scammers with their bank account information and possible enough to steal their identity. They are also preying on people at risk of having their home foreclosed upon.

“The number of these type of complaints has been greatly increasing in the last month or so,” Martin said.

Capt. Kent Keen, from the Glasgow Police Department said his department has not received any complaints about debt-relief scams at this time, but it hasn’t been that long since the stimulus was announced.

These debt relief scams are just another example of scam artists adjusting to target citizens based what is going on in the country at the time, said James Hendricks, Supervisory Senior Resident Agent FBI in Bowling Green.

“A few months ago we saw an increase in work at home scams. Last year, it was efforts to steal identities and bank account information by sending e-mails claiming to be from the IRS and even the FBI. There were scams during the hurricane relief efforts a few years back as fraudsters set up bogus Web sites and distributed SPAM e-mails seeking to defraud citizens out of their money. These new scams are the same frauds in different packages,” he said.

People should always protect their personal information and understand that banks, credit card companies or government agencies will never ask for this information by an e-mail or text message. If there is a question call your bank or credit card number directly at the number listed in the phone book and never provide this information to any Web site claiming to be a debt relief agency or a processor for free government grants or stimulus payments, Hendricks said.

“These are not legitimate sites and are only attempting to steal identities and money from bank accounts,” he said.

People just need to remember “if something seems to good to be true, it is,” Martin said.

The attorney general’s office is asking people not to respond to these type of calls or calls offering foreclosure relief. They should also avoid any companies that ask for an up front fee.

To review scams that are being used nationally people can go online to www.lookstoogoodtobetrue.com., which is a site co-sponsored by the FBI and U.S. Postal Service. The Web site provides an overview of the various current and past scams and provides links to file complaints with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, the U.S. Postal Service and the Federal Trade Commission. Complaints can also be filed with the Attorney General’s officer at (888) 432-9257 for the consumer protection hotline.

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