Technology has made it easier than ever for criminals to trick people into handing over their money, and local residents are often falling prey to new baiting methods.
Verona police receive more reports of identity theft than any other type of crime, said Verona Police Chief Doug Huber. Cedar Grove officers contend with “a steady flow” of such complaints, said Cedar Grove Police Sgt. John Kennedy.
Keep yourself safe
http://liarcatchers.com/identity_theft_investigation.html
Don’t input your credit card number online unless the website is reputable. Sometimes a tiny icon of a padlock appears to symbolize a higher level of security to transmit data. This icon is not a guarantee of a secure site, but it provides some assurance.
Never give your credit card number out to someone over the phone unless you made the call and know with whom you are speaking.
Do not provide your social security number to prospective employers over the Internet, especially when first interacting with them.
Be cautious of online job postings which promise exaggerated earnings for your work.
Be leery of emails and phone calls about winning a contest if you do not remember entering that contest.
Beware of companies that charge a fee prior to issuing any prize they have promised you.
Avoid filling out forms in unsolicited email messages that ask you for even the most basic of personal information.
If something appears too good to be true, it probably is.
Source: FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center
Not sure how to handle a phone call or email? Call the police.
Cedar Grove Police: 973-239-4100
Verona Police: 973-239-5000
In Verona, officers have been fielding so many calls about identity theft that they have stopped logging all of them in their record books, Huber said. Although there have been about 40 reports filed so far this year, there are “at least another 40” that are unaccounted for in police computers.
“If we tell them over the phone what to do, we don’t even make a report,” Huber explained.
And most people don’t even call the police for such crimes, he added. “For every 15 to 20 reports we do receive, that probably means there’s 120 incidents,” Huber said. “What we have on file is just the miniscule amount.”
Select officers from the Verona and Cedar Grove departments are undergoing special training from the Essex County Cyber Crimes Unit, learning how to trace email messages and Internet offenses, officials said. Verona sent two officers to training once a week for about 10 weeks, and then those same officers attend monthly follow-up training, Huber said.
“It’s a sign of the times … everybody’s info is out there on the Internet. Very little is kept private today and thieves – they exploit that,” Kennedy said.
Credit cards
A criminal opening a credit card account in someone else’s name is among the top problems with which both departments are currently contending. Perpetrators employ various methods to get a person’s name, address, birthday and social security number, using that information to open a new account.
How do perpetrators get the information they need?
They often send fraudulent emails, telling recipients that they won a prize and need to submit a form full of personal information in order to claim the prize. In more sophisticated scams, criminals send a phony email with a hyperlink in it, attaching text to lure you into clicking on that link. Once you click, the email sender can hack into your computer and gain access to all of your documents and websites, Kennedy said.
Another common problem amongst Verona and Cedar Grove residents is having credit card numbers stolen, even though they still have the actual card in their possession, Huber said. Employees in shopping malls, restaurants and gas stations sometimes take down customers’ credit card numbers. Employees at the cards’ issuing company or bank have been known to do the same, Kennedy said.
Once someone opens a fraudulent credit card account in your name, or gets your credit card number, he/she often uses the Internet to make purchases.
Tracking the home address of the offending shopper can be difficult, Kennedy explained, because he/she can log in from any of the infinite public locations that offer wireless Internet. And, extra sly criminals will have Internet purchases intentionally mailed to the wrong home address. Then, the criminals will show up at that address to pick up the goods, apologizing for the “mistake” in having items shipped there, the sergeant added.
Solving such crimes can take several weeks, Kennedy said, citing the “lag time” in retrieving necessary information from the credit card companies, banks, online retailers, public locations where the offending computer was used, and so on.
“It’s like assembling a puzzle – with a piece here and a piece there,” Kennedy said.
Usually, the criminals hail from other states. Even when they are caught, most victims from Cedar Grove decline to head to a faraway state for court proceedings, so the case gets dropped, Kennedy said,
Or, the credit card companies can’t be bothered with hassle for crimes involving a few hundred dollars, so they just reimburse victims and drop the case, Huber said. And once a victim has gotten his/her money back, the police investigation must end.
“These crimes are low risk, high gain,” Kennedy said. “Computer fraud is the crime of the present and the future.”
Calls for help
Verona and Cedar Grove residents have also been targeted by emails and phone calls that appear to be from a distressed family member who needs financial assistance, officials said.
There were three such instances in Verona last year where elderly residents fell for the trick, receiving calls from young people posing as their grandson/daughter, who asked for money due to an emergency. The residents wired hundreds of dollars each to what they thought was an account for a grandchild, Huber said.
Social networking websites can be used as fodder for such crimes, with, for example, perpetrators getting grandparents’ names and hometowns through a grandchild’s profile.
“They’re just fishing for that last piece of information they need,” Kennedy said, of criminals who use Facebook. Sometimes, perpetrators will make fraudulent Facebook accounts and “friend” people just for the sake of gleaning information from their profiles, Kennedy said. The average fake Facebook profile has 726 “friends,” he added, citing personal research.
Verona residents who recently sold items online were introduced to a less-common, but growing form of computer-related fraud, Huber said. The buyer “accidentally” sends way too much money for a purchase and then asks the seller for a check to make up the difference. Really, the buyer is just trying to get his hands on the seller’s checking account information, according to Huber.
“There are just so many different ideas and ways to get people out of money that it’s endless,” Huber said. “”It’s happened to policemen and their family members. It’s happened to everybody.”
