Whether you’re gearing up for a fresh start in a new home or helping your college student move in, it’s important to stay vigilant against moving scams.

According to the Better Business Bureau, 5,918 complaints were filed against moving companies throughout 2023. Consumers who fell victim to moving scams and reported them to the BBB’s Scam Tracker lost an average of $350.

Some of the most common ones include:

• No-shows — where the so-called movers take your deposit and never show up on moving day.
• Upcharges and extra fees – a company ends up charging you more than what you were originally quoted.
• And having items stolen – the moving truck fails to arrive and either your belongings are gone, or the company requires you to pay an additional fee to deliver them.

“You just want to make sure you’re taking your time, doing your due diligence, asking multiple people and resources and not just falling for a pretty website or word of mouth of a stranger,” explained Paula Fleming, chief marketing officer at the Better Business Bureau. “Making sure that you’re really vetting them out to protect not only your money, but personal items that have sentimental value.”

To protect yourself against these scams:

Research the moving company thoroughly. Check their website and look for customer reviews. If there is no physical address from the company or information about a mover’s registration or insurance – that’s a red flag.

Avoid companies that use a rented truck or offer a moving estimate over the phone instead of conducting an onsite inspection.

Scammers will also ask for a large deposit upfront. Legitimate companies usually only require a small deposit or a payment on delivery.

Finally, never sign blank or incomplete documents. Make sure that all terms, costs, and services are clearly outlined before you sign any agreement.

Make sure to keep an inventory of all your belongings. The BBB recommends labeling all your boxes and taking pictures of everything before packing it away just in case something gets damaged in the moving process. And if something doesn’t feel right or a company doesn’t answer your questions, it’s best to walk away and find a more reputable mover.

If you have a consumer problem, contact NBC10 Boston Responds by filling out our online consumer complaint form. We will get back to you!

We were there when Winthrop police returned $34,400 to Peggy Herbert, 83. 

“I’ve been saying my prayers, trust me,” she said. 

Herbert had received an alert saying her crew card account had been hacked, ands he called what she thought was the company’s fraud department. 

“He said, ‘Okay, go immediately to your bank,” she recalled. ‘”Don’t take any incoming calls, and go to the bank and withdraw the money.'”

“He said, ‘If you want your children to be safe, then do as I tell you,'” Herbert continued, sayings felt scared. 

The man’s instructions? To go to a Bitcoin ATM — she went to one at a gas station in nearby Revere — and deposit lots of cash, which she did: “I was shaking and I had an envelope with a lot of money in it.”

Herbert is far from alone, and many others aren’t as lucky. People in Massachusetts reported losing $2.7 million in over 100 complaints filed with the FBI last year. 

Another man we spoke to, whom we’re calling Derek to protect his identity, fed more than $20,000 into Bitcoin machines after after getting a call from people posing as federal agents who told him his identity had been stolen and there was a warrant for his arrest. This despite being on guard against scams.

“They just had an answer for everything,” he said. 

These scams are on the rise in Essex County — victims are pouring thousands into Bitcoin ATMS and more machines are popping up, said Detectives Jim Carney, who works out of the Essex County District Attorney’s Office, and Shawn Desmond, of Beverly police.

“The machines are flourishing. They’re popping up everywhere and we have really no idea exactly how many machines are out there in the wild,” Carney said. 

“It’s not just the elderly who are getting scammed,” Desmond said. “We’re getting teenagers, professional people that are highly educated. It’s all across the map. These guys are just experts at scamming.”

Once the money is pumped into the machine, it’s tough to get back. If police are notified quickly, they can try to seize the machine to get the cash before it’s emptied.

If that works, then it’s up to a judge to decide if the money goes back to the victim or to the Bitcoin company that already paid for the transaction. 

Police were able to get the cash out of the machines in Herbert and Derek’s cases.

“It makes you feel pretty angry to know that these people are just out there, scamming innocent people,” Derek said. 

Asked what she wants the public to know, Herbert said, “Hang up. Call someone in your family or call someone, a friend. Be careful of these sophisticated schemes.”

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Cybercriminals are targeting wealth accounts by tapping into a victim’s emotions.

So-called romance scams involve building a relationship and trust with the victim so that the target willingly provides access to their accounts or transfers money to the criminal, explained Tracy Kitten, the director of fraud and security at Javelin Strategy & Research, a financial research services firm.

Consumers lost $1.14 billion to romance scams in 2023, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Median losses per person amounted to $2,000, the highest reported losses for any form of imposter scam, the FTC found.

“Romance scams tend to be some of the more insidious because they prey on emotions,” Kitten said. “These things happen in real life, these aren’t just shows that we see on Netflix.” 

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“What people need to realize is that people behind these types of scams could teach a master class in human behavior,” said Theresa Payton, a former White House chief information officer who is now the CEO of cybersecurity firm Fortalice Solutions.

“They know the different emotional trigger points that we all have, and that’s when they strike,” Payton added.

‘They trust the person who’s manipulating them’

Romance scammers trick their victims into thinking they’re someone they’re not. Over time, the criminal will develop a relationship with the victim, Kitten explained.

Once trust is established, the victim may be more easily convinced to send money, provide access to their bank accounts, and, in some cases, even launder funds for them, she said.

About 22% of surveyed financial advisors with clients affected by fraud have had clients who fell victim to a romance scam, according to Javelin. The survey fielded 1,500 financial advisors in July 2023.

Oftentimes, cybercriminals are reaching out and developing relationships over social media platforms, Kitten said.

It’s a really easy way for them to fool their victims because there’s no face-to-face contact,” she said.

About 40% of people who said they lost money to a romance scam in 2022 said the contact started on social media, the FTC found.

Almost three-quarters, or 73%, of consumers who had been victimized by a romance scam were men, according to Javelin data. For that report, Javelin polled 5,000 U.S. households in November 2022.

“At this point, we’re all exposed,” Fortalice Solutions’ Payton said. “Even if you don’t have a big social media footprint, your data points are out there.”  

Spotting ‘the biggest red flag’ for romance scams

There are ways to detect if a romance scammer has targeted you. “The biggest red flag,” said Payton, is requests for money. 

Here are five more warning signs:

1. Unsolicited text messages: Scammers can use bots that can reach out to hundreds of people at a time through cell phone numbers, email addresses and social media accounts. Some messages are as simple as “hi.” “All it takes is just for one person to take the bait,” she said.
2. Too good to be true: If the person is suddenly very interested in the same things as you, and wants to carry the conversation in a different direct messaging platform, that can be another red flag.
3. Refusal to meet in person: The scammer will make up excuses for not wanting to meet in real life. Yet sometimes the alternative can occur: The scammer might ask for money for travel expenses to come out and meet you, Payton said. 
4. Isolation attempts: If the scammer discourages you from talking to family or friends of the new romantic interest. 
5. Pressure tactics: If the new contact is badgering you to keep up the relationship, ask for money or financial information. 

In these long-term scams, it’s often hard for the victim to see that they’ve been scammed because “they trust the person who’s manipulating them,” Kitten said. 

Financial advisors can help their clients by educating them on what cybercrime could look like. Doing so can “go a long way” to help victims understand when they’ve been scammed, said Kitten.

Here are five things you can do to vet the new contact, according to Payton:

1. Reverse search the image: Use reverse-search tools for images online to verify the images the potential scammer is using.
2. Look at your privacy settings: Be mindful of the information that you share on social media.
3. If you meet someone, take your time: Make sure to ask questions about their background. Keep track of what they say and look for inconsistencies.
4. Avoid financial transactions: Do not send financial information or funds to the person at first ask. Talk to family, friends, trusted advisors and bankers about the situation.
5. Meet at a public spot: Ask to meet them in person in a public spot or close to a police station. If they act “sketchy,” said Payton, “you have your answer.”

Report suspicious profiles or messages to the online platform you’re using and then report the incident to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. If the situation has escalated, report the incident to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Victims can seek free support and counseling through The Cybercrime Support Network, which offers a free 10-week virtual romance scam recovery group, led by licensed counselors, Payton said.

Reports of fake job listings on sites like LinkedIn and Indeed increased by 118% last year, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center.

The nonprofit supports victims of identity crimes and tracks trends throughout the year.

The ITRC looked at information reported by the victims who contacted its organization last year to create its “2023 Trends in Identity Report.”

ITRC Chief Operating Officer, James E. Lee, said that artificial intelligence is a part of the problem and plays a part in the drastic increase.

“AI is complicating the ability of individuals to tell if something’s real or fake,” he said. “And any number of accounts of phishing attacks that we’re used to seeing, you know, we used to know the clues; the grammar was bad the logo was wrong, there was – there was usually some telltale sign. Well, AI has cleaned all that up.”

Using AI, scammers can create more realistic sounding and enticing listings, according to the ITRC report. These scams started to become more common at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when more people were looking for remote work.

Identity criminals will ask jobseekers for information that’s common during typical onboarding procedures, like proof that they can work in the United States and banking information for direct deposit, the report said. Lee said to pause before providing any information to potential scammers and instead to call the company directly to ask about the position and if the ad is legitimate.

Another emerging trend shows criminals using fake IDs with real license numbers to stay out of trouble, Lee said. Victims with otherwise spotless records are seeing criminal charges appear on background checks, inhibiting their ability to get jobs or secure government benefits according to the report.

“Driver’s licenses are used now as identification in a wide variety of account creation and just daily transactions,” Lee said. “That driver’s license is very valuable. When something is valuable, the identity criminals, they swoop in.”

Even police officers and bankers who are trained to spot fake IDs can’t always tell the difference, Lee said, making it difficult to catch the criminals in the act.

If you think your identity has been compromised, the ITRC offers free support for victims on its website.

You can read the ITRC’s complete 2023 Trends in Identity Report here.

Unexpected orders of random merchandise can indicate what’s known as a brushing scam.

Brushing scams are used by some unscrupulous online retailers to bolster their businesses. Here’s how they work:

Scammers create fake accounts, using real names and addresses, to place orders for their own products. This can be done by third-party sellers who are trying to achieve verified merchant status on a site.

Once that unsolicited package is shipped and delivered, they write a glowing fake review in your name to improve their product’s rating. The goal is to make the product appear more popular and reliable.

While it sounds harmless, your personal information could be compromised.

“It’s already telling us that our data is there, that we don’t have control of our data,” said Iskander Sanchez-Rola, the director of privacy innovation for Norton. “Maybe they obtain[ed] this information in a data broker site, or they actually were able to in a data breach — in the dark web… Maybe that specific scenario doesn’t look so problematic, but it tells us that something bigger is happening in the background. So, it’s just the first step of something that could be very negative at the end.”

Have a tip for the NBC10 Investigators? Email us at tips@nbcboston.com.

Here’s what to do if you receive one of these mysterious packages:

1. Confirm with family and friends that it was not a gift meant for you.
2. If it was unsolicited, contact the seller or retailer about the mistake.
3. You can either discard the package or return to sender. The products are usually cheap and aren’t very useful.
4. Change your account password and monitor your bank accounts closely for any unusual activity.
5. Consider freezing your credit, which will prevent anyone from trying to open anything in your name.
6. Report the incident to the Federal Trade Commission.

And don’t ever pay for any packages you didn’t order. If the seller reaches out to you or the delivery company says that postage is due, tell them you didn’t place the order and want it returned to the sender.

Additional tips on brushing scams from Norton can be found on their website.

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Just as that senior was about to hand over roughly $230,000 in life’s savings, a friend stepped in and convinced him to call police instead.

The suspect identified himself to police as Ravinkle Mathon and said he was a German citizen when police pulled over his Toyota Prius on Briggs Cheney Road.

That stop happened just a short distance from the Silver Spring home where Mathon picked up a box, according to court documents.

Mathon believed the box was filled with gold bars his victim had purchased. But instead, police said, it was filled with tools, placed there to simulate the same weight. The box was handed to Mathon by a police officer posing as the victim’s neighbor.

Mathon was then arrested by Montgomery County police.

His scam began as a phone call, according to Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy. A man pretending to be a federal agent told the victim he was being targeted by a dangerous identity theft ring and needed to convert all of his cash to gold so he could be given a new identity for protection.

The victim did so. But before the handover, an acquaintance intervened.

“Always have two people aware of your financial decisions,” McCarthy said.

A judge ordered Mathon held without bond, McCarthy says.

“We’re not even sure who this man really is,” McCarthy told News4.

Montgomery County police are warning residents to be on guard.

“Law enforcement will never ask you to convert cash to gold and give it to them,” said Shiera Goff, a police spokesperson.

More than a dozen retired Montgomery County residents have been victimized by this scam in the past year or so, officials say.

Less than two months ago, a criminal ring used the same con on a resident of Leisure World in Silver Spring. They stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold bars from the woman before she notified police. A California man was arrested in that case.

“I started to get notifications that someone tried to log into my account, that my password had been changed,” he said. 

The Chatsworth man tried to call the bank, but he had no signal. 

“Why’s my phone not working? What happened? I don’t know,” he said.

When Drobman got to a phone to call Bank of America, a chunk of money was gone from his account. 

“They go, ‘They’ve already withdrawn $21,000 from your account.’ Are you kidding me? That’s half of my bank account,” he said. 

Here’s what likely happened: It’s called SIM swapping. A crook got a hold of Drobman’s personal information, like his name, address and cell number, and convinced Drobman’s cellphone company, Spectrum, to transfer his cellphone number to a new phone. The crook then had access to Drobman’s text messages and used text message two-factor authentication to get into Drobman’s bank account and steal his money. 

“So the text message went not to my phone, but their phone. So by hijacking my phone, they intercept my text back codes,” he said.

According to the FBI’s most recent data, victims lost more than $68 million to this scam in 2021, five times more than in years past. 

Cybersecurity expert Stan Stahl is trying to bring those numbers down. He founded Secure the Village, a nonprofit dedicated to educating people about cybersecurity.

He says what happened to Drobman can happen to you. 

“Jeff was not specifically targeted because he was Jeff. He may have been specifically targeted because they ran across his information. But that could happen to any of us,” said Stahl. 

Stahl largely blames Spectrum for its lack of security. He says they made it too easy for crooks to steal Drobman’s cellphone number. 

“So Spectrum wants to make it as easy as possible for people to go buy a new phone. But in thinking about that, Spectrum, and every company like them, has to think about the risk side of the equation,” he said.

Stahl said all wireless companies should require customers to have a personal identification number (PIN) that they must use to make any account changes. 

A trade group for wireless providers agrees. 

Spectrum told the I-Team it recently started requiring PINs for number transfers, but it wouldn’t comment on how crooks bypassed this to steal Drobman’s number. 

“Our mobile carriers have to be called on the carpet for that, they’ve got to fix that. They can’t just transfer phone numbers because somebody asked you to,” said Drobman.

On the banking side of this scam, Stahl said text codes for two-factor authentication aren’t safe either. He said banks should instead use face recognition or an authentication app.

But the banking industry defends text back codes. Bank of America pointed us to a banking trade group for comment. The American Bankers Association said the industry invests billions of dollars in cybersecurity, and text back codes provide a significant defense against account takeover. 

Drobman doesn’t buy it. 

“I want to get the word out that text back codes are not safe,” he said. 

After the I-Team reached out to Bank of America about Drobman’s case, it put $21,000 — the amount stolen from him — back into his account. In a statement, it said it takes identity theft seriously. 

Drobman believes he’s now as secure as he can be. But he’s disappointed that these two companies both failed to keep his money and identity safe. 

Tips to keep your money safe:

• Create a PIN with your wireless carrier.
• If your bank allows it, use facial recognition, instead of two-factor authentication, to make account changes.
• If you unexpectedly lose your cellphone signal, contact your carrier right away to make sure your number hasn’t been hacked.

“All you need is a phone, a laptop, wi-fi and one to three hours a day,” she says in one of dozens of videos posted on her pages. In one post, she says the average annual salary of an affiliate marketer, with no experience, is $177,566. “I made that salary in my first 11 weeks,” she says.

Affiliate marketing is not new, but social media triggered an explosion of interest — and an array of concerns. The market for online learning courses has boomed in recent years, spanning professional development platforms to online influencers selling lessons on everything from gig work to the timeless art of seduction.

Dozens of companies online offer courses to teach you how to get into affiliate marketing. Typically, affiliates earn a commission on sales of products they recommend. The internet is full of videos with people saying they became millionaires through affiliate marketing. Part of the appeal is that these jobs can be pitched as a “side hustle” that don’t require as much time and effort as a full-time position. 

Side hustles have continued to become more common during this period of persistent inflation, particularly for younger people. A survey from the financial services company LendingTree published in February found that more than half of millennials and Gen Z supplement their main source of income with other moneymaking activities.

Ouimet and many others tout a $7 course offered by a company called Legendary Marketer. For that small investment, she says, you can learn how to earn thousands of dollars working from home for just a few hours a day. The company says its $7 “15-day business builder challenge” has “over 800 success stories.”

But not everyone has a success story. Dana Gunning, Loretta Lynne and Stacha Woessner, who took the course separately, told NBC News they signed up after seeing videos like Ouimet’s on social media.

“When I joined, I really thought I was just doing a $7 course. I was very, very shocked about it being a lot more than that,” Gunning said.

The women said that several days into their online course, they were surprised when a “business adviser” met with them over Zoom, telling them that to really earn money, they needed to buy the “Uplevel Blueprint” course for $2,500.

Woessner said the adviser told her: “Sell your car if you have to, put it on a credit card, borrow money from your friends or family. Spend this $2,500 and your life’s gonna change tremendously.”

All three women spent the $2,500 each and said the experience was informative. Their biggest takeaway, though? The fast way to make real money was to resell the same course to others, they said. For every $2,500 course they sold, they would earn a $1,000 commission, they added.

This was not the kind of affiliate marketing that Legendary Marketer promoted on social media, Lynne said. The videos, she said, told her that she could be an affiliate for brands such as Nike and Lululemon.

“But that’s not what they’re doing,” she said. “They just want you to resell their course.”

In online videos, Legendary Marketer CEO Dave Sharpe tells potential customers: “I’ve gone from completely broke to living the life of my dreams.” On its website, the company says it has “$250 million in career sales” and “well over half of that has been paid out to affiliate partners.”

But the fine print on Legendary’s website reads, “This is not a get rich quick program” and “the average person” should expect “little to no results.”

“The overhyped marketing is one of the biggest downsides of Legendary Marketer,” said Niall Doherty, who ranks affiliate marketing courses on his website, eBiz Facts, and often earns commissions on those he recommends. He has researched and reviewed Legendary Marketer’s 15-day platform.

Realistically, Doherty said, affiliate marketers should expect to put in a lot of work and temper their expectations about how much they will actually earn.

“If you work hard at building up an affiliate marketing business for a year, not just a side hustle, the best-case scenario is that you’d be earning $1,000 a month after 12 months.”

Lynne said she earned several thousand dollars in commissions after taking the Legendary Marketer courses, but stopped after a few weeks, uneasy about upselling people.

Gunning had a similar experience. “I made one sale and I felt very bad about it,” she said, “promoting a $7 course when that’s not the goal.”

Woessner said she didn’t make any money at all and quit after a few months. 

After NBC News contacted the Better Business Bureau to ask about customer complaints, the organization took away Legendary Marketer’s A rating and started an investigation. The agency also posted an alert on Legendary Marketer’s page, citing “a pattern of customer complaints” about the company’s advertising and upsells. 

Sharpe declined to be interviewed for this story but said in a statement in part that he takes “all feedback seriously” and is working with the BBB to address its concerns.” The $7 course gives people value and knowledge about digital marketing, “like all Legendary Marketer courses,” he added.

Sharpe also said he’s working with affiliates like Ouimet to “ensure proper compliance” in marketing and disclosure to customers that there are more products for sale beyond the $7 course.

Ouimet did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Gunning, Lynne and Woessner, meanwhile, now earn commissions working with Legendary competitors. They said they have sold other courses, but their primary earnings come from selling digital products, building websites and recommending products from a variety of companies.

They advise anyone interested in becoming an affiliate marketer to read reviews and research multiple courses. Lynne said she now makes a good living doing affiliate and digital marketing, but it’s definitely not a side hustle. She said it took a long time to build her businesses and she still works long hours. 

“There is money in affiliate marketing,” Lynne said. “But you’ve gotta learn the right way to do it.”

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

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The action follows a 2019 complaint the FTC made against the operators of Mission Hills Federal and Federal Direct Group, alleging the organizations have been tricking student loan borrowers out of their money since 2014.

Fraudsters “tricked students into paying hundreds to thousands of dollars in illegal upfront fees and pretended to lower consumers’ monthly student loan payments,” the FTC said in a press release. Additionally, the operators claimed to take over the servicing of consumers’ loans and thus, often pocketed consumers’ monthly payments, the agency said.

Americans owe a whopping $1.7 trillion in student loans, according to Education Data Initiative, so it’s not surprising that many borrowers are eager to take any chance they have to lower or eliminate their balances. 

Unfortunately, that also creates a ripe opportunity for malicious actors to take advantage of those looking for ways to ease their student debt burdens. Scammers lure student loan borrowers by offering ways to lower their monthly payments or even eliminate their balances.

This isn’t the first time the FTC has issued refunds for these kinds of scams. Last August, the agency, along with the Department of Justice, sent $9 million in refunds to victims of an organization known as Ameritech Financial that operated a similar student debt relief scheme. The FTC also refunded 37,800 consumers earlier in 2023 as a result of another student loan scam.

If someone reaches out to you offering to help with your student debt, you might be tempted to work with them — especially if you’re struggling to make your monthly payments. But there are legitimate assistance programs as well as federally-supported forgiveness initiatives that can actually help you get out of debt.

Use these tips to avoid losing money to a student loan scammer.

Know the signs of a scam

Many financial scams use similar tactics to try to get you on the hook. If any company or person contacts you and tries to get you to sign up for a service or share any personal information, watch out for a few red flags.

1. Urgency

Student loan scams often use time-sensitive language like telling you to “act immediately” or “call now to verify.” 

The Department of Education may contact you about “temporary programs,” the Federal Student Aid website says, but it won’t use such aggressive language.

2. Empty promises

Scammers may make promises that sound too good to be true. In scams like these, you may be asked to pay a small fee in order to have your debt completely discharged.

Know that you do not have to pay for any of the existing loan forgiveness programs, although they often require years of qualifying payments or certain types of employment. 

3. Asking for personal information

FSA says it will never ask you for your account password. If anyone asks for your FSA login information, there’s a good chance they’re trying to scam you. Further, FSA will only contact you from one of its known email addresses:

• noreply@studentaid.gov
• noreply@debtrelief.studentaid.gov
• ed.gov@public.govdelivery.com 

The department advises borrowers to double check URLs and email addresses to make sure they’re getting information from a reliable source.

Explore free debt relief services

If you have federal student loans, there are a number of protections in place if you’re struggling to make your payments, all at no cost to you.

You may be able to lower your monthly payment by getting on an income-driven repayment plan or even pause payments for a period of time if you’re facing certain types of financial hardship.

Want to make extra money outside of your day job? Sign up for CNBC’s new online course How to Earn Passive Income Online to learn about common passive income streams, tips to get started and real-life success stories. Register today and save 50% with discount code EARLYBIRD.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.

There are so many things to be on the lookout for when it comes to protecting ourselves from scams. 

The AARP’s Fraud Watch Network works all year to educate people about what to look out for, and one way they do that is through quizzes. This time of year they put out their holiday scam quiz. 

Here’s one quiz question: “A common scam involves the telephone solicitation of funds for fake charities.  How can you determine if a charity that is soliciting money from you is legit?”

Do you:

• Ask the charity
• look at their website
• use Charity Navigator or Give.org to research the charity,
• or trust your instincts?  

The answer is going to Charity Navigator or Give.org. Both groups examine the financial documents and profiles of charities to assess their operations. 

Some advice from the AARP’s Director of Fraud Prevention Programs – beware of any incoming communication you receive. 

“A text with a link on it from your bank or from a shipping company that says there’s a problem. An email of the same. We just can’t trust that that’s who they say they are, so let’s stop clicking on links,” said Kathy Stokes. “Don’t think that that social media ad for the coolest product for, you know, a Christmas gift is legitimate. Trust the companies that you’ve already worked with in the past. Use them as your as your trusted seller.” 

AARP found the results of the online holiday quiz last year weren’t great – in the D range.  And they’re not any better this year.  

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In the spring of 2021, Marjorie Bloom waited for a phone call that would never come.

Over the course of the previous month, the retiree had wired hundreds of thousands of dollars into cryptocurrency per the suggestion of someone she believed to be a trusted confidant. The man claimed to be a “fraud investigator” at PNC Bank, where she’d been a longtime customer.

At his behest, Bloom, a widow who is now 77, liquidated her nest egg — savings, stocks, an annuity — for a total of $661,000.

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The action was supposedly preventative: The “investigator” persuaded Bloom that criminals, using stolen personal data, were in the process of pilfering her life savings. To protect her money, he said, she had to move it quickly — and covertly. Divulging the problem to anyone, even her three children, could compromise their efforts, he said.

Had she alerted her children, she might have avoided the scam: Bloom’s daughter, Ester, is the deputy managing editor for CNBC Make It. (Ester Bloom put CNBC in touch with her mother but was not involved in the reporting or editing of this story.)

The “investigator,” though very convincing, turned out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Bloom, a retired civil servant, was ensnared in a “tech support” scam.

This type of fraud is increasingly common and largely targets older adults, who lost $588 million to tech support scams in 2022, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Criminals persuade victims they have a serious computer issue such as a virus, then masquerade as computer technicians from well-known companies as a cover for theft. Often, they persuade victims to wire funds to fraudulent accounts.

So on that Friday morning in May 2021, Bloom eagerly awaited a call with instructions on how to access the life savings she had diligently taken steps to secure.

The hours ticked by. Growing nervous, she eventually called the "investigator." His number had been disconnected. She called PNC, but the bank didn't have a record of the employee.

"All of a sudden, this grayness lifted," said Bloom, who lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland. "I realized I had been defrauded of everything."

'The money is there. The scammers know that'

Bloom's experience reveals an unsettling reality at a time when technological advancement, little-understood investment options and a patchwork of protections in the U.S. financial system expose more older Americans to financial fraud.

Americans 60 and older lost $3.1 billion to cyber fraud in 2022, an 84% increase from 2021, according to the FBI. Losses have jumped ninefold in just five years, from $342 million in 2017, FBI data shows. Because fraud statistics are based only on reported incidents, its true scope may be far greater.

Older adults, many of whom have saved their entire careers for retirement, can have the most to lose. In addition to retirement savings, they might have other pots of income and wealth: home equity, Social Security payments, pension checks and, if widowed, maybe a life insurance payout.

"The money is there," said Rebecca Keithley, a supervisory special agent in the FBI's Economic Crimes unit and the bureau's national program coordinator of the Department of Justice's Elder Justice Initiative. "The scammers know that."

Keithley — also the FBI's national program coordinator for frauds and swindles — is not involved in the investigation of Bloom's case.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is undergoing a massive demographic shift as an average of 10,000 baby boomers hit retirement age every day. This generation has shouldered more responsibility for their retirement preparations as employers began shifting away from pensions to 401(k)-type retirement plans decades ago.

Consumers ages 65 and older had an average of $232,710 in 401(k) plan savings in 2022, according to Vanguard Group, one of the nation's largest retirement-plan administrators. Further, 65- to 74-year-olds had a net worth of more than $1.2 million, on average, in 2019, according to the Federal Reserve's most recent Survey of Consumer Finances.

Fraud may deprive victims of funds for basic living expenses such as food and shelter, or for the travel and leisure they'd worked so hard to attain in their post-work life.

Beyond the immediate financial hit, fraud has several knock-on effects: Victims who raid their tax-preferred retirement funds may owe the IRS a hefty bill. Taking out a second mortgage or maxing out credit cards carry regular debt payments.

Older adults don't have the same ability as younger victims to earn in the workforce, and it's often challenging to recoup money from criminals or financial institutions.

"Most victims will say, 'I'm devastated financially, I'm ruined,'" said Kathy Stokes, director of fraud prevention programs at AARP, an advocacy group for older adults. "But emotionally it's as bad, if not worse."

How criminals 'hijack' the aging brain

Tech support scams like the one Bloom suffered are an acute threat for older adults.

They are a type of "call center" fraud, which "overwhelmingly target" older adults, the FBI said. About half of people victimized by illegal call centers are 60 or older, and they experience 69% of the total financial losses relative to other age groups.

Nearly 18,000 Americans ages 60 and over reported being a victim of tech support scams in 2022, the FBI said. That's more than any other type of elder fraud and almost doubled from 2020.

Victims 60 and older lost more to these scams than all other age groups combined, the FBI reported. The average person lost $33,000, though losses extended to over $1 million in some cases, the FBI said.

In Bloom's case, her computer froze suddenly on April 22, 2021. A popup window alerted her to call a customer support phone number listed on the screen, supposedly for Microsoft.

Bloom then made a key mistake: She called the number, an action that real tech companies won't ever ask of customers in a security pop-up warning.

During the call, a "Microsoft engineer" told her that foreign hackers had hijacked her computer and stolen sensitive personal data. Her financial accounts, he suggested, were also likely under threat.

When Bloom told him she banked with PNC, the engineer — who was really a con artist — transferred her to an accomplice posing as a PNC fraud investigator. The man convinced Bloom that there were pending transactions worth $29,000 tied to her bank account. Her money had to be moved without delay to a new account, the scammer urged.

None of it was true.

"I fell for it," said Bloom, who retired in December 2017 after serving 42 years as a federal attorney, including stints at the Department of Energy and, most recently, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

"I didn't tell anybody," Bloom added.

The appearance of an immediate threat is an "age-old psychological technique" common in frauds that tends to be "more successful with the aging brain," said Keithley of the FBI.

In this technique, known as an "amygdala hijack" in reference to the brain's fear and threat response center, criminals trigger strong emotional reactions that overwhelm the rational part of our brains. We act rather than think, a classic fight-or-flight response — in this case induced by nefarious social engineers, often part of sophisticated organized crime networks.

Older adults tend to be home more often, use landline phones and be generally unsophisticated about technology and safe online behavior — all of which make them vulnerable and therefore frequent targets, Keithley said.

The Covid pandemic was a disproportionate threat to older adults, keeping Americans indoors and quickly pushing them online. The health emergency "ushered in a new wave of exploitative practices targeted at older Americans," U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a 2022 report to Congress.

'Somebody should have asked'

Bloom, an avid traveler, is undeniably tough. In 2013, at 67 years old, she trekked to the base camp of Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain; the base camp alone sits at an altitude of about 18,000 feet.

But the scam tested her resolve.

A year after the fraud, Bloom set out on a road trip to North Dakota. Five days in, she had a panic attack that seized the right side of her body in pain. She canceled everything and went home.

"In retrospect, I think the entire ordeal was a fearful reaction to spending money," Bloom said.

Before she realized she'd been scammed, Bloom had made five wire transfers within 28 days, amounting to $661,000, according to receipts of the transactions, which were reviewed by CNBC.

Much of those funds came from liquidating a stock portfolio — an inheritance from her parents — worth more than $400,000. She also liquidated the bulk of an annuity worth more than $200,000; if she'd kept it intact, it would have begun paying her a guaranteed income stream of about $2,700 a month for the next three decades, starting in 2023.

"This was my life savings," Bloom said. "It's what I was going to live on as a retiree."

When she discovered the loss, Bloom's immediate thought was of her three kids: a "profound disappointment" at squandering the reserves she'd intended to bequeath them. Bloom had wanted to offer the same financial assistance to her children as her parents had provided for her. Now, much of that money is gone, she said.

Her second concern was for her own financial security. Bloom still receives regular checks from a federal pension and Social Security, now her main sources of retirement income. It's enough to cover her mortgage, condo fee, car payment and other necessities — but the financial loss exposes Bloom to sacrifices nonetheless.

For one, she laments an inability to travel as frequently as she'd hoped in retirement. She is a member of the North Bethesda Camera Club and uses trips as an outlet for photography, a hobby that developed during her Everest expedition.

"I'm not starving," Bloom said. "But I could do a lot more [if I hadn't lost money]."

"I've lost a significant amount that I've worked for," she said.

Bloom sued PNC Bank — where she'd been a customer for over a decade — in May 2022 for full financial restitution and other damages, such as interest and attorney's fees.

In her lawsuit, Bloom argued that the fraud was ultimately successful because PNC ignored "obvious red flags" and "textbook evidence" of financial exploitation raised by her wire transfer requests, which were inconsistent with her typical pattern of banking.

According to the lawsuit, the bank didn't take steps to investigate or determine whether her money was at risk. The lawsuit claimed the bank acted negligently and breached its contractual duty of care.

"I'm retired ... [and] I look my age," Bloom said. "There's just no doubt about it."

"Somebody should have asked," she added.

In February, a federal judge in the District of Columbia dismissed the negligence claim but allowed the claim for breach of contract to move forward in court. 

Bloom and the bank settled the lawsuit in September. Bloom declined to disclose terms of the agreement to CNBC. (Bloom's comments to CNBC for this story occurred in the spring, before the parties entered into settlement negotiations.)

A spokesperson for PNC Bank declined comment on the settlement.

Asked about the lawsuit in the spring, the bank said it acted within the scope of its legal duty.

"PNC maintains a comprehensive set of security controls to help protect our customers from increasingly sophisticated fraud threats and, when possible, we do our best to recover funds on behalf of impacted customers," a spokesperson told CNBC, when asked about Bloom's case and statements about the bank.

"While PNC regrets any losses incurred by a customer, we disagree with the allegations in this case and believe we acted appropriately with respect to these transactions," the spokesperson added.

'You're basically at the mercy of your bank'

Lawsuits such as Bloom's are rarely successful, legal experts said. Outcomes hinge on a complex web of federal and state rules that govern banking and elder financial fraud.

For instance, there's a distinction between "unauthorized" and "authorized" banking transactions.

Unauthorized transactions occur when criminals get hold of a customer's personal information — a debit card number, let's say — and buy something without approval. Customers are often reimbursed in such instances.

However, in Bloom's case, she made the wire transfers. Transactions initiated by a customer — even a victim duped by scammers — are generally considered "authorized," said Carla Sanchez-Adams, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center. And such transactions carry weak customer protections, she said.

"You're basically at the mercy of your bank," Sanchez-Adams said.

Wire transfers also have weaker protections than other types of electronic fund transfers — such as debit card, ATM or peer-to-peer transactions, for example — because they're exempt from the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, a federal consumer protection law passed in 1978, she said.

Another federal law — the Bank Secrecy Act — sets standards for banks to ensure they have controls to prevent and detect crime such as money laundering and terrorist financing. While the law requires banks to file reports to regulators in certain cases to flag suspicious activity, it doesn't give individual consumers a legal remedy to recoup money lost due to criminal enterprise, Sanchez-Adams said.

"Banks should have some skin in the game," Sanchez-Adams said. "If you don't make them hurt, they won't change their practices."

Some states have elder-protection laws that establish separate duties to protect older adults from financial fraud, but they vary broadly in scope, she said.

For example, under Maryland law, banks are required to report suspected elder fraud to local law enforcement and other parties. As Bloom argued in her lawsuit, that means employees have likely received training to identify such activity. Such "heightened procedures" to protect older adults are part of the bank's duty of care relative to older customers, the lawsuit said.

To sidestep internal protocols — which most banks have established, according to industry data — scammers will often coach victims on what to say to bank tellers or other representatives, experts said. Perhaps the money is for a loan, or for a home-improvement project, for example. Bloom didn't require coaching, she said; according to her lawsuit, PNC bank employees didn't perform more than a "perfunctory inquiry" necessary to complete the transfers.

And there's an additional tension: Banks and other financial institutions have to weigh issues such as consumer privacy when choosing to intervene, said Marve Ann Alaimo, a partner and elder law expert at Porter Wright Morris & Arthur.

If the bank reasonably does its best to protect a client and there's still financial damage, it isn't necessarily the bank's fault, she said.

"We live in a free-market economy. And when you own something, you have the ultimate right to dispose of it as you wish," Alaimo said, referring to money held in a financial account.

"There's only so much protection a third party can provide for you," she added. They "aren't the ultimate arbiter of free will."

Cryptocurrency gives thieves 'new advantages'

Meanwhile, Bloom's money apparently went on a global tour.

Scammers had her wire funds from her PNC bank account to an account at the now-defunct Signature Bank in New York. According to the lawsuit, from there, her money was transferred to an account on the cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase, which scammers created using Bloom's picture and personal data. The assets were then converted into cryptocurrency — a type of virtual asset — and, an investigation later showed, moved to offshore accounts on the Binance crypto trading platform in the Cayman Islands.

Thieves have successfully used crypto to steal increasing amounts of money across all types of internet scams, according to the FBI.

In this context, cryptocurrency — examples of which include bitcoin and ethereum — is like cash; it's just another way to move money from Point A to Point B. But crypto "offers up new advantages" for thieves who transfer and launder illicit proceeds, said Patrick Wyman, chief of the FBI's Virtual Asset Unit. Wyman is not involved in the investigation of Bloom's case.

For one, using crypto is an easy way to move large sums of money across borders very quickly without having to engage with the financial system, Wyman said.

Another benefit for scammers: Crypto offers them a level of anonymity. Criminals use the digital assets to obfuscate their real identity — which, by the nature of crypto transactions, is difficult if not impossible to ascertain.

However, unlike with traditional financial transactions, which are private, all crypto transactions are recorded on a public ledger, or blockchain. So, while law enforcement officials may not be able to learn the identity of a perpetrator, they can generally trace the flow of money, Wyman said.

And that offers a silver lining for victims: "In some cases, we absolutely are able to recover those funds," Wyman said.

In April, the U.S. Department of Justice seized more than $112 million worth of virtual currency linked to crypto investment scams. The assets were seized from six accounts, one of which held $66.4 million, likely tied to wire fraud schemes, the DOJ said.

Wyman encourages victims to report fraud to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center as soon as possible. It generally gets harder to recoup money the longer victims wait, he said.

Bloom reported the theft to the FBI; her case remains open. She's not optimistic about her chances of recovering money via law enforcement efforts. Even if the authorities are successful, she expects it will take years.

"I oscillate," she said of her reflections on the theft.

"I go from being thoroughly upset and [asking] 'What in the world was I thinking?' to saying 'You just have to move forward. What's done is done.'"

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Whether you’re gearing up for a fresh start in a new home or helping your college student move in, it’s important to stay vigilant against moving scams.

According to the Better Business Bureau, 5,918 complaints were filed against moving companies throughout 2023. Consumers who fell victim to moving scams and reported them to the BBB’s Scam Tracker lost an average of $350.

Some of the most common ones include:

• No-shows — where the so-called movers take your deposit and never show up on moving day.
• Upcharges and extra fees – a company ends up charging you more than what you were originally quoted.
• And having items stolen – the moving truck fails to arrive and either your belongings are gone, or the company requires you to pay an additional fee to deliver them.

“You just want to make sure you’re taking your time, doing your due diligence, asking multiple people and resources and not just falling for a pretty website or word of mouth of a stranger,” explained Paula Fleming, chief marketing officer at the Better Business Bureau. “Making sure that you’re really vetting them out to protect not only your money, but personal items that have sentimental value.”

To protect yourself against these scams:

Research the moving company thoroughly. Check their website and look for customer reviews. If there is no physical address from the company or information about a mover’s registration or insurance – that’s a red flag.

Avoid companies that use a rented truck or offer a moving estimate over the phone instead of conducting an onsite inspection.

Scammers will also ask for a large deposit upfront. Legitimate companies usually only require a small deposit or a payment on delivery.

Finally, never sign blank or incomplete documents. Make sure that all terms, costs, and services are clearly outlined before you sign any agreement.

Make sure to keep an inventory of all your belongings. The BBB recommends labeling all your boxes and taking pictures of everything before packing it away just in case something gets damaged in the moving process. And if something doesn’t feel right or a company doesn’t answer your questions, it’s best to walk away and find a more reputable mover.

If you have a consumer problem, contact NBC10 Boston Responds by filling out our online consumer complaint form. We will get back to you!

Sanit Dokmai has been charged with premeditated murder after police found the bodies of his wife and two sons, who were 9 and 13, with slash wounds Monday inside a house in Samut Prakan province, Bangkok’s eastern suburb, said local police chief Rangsan Kamsook.

Rangsan said Sanit was conscious Wednesday but in critical condition and unable to speak nor eat due to severe wounds at his throat.

Police believe Sanit’s motive came from a huge debt the family was in. Police said Sanit is a debt guarantor for his friend in an amount of 400,000 baht ($11,400). The friend ran away and left Sanit to pay off the debt, then his wife tried to take out a loan to help and got scammed, said provincial police chief Pallop Araemlah.

Rangsan said the investigation of the money trail has allowed the police to obtain an arrest warrant on fraud and a violation of the Computer Crime Act for nine Thais and two Cambodians.

According to the police, Sanit’s wife applied for a loan online and was tricked into transferring money that scammers claimed to be for different processing fees. Local chief Rangsan said she filed a complaint to police last week saying she lost over 1.7 million baht ($48,000).

Thailand has struggled to cope with a recent explosion of cybercrime and scam cases. In 2022, the Thai police said they received over 200,000 online reports of scam totaling an estimated 30 billion baht ($855 million) or more.

A new report from the United Nations said criminal gangs have forced hundreds of thousands of people in Southeast Asia into participating in unlawful online scam operations involving billions of dollars worth of revenues, especially in Myanmar and Cambodia. Laos, the Philippines and Thailand were also cited among the main countries of destination or transit for victims of false recruitment.

In an attempt to tackle the problem, Thailand enacted a new law earlier this year that allows banks to immediately freeze suspicious accounts for 72 hours without requiring victims of scams to submit their police report. Once a victim transfers money to a scammer, that sum usually is quickly transferred to several other accounts, making it extremely difficult for the authorities to track and retrieve it.

Earlier in August, Thailand’s minister of Digital Economy and Society threatened to shut down Facebook, accusing the social media platform of not thoroughly screening the advertisements it runs, leaving people vulnerable to costly scams.

If you or someone you know needs help, please contact the National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988, or reach out to the Crisis Text Line by texting ‘Home’ to 741741, anytime.

Last year, more than 94,000 scams related to business and job opportunities were reported to the Federal Trade Commission. Those seeking work-from-home or tech jobs were most at risk, according to the FTC. 

So, it’s important to know what to watch for when you apply online to keep your personal information safe and save time on applying.

Here’s what to do:

Be mindful of where you post your resume

When you publish your resume on the internet, it’s worth considering that you’re essentially exposing your contact information for anyone to see. To minimize risks, restrict resume uploads to trusted job sites.

Use caution with remote opportunities

Scammers often target those pursuing remote work. Use caution when you receive unsolicited offers related to work-from-home opportunities. They may be scammers trying to get your info.

Do your research

If a company appears sketchy, invest some time doing a little research on them. Do online searches to verify the legitimacy of the company in question. You can also contact them directly, either by phone or email, to find out more about them. 

Check the email address

If you get an email about a job from a generic email address that ends in @yahoo.com or @gmail.com, instead of a company domain, proceed with caution, as it may be a scam.

Legitimate companies predominantly communicate using their emails. 

Lastly, if a job sounds too good to be true, it’s wise to approach it with caution. It might not be real.

By integrating these practices into your job search, you’ll protect your details, apply smartly, and be closer to landing your next job. Best of luck! 

Whether you’re gearing up for a fresh start in a new home or helping your college student move in, it’s important to stay vigilant against moving scams.

According to the Better Business Bureau, 5,918 complaints were filed against moving companies throughout 2023. Consumers who fell victim to moving scams and reported them to the BBB’s Scam Tracker lost an average of $350.

Some of the most common ones include:

• No-shows — where the so-called movers take your deposit and never show up on moving day.
• Upcharges and extra fees – a company ends up charging you more than what you were originally quoted.
• And having items stolen – the moving truck fails to arrive and either your belongings are gone, or the company requires you to pay an additional fee to deliver them.

“You just want to make sure you’re taking your time, doing your due diligence, asking multiple people and resources and not just falling for a pretty website or word of mouth of a stranger,” explained Paula Fleming, chief marketing officer at the Better Business Bureau. “Making sure that you’re really vetting them out to protect not only your money, but personal items that have sentimental value.”

To protect yourself against these scams:

Research the moving company thoroughly. Check their website and look for customer reviews. If there is no physical address from the company or information about a mover’s registration or insurance – that’s a red flag.

Avoid companies that use a rented truck or offer a moving estimate over the phone instead of conducting an onsite inspection.

Scammers will also ask for a large deposit upfront. Legitimate companies usually only require a small deposit or a payment on delivery.

Finally, never sign blank or incomplete documents. Make sure that all terms, costs, and services are clearly outlined before you sign any agreement.

Make sure to keep an inventory of all your belongings. The BBB recommends labeling all your boxes and taking pictures of everything before packing it away just in case something gets damaged in the moving process. And if something doesn’t feel right or a company doesn’t answer your questions, it’s best to walk away and find a more reputable mover.

If you have a consumer problem, contact NBC10 Boston Responds by filling out our online consumer complaint form. We will get back to you!

“He said I needed to make a deposit for insurance purposes, and it was urgent,” recalled Motto, 58, who lives in Bonita Springs, Florida.

The man told her that she owed $5,000 but that she could pay an initial installment of $2,500. He told her she could use Zelle or Apple Pay to make the payment.

Motto said she should have known then that something was off, but she wasn’t thinking clearly. It was just after 8:30 a.m., and she’d had a rough night. Plus, the man on the phone didn’t sound suspicious — he spoke with a Southern drawl and was “real personable,” she said.

She tried to make the payments, but they were flagged as suspicious. The man started explaining to her that he would send a PayPal request when Motto’s son overheard the conversation and told her to hang up immediately. 

She now knows that she was targeted in a new scam that preys on people who just lost their loved ones. 

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

In 2022, reported consumer losses to fraud totaled $8.8 billion — a 30 percent increase from 2021, according to the most recent data from the Federal Trade Commission. The biggest losses were to investment scams, including cryptocurrency schemes, which cost people more than $3.8 billion, double the amount in 2021.

Younger adults ages 20-29 reported losing money more often than older adults ages 70-79, the FTC found. But when older adults did lose money, they lost more. Many retirees have assets like savings, pensions, life insurance policies or property for scammers to target.

With the rise of the digital economy, scammers now reach targets by social media and text, as well as phone and email. Online payment platforms, apps, and marketplaces have also increased opportunities. Still, many of their tactics and strategies are similar.

“The first thing they’ll do is get you into a heightened emotional state, because we can’t access clear thinking when we’re in that state,” said Kathy Stokes, director of fraud prevention for the AARP’s Fraud Watch Network. “It could be fear, panic, or excitement — ‘I just won a million dollars from Publishers Clearing House.’”

Once the sense of urgency is established, the target’s defenses are down.

“When approached with urgency, give it an extra three-second pause,” said Amanda Clayman, a financial therapist who works with digital payment network Zelle around issues of fraud. “When someone is trying to get us to take action quickly, that’s usually a red flag indicating we should do the opposite.”

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What to know to keep your money and information safe

Simply being aware of typical scams can help, experts say. Robocalls in particular frequently target vulnerable individuals like seniors, people with disabilities, and people with debt.

“If you get a robocall out of the blue paying a recorded message trying to get you to buy something, just hang up,” aid James Lee, chief operating officer at the Identity Theft Resource Center. “Same goes for texts — anytime you get them from a number you don’t know asking you to pay, wire, or click on something suspicious.”

Lee urges consumers to hang up and call the company or institution in question at an official number.

Scammers will also often imitate someone in authority, such as a tax or debt collector. They might pretend to be a loved one calling to request immediate financial assistance for bail, legal help, or a hospital bill.

So-called “romance scams” often target lonely and isolated individuals, according to Will Maxson, assistant director of the Division of Marketing Practices at the FTC. These scams can take place over longer periods of time — even years.

Kate Kleinart, 70, who lost tens of thousands to a romance scam over several months, said to be vigilant if a new Facebook friend is exceptionally good-looking, asks you to download WhatsApp to communicate, attempts to isolate you from friends and family, and/or gets romantic very quickly.

“If you’re seeing that picture of a very handsome person, ask someone younger in your life — a child, a grandchild, a niece or a nephew — to help you reverse-image search or identify the photo,” she said.

She said the man in pictures she received was a plastic surgeon from Spain whose photos have been stolen and used by scammers.

Kleinart had also been living under lockdown during the early pandemic when she got the initial friend request, and the companionship and communication meant a lot to her while she was cut off from family. When the scam fell apart, she missed the relationship even more than the savings.

“Losing the love was worse than losing the money,” she said.

“I think anyone who has participated in the digital economy has received multiple attempts daily that have some sort of scheme, whether that’s, ‘Your account has been locked’ or ‘Your package delivery is delayed,’” Lee said. “Again — just take a breath — and verify.”

Lee urges people never to click an unusual link in a text or email, and instead go to the site in question directly, or call the number listed on the official site.

“It’ll take 30 or 40 seconds longer, but go ahead and do that because it could save you a lot of money every time,” he said.

Some indications to be extra wary could include an unrecognized sender, unusual wording, or a tell-tale misspelling.

In 2022, consumers lost more than $326 million from scam texts alone, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Gift cards. Both Maxson and Lee said any mention of payment with gift cards should be a blaring warning alarm.

Kleinart, who experienced the romance scam, was also initially asked to send money via gift cards, with varied explanations.

“Just don’t pay people with gift cards,” Maxson said. “No legitimate company or individual is going to ask you to buy large quantities of gift cards and then read the numbers off the cards. That is exclusively a payment method of fraudsters.”

“Let me tell you, the IRS does not accept gift cards,” Lee said. “But you’d be surprised by the number of people who fall for people calling from ‘fill in the blank agency’ or ‘fill in the blank company’ and who send $500 worth of gift cards.”

In addition to romance scams like the one Kleinart fell victim to, here’s what to know about other common social media scams:

Investment scams

According to Lois Greisman, an associate director of marketing practices at the FTC, an investment scam constitutes any get-rich-quick scheme that lures targets via social media accounts or online ads.

Investment scammers typically add different forms of “testimony,” such as from other social media accounts, to support that the “investment” works. Many of these also involve cryptocurrency. To avoid falling for these frauds, the FTC recommends independently researching the company — especially by searching the company’s name along with terms like “review” or “scam.”

Quiz scams

When you’re using Facebook or scrolling Google results, be aware of quiz scams, which typically appear innocuous and ask about topics you might be interested in, such as your car or favorite TV show. They may also ask you to take a personality test.

Despite these benign-seeming questions, scammers can then use the personal information you share to respond to security questions from your accounts or hack your social media to send malware links to your contacts.

To protect your personal information, the FTC simply recommends steering clear of online quizzes. The commission also advises consumers to use random answers for security questions.

“Asked to enter your mother’s maiden name? Say it’s something else: Parmesan or another word you’ll remember,” advises Terri Miller, consumer education specialist at the FTC. “This way, scammers won’t be able to use information they find to steal your identity.”

Marketplace scams

When buying or selling products on Instagram or Facebook Marketplace, keep in mind that not everyone that reaches out to you has the best intentions.

To avoid being scammed when selling via an online platform, the FTC recommends checking buyers’ profiles, not sharing any codes sent to your phone or email, and avoiding accepting online payments from unknown persons.

Likewise, when buying something from an online marketplace, make sure to diligently research the seller. Take a look at whether the profile is verified, what kind of reviews they have, and the terms and conditions of the purchase.

___

The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

Whether you’re gearing up for a fresh start in a new home or helping your college student move in, it’s important to stay vigilant against moving scams.

According to the Better Business Bureau, 5,918 complaints were filed against moving companies throughout 2023. Consumers who fell victim to moving scams and reported them to the BBB’s Scam Tracker lost an average of $350.

Some of the most common ones include:

• No-shows — where the so-called movers take your deposit and never show up on moving day.
• Upcharges and extra fees – a company ends up charging you more than what you were originally quoted.
• And having items stolen – the moving truck fails to arrive and either your belongings are gone, or the company requires you to pay an additional fee to deliver them.

“You just want to make sure you’re taking your time, doing your due diligence, asking multiple people and resources and not just falling for a pretty website or word of mouth of a stranger,” explained Paula Fleming, chief marketing officer at the Better Business Bureau. “Making sure that you’re really vetting them out to protect not only your money, but personal items that have sentimental value.”

To protect yourself against these scams:

Research the moving company thoroughly. Check their website and look for customer reviews. If there is no physical address from the company or information about a mover’s registration or insurance – that’s a red flag.

Avoid companies that use a rented truck or offer a moving estimate over the phone instead of conducting an onsite inspection.

Scammers will also ask for a large deposit upfront. Legitimate companies usually only require a small deposit or a payment on delivery.

Finally, never sign blank or incomplete documents. Make sure that all terms, costs, and services are clearly outlined before you sign any agreement.

Make sure to keep an inventory of all your belongings. The BBB recommends labeling all your boxes and taking pictures of everything before packing it away just in case something gets damaged in the moving process. And if something doesn’t feel right or a company doesn’t answer your questions, it’s best to walk away and find a more reputable mover.

If you have a consumer problem, contact NBC10 Boston Responds by filling out our online consumer complaint form. We will get back to you!

At least two people have been called by scammers who claimed they owed money and needed to pay it immediately to avoid being prosecuted. The office oversees prosecutions in Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop.

Hayden advised residents to be extremely cautious about such calls.

“The district attorney’s office never calls anyone and demands money,” Hayden said in a statement. “If you get a call like this, hang up immediately and contact your police department. This is another variation on a scam we see quite often and we hope no one is victimized by it.”

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They’ve been peddling “Trump Bucks,” which are emblazoned with photos of the former president, and advertising them online as a kind of golden ticket that will help propel Trump’s 2024 bid and make the “real patriots” who support him rich when cashed in.

John Amann told NBC News he bought $2,200 worth of Trump Bucks and other items over the past year only to discover they were worthless when he tried to cash them in at his local bank. So he’s gone on Twitter to warn other Trump supporters not to fall for this scam.

NBC News has identified the Colorado-based companies behind the Trump Bucks as Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots and reviewed dozens of social posts, online complaints and hundreds of misleading ads for the products. Additionally, NBC News has found at least a dozen people like Amann who say they invested thousands of dollars after watching the pitches on Telegram and other websites that strongly suggested that Trump himself was endorsing these products.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

The road to Kaimi’s ruin started in December, with an Instagram message about a Japanese monkey from a handsome stranger who called himself Mike. Over the coming months “Mike” and Kaimi would develop a friendship that quickly evolved into a romance.

Kaimi had no idea he had become ensnared in a romance scam known as “pig butchering,” from the Chinese phrase sha zhu pan — the name coming from the idea that scammers must “fatten up” victims first with flattery and fake bonding before stealing their money.

Experts told CNBC it’s easy to dismiss victims of these scams as ignorant or foolish but doing so discounts how manipulative the scammers are.

Matt Friedman is the CEO of the Mekong Club, a Hong Kong-based organization that works with corporations to fight modern slavery. “Ten scams come by, and they’re very clearly a scam,” Friedman told CNBC. “But the 11th one, I may even fall for it.”

The scam often starts with a simple text message: “Hi!”

Many people disregard the messages that scammers send. But if they respond, the scammers move quickly to establish a rapport. The mystery texter might say they’re a wealthy executive. They’ll share images of their lavish lifestyle. Eventually, they’ll try to make a meaningful romantic bond with the victim. It can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.

At the third stage, the scammers offer to “teach” the victim how to trade cryptocurrencies or foreign currencies. The scammer networks operate fake trading platforms that look “exactly the way they should look,” Friedman told CNBC. Victims are “taught” how to trade by their scammer, and the fake exchanges are engineered to show nonexistent profits of 15% to 20%.

When victims try to withdraw money or have run out of fresh funds, the fake exchanges shut down the accounts and demand payment. Panicked and encouraged by their so-called friend, the victims wire what little money they have left. The exchange and their “friend” block the victim shortly after.

It can take weeks before victims understand they’ve been scammed and even longer to admit what has happened to them.

Experts told CNBC that the scammers on the phone aren’t the real beneficiaries of the scam, although they do sometimes get a cut of the proceeds. Most often, they’ve been trafficked to Cambodia, Laos or Myanmar to work for organized scamming networks, according to extensive reporting from ProPublica and Vice.

Law enforcement and prosecutors acknowledge pig butchering is a problem but tell victims they’re largely unable to help. Reported U.S. losses from investment scams totaled $3.31 billion last year, according to the FBI, but experts say many victims are too embarrassed to report their losses.

The U.S. manages to recover relatively little. The Justice Department’s only public action seized just $112 million. Federal prosecutors in New York and Virginia have also been pursuing domain names and individuals linked to the scams.

Dennis, a small business owner in Maryland, told CNBC his scammer “Sarah” reached out to him on Facebook around the same time that Mike first reached out to Kaimi.

CNBC has altered the names of the victims in this story to protect their identities, as both Dennis and Kaimi shared personally identifiable information and identity documents with their scammers, and as Kaimi has not disclosed his sexual orientation to everyone in his life.

Kaimi lost more than $120,000 to his scammer. Dennis lost around $500,000.

‘My love for you will last forever’

Mike first messaged Kaimi in late December, cracking a joke about a Japanese monkey that Kaimi had posted.

“When I was looking at who had messaged, I was like, ‘I don’t know if this person is real,'” Kaimi told CNBC. After a few days, Kaimi sent back a perfunctory message. Mike promptly responded and engaged enthusiastically with Kaimi, before suggesting they move to a messaging app called Line.

CNBC reviewed thousands of messages between Kaimi and Mike running through April 2023.

They bonded over their shared love of travel, and Mike eventually invited Kaimi to visit him in Seoul. They’d go shopping, Mike said.

Kaimi told Mike that his schedule as a teacher didn’t let him just jet around the world, and he’d have to save money for an international trip. When pressed, Kaimi told Mike about his financial difficulties, stemming from past credit card debt.

Mike suggested he teach Kaimi how to trade in foreign currencies so he could travel to Seoul and pay off his debt.

Mike alternated between talking about making Kaimi rich and sending him what Kaimi described as “flowery” messages.

“My love for you will last forever,” Mike told him.

Kaimi acquiesced in January, and created an account on the forex platform Mike claimed he used, called DPEX.

DPEX wasn’t a real exchange, but a front controlled by the same scamming group that Mike belonged to.

Over the following weeks, Kaimi wired thousands of dollars from his bank to Crypto.com, a centralized exchange. He used it to buy ether and send it to DPEX’s wallets.

His transfers started small — the first was worth just $140. DPEX claimed it converted his ether transfers into Tether, a U.S. dollar stablecoin.

Mike and Kaimi’s first trade together was a bet against the Japanese yen falling in value. When Kaimi saw he’d made $20 on a $100 trade, he was sold.

Mike offered to help Kaimi structure a plan to use profits from DPEX to pay off $300,000 in student loans, mortgage and credit cards. In February, Mike even “sent” $30,000 from his own DPEX account to Kaimi’s to help him move closer to his debt-free goal.

“I want to repay you as soon as possible, shrink down most of the debt, then plan a trip to Korea to see you,” Kaimi told Mike. Mike pressed Kaimi to add more to his account and join him in bigger bets. He grilled Kaimi about how else he could raise money, from friends or through loans.

In all, Kaimi sent DPEX more than $100,000 worth of ether. His paper profits grew handsomely: In one week in March, Kaimi’s balance went from $100,000 to $310,000.

“I thought I was someone who knew when they were being scammed, was able to discern things,” Kaimi told CNBC.

But when Kaimi told Mike he was planning to withdraw his funds, the penny dropped. DPEX froze Kaimi’s account, claiming that Mike’s generous $30,000 “gift” was a suspicious transaction.

Mike claimed his account was frozen too. “OMG,” Mike said, “we are the same.”

DPEX asked that Kaimi pay back that gift to unlock his full account balance. Kaimi had planned to do so anyway, but sent DPEX nearly $30,000 to settle the “debt.”

The scammers settled into a predictable pattern, pumping Kaimi for more and more fees and taxes. Kaimi paid $64,000 in apparent penalties, urged on by Mike. When the scamming operation asked him for another $65,000, Kaimi realized there was no chance he was getting his money back.

When Mike pressed him to pay DPEX’s “fees,” Kaimi snapped. “I’ve filed a report to the FBI and the SEC,” he told Mike.

‘I thought of ending everything’

Dennis didn’t have any reason to be suspicious when his first scammer, Sarah, messaged him on Facebook.

“I just said hi and bye,” Dennis told CNBC. “But she keeps approaching me,” he said. “We became friends.”

Sarah claimed she was a wealthy executive at a Chinese electric-vehicle manufacturer. She showed him photos of her “uncle” with Alibaba’s Jack Ma. She sent him photos and videos from luxurious stores and apartments.

But it was her show of affection and care more than her material wealth that drew Dennis close, he said.

“They talk to you and manipulate you,” Dennis told CNBC. He was in the midst of separating from his wife. They shared a child together, and in his messages with Sarah, he shared his feelings of inadequacy as a father.

Sarah offered Dennis comfort. They talked for hours every day, and it was weeks before she first offered to teach him how to trade crypto.

Sarah said her powerful uncle ran a trading syndicate large enough to influence crypto prices and guarantee a profit. Experts say that scammers will often cite a well-connected relative as part of their fictitious success.

Sarah pointed him to an “exchange” called Bigone-Eth, that could only be accessed through a iOS app called Trust Wallet. Dennis sent thousands of dollars from Coinbase to Trust Wallet and gave the fake exchange permission to control the crypto in his Trust Wallet.

Sarah guided him through trades that predictably returned 20%. From late December through January, Dennis bought nearly $160,000 worth of bitcoin for his “Bigone-Eth” account and invested $100,000 worth of his cousin’s bitcoin with Bigone-Eth as well.

It wasn’t enough for Sarah, who told Dennis he needed to invest at least $500,000. Otherwise, she suggested, Dennis’ son would “suffer” because of Dennis’ laziness.

But like Kaimi, Dennis felt he’d made enough. The hammer fell when he went to withdraw his winnings: Bigone-Eth froze him out and demanded $180,000 to release his $1.2 million balance.

The demand made Dennis suspect that the broker was trying to scam him out of his money. It was only in March, months after he began talking with Sarah, that he began to investigate romance scams and fake crypto brokerages.

Along the way, he conducted an internet search and found a company called Financial Fund Recovery, or FFR, which said it specialized in crypto asset recovery.

Bankrupt and ‘scammed out of my mind’

In late March, Dennis spoke with a person claiming to be an FFR employee, John Seth, who told Dennis that Sarah and the exchange were part of the same scam. Seth also promised he could recover Dennis’ assets, something Dennis now believes was a lie.

Just a few days after Dennis spoke with Seth, he got an unsolicited call from someone identifying himself as Benjamin Grey. He claimed he worked at Bigone-Eth and told Dennis that he could recover his money for $100,000. Dennis never provided Bigone-Eth or Sarah with his phone number, and now suspects Grey was working with Seth to scam him out of more money.

But Dennis, more alone than ever, trusted Seth. Seth urged Dennis to pay the fee but keep it secret from Sarah and the Bigone-Eth scammers. He borrowed $100,000 from his parents and sent it to Grey through Coinbase.

Dennis didn’t notice that Grey’s wallet address was different from the original scammers, nor that Grey’s email address had a slight misspelling of Bigone-Eth’s name. Dennis thought he was on the verge of getting his money back, of repaying his parents and his cousin and moving on with his life.

Dennis was out another $242,000 by the time Seth told him to stop talking with Grey.

Seth suggested suing Grey and Bigone-Eth for the lost money. He sent Dennis an invoice detailing how FFR would put a “lien” on Dennis’ Bigone-Eth account — which, in fact, was a fictitious account at a fictitious exchange. Dennis would simply have to wire $42,000 to an Abu Dhabi bank account to get started.

This time, Dennis realized he was being “scammed out of his mind” and blocked both Seth and Grey.

CNBC spoke with Seth, who strongly denied that FFR was running a scam. He implied that Dennis was lying to CNBC and said that FFR did not have an employee named Benjamin Grey.

CNBC has reviewed financial documents, emails, blockchain transactions, and recordings of calls between Dennis, Grey, and Seth. Despite his claims to the contrary, the recordings show Seth encouraging Dennis to send money to Grey. Both Seth and Grey contacted Dennis using VoIP numbers from the same issuer. Both numbers were disconnected after CNBC reached out to them.

Other attempts to reach FFR were not successful. In a text conversation with the number Dennis offered for Grey, the person on the other end denied knowing anything about the interaction with Dennis. A customer service representative at FFR’s Abu Dhabi-based bank confirmed that company had an account there but declined to provide further information.

FFR used an address of a coworking space in the state of Georgia to register as a limited liability company in Georgia. Over the phone, a receptionist at that coworking space told CNBC that FFR was not a tenant there and that the mailbox used on the registration form did not exist at that space.

But the receptionist said that a visitor had been looking for FFR’s office just a few weeks prior and had told the receptionist that FFR had made off with a scam victim’s money.

‘Powerless’

In the U.S., law enforcement is still grappling with how to seize and restore victims’ funds. In California, Santa Clara county prosecutor Erin West is pushing regulators and law enforcement to better understand how these scams work.

West has had some success at a local level in seizing a few million dollars for a handful of victims. But she says without federal intervention and private-sector support, putting a meaningful dent in scamming operations will be difficult if not impossible.

“I wish I could save them all,” she told CNBC. Both Dennis and Kaimi reached out to West, who did what she could to connect them with the right people.

But Dennis’ and Kaimi’s losses form just a small fraction of the billions of dollars lost to scammers from thousands of victims. In 2022, the Department of Homeland Security estimated scam-related losses at over $3.3 billion.

Kaimi has considered filing for bankruptcy. His local Hawaiian bank has closed his checking and savings accounts, according to a letter from the bank shared with CNBC. Kaimi said a bank employee told him his Crypto.com wire transfers were the reason for the closure but didn’t offer any more information to him.

He’s filed multiple complaints, with the FBI, Secret Service and regulatory agencies but hasn’t heard back from any of them.

Dennis said he’s been in regular contact with the FBI about the scam. CNBC traced Dennis’ bitcoin to a wallet that’s received more than 59,000 bitcoin, worth about $1.6 billion, since 2019. The trail ends after that wallet, which regularly transfers its contents to the crypto exchange Binance.

Crypto exchanges such as Binance, Crypto.com and Coinbase are convenient waypoints for scammers because they have a trusted reputation and massive trading volume. All three exchanges have warned of the dangers of crypto scammers, but for some, that isn’t enough.

When he reached out to Crypto.com, the exchange told Kaimi they couldn’t help him get his money back.

“I’m not asking you to take responsibility of getting my money back,” he said. But he pointed out that his scammers had used the same wallet for months.

West said that while private partners in the banking and crypto industry often are conduits for these kinds of scamming operations, they are also ideally positioned to cut off the supply of fresh money to pig butchering networks.

“We are essentially fleecing our entire middle class of their generational wealth, and handing it to bad actors overseas, and nobody’s stopping this,” West told CNBC.

Shortly before publication of this story, Cloudflare shut down Bigone-Eth’s domain name and flagged it as a suspected phishing site. Neither Cloudflare nor the FBI responded to CNBC’s request for comment.

Within hours, Dennis’ scammer sent him the new domain name and begged him to respond to her. Dennis ignored her.

“Disappointing men with no sense of responsibility,” she wrote the next day.

Whether you’re gearing up for a fresh start in a new home or helping your college student move in, it’s important to stay vigilant against moving scams.

According to the Better Business Bureau, 5,918 complaints were filed against moving companies throughout 2023. Consumers who fell victim to moving scams and reported them to the BBB’s Scam Tracker lost an average of $350.

Some of the most common ones include:

• No-shows — where the so-called movers take your deposit and never show up on moving day.
• Upcharges and extra fees – a company ends up charging you more than what you were originally quoted.
• And having items stolen – the moving truck fails to arrive and either your belongings are gone, or the company requires you to pay an additional fee to deliver them.

“You just want to make sure you’re taking your time, doing your due diligence, asking multiple people and resources and not just falling for a pretty website or word of mouth of a stranger,” explained Paula Fleming, chief marketing officer at the Better Business Bureau. “Making sure that you’re really vetting them out to protect not only your money, but personal items that have sentimental value.”

To protect yourself against these scams:

Research the moving company thoroughly. Check their website and look for customer reviews. If there is no physical address from the company or information about a mover’s registration or insurance – that’s a red flag.

Avoid companies that use a rented truck or offer a moving estimate over the phone instead of conducting an onsite inspection.

Scammers will also ask for a large deposit upfront. Legitimate companies usually only require a small deposit or a payment on delivery.

Finally, never sign blank or incomplete documents. Make sure that all terms, costs, and services are clearly outlined before you sign any agreement.

Make sure to keep an inventory of all your belongings. The BBB recommends labeling all your boxes and taking pictures of everything before packing it away just in case something gets damaged in the moving process. And if something doesn’t feel right or a company doesn’t answer your questions, it’s best to walk away and find a more reputable mover.

If you have a consumer problem, contact NBC10 Boston Responds by filling out our online consumer complaint form. We will get back to you!

People drive their cars every day — to work, to drop off kids at school — perhaps without realizing that someone could be photographing their car in order to scam the owner, making them think their car was stolen and ask for a reward.

“My trust has been violated, my privacy has been violated,” said the victim of one such fraud incident.

That’s what one SUV owner felt when she saw this photograph of her car on the Facebook page named “Tijuana Linea Roja,” which read: “One THOUSAND DOLLARS reward, I was robbed at gunpoint on Boulevard Insurgentes. They pointed at the driver’s head and then took the car and fled.”

The owner of that vehicle claims the post is a total lie and that her vehicle was not stolen in Tijuana.

The woman asked NBC 7 to hide her identity, since this photo in the post was taken in front of her house in San Diego.

“I have a family so I am worried that we being watched and targeted. Our safety is our concern,” she said.

Given the violence and crime that nobody seems to be able to stop in Tijuana, the Tijuana Citizen Committee for Public Security is not surprised by this type of fraud.

“To commit a fraud, I mean this is something where you have to have some type of intelligence,” said Roberto Quijano from the Tijuana Citizen Committee for Public Security.

It’s the intelligence and creativity that is able to convince people that a car was stolen at gunpoint with a simple photo. That post has almost 300 comments and some users even claim to have seen the same SUV in Tijuana themselves.

“Once they received the call, they call back the victim and ask him, ‘I‘ll give you a reward for finding my car, give me your bank account so I can send you money, give me your full name,'” Quijano said.

The scammers may even ask you to log into a website to enter your bank account info in order to collect the reward of $1,000. That’s something a cybersecurity expert said you should never do.

Neve ever give your bank information over social media. There are services that actually — and we have to be careful with these as well — there are services that actually allow us to login and then it’ll connect our bank account,” said Nikolas Behar, Ph. D. and Adjunct Professor of Cybersecurity at University of San Diego.

The victim said she sent a message to Facebook to remove the post. After explaining the situation, she was told that the message does not violate Facebook rules.

NBC 7 sent a message to the administrator of the Tijuana Linea Roja Facebook page, but we never got a response.

But the state says that Massachusetts Central University, whose website claims it’s in the top 2% around the world, is fake, a fraud that first bubbled up two years ago and has returned. The Massachusetts Department of Higher Education said it plans to follow up with the people behind the website with the URL mcu.university, but which it already had to send a cease-and-desist order about before.

Massachusetts Central University — not to be confused with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with which it shares its initials — claims to be “one of the accredited online universities that offer an extensive range of majors precisely designed for professionals and working adults.” The sophisticated website has a video showing a campus and classes, lists faculty and areas of study and links to active social media sites.

Many if not all of the images appear to be stock photos — one was taken by the same photographer behind the popular meme known as “Distracted Boyfriend,” Antonio Guillem.

A phone call to the 617 number listed on the website wasn’t picked up, and requests for comment from The Boston Globe, which first reported on the website, went unreturned as well.

The Massachusetts Department of Higher Education told NBC10 Boston that it’s notified both the state attorney general’s office as well as the University of Massachusetts — the address listed on the MCU website is the Integrated Sciences Complex at UMass Boston, though there’s no apparent connection between the two organizations. Officials said that anyone who’s been misled by the scheme should file a complaint at mass.edu/forstufam/complaints/complaints.asp or by calling the attorney general’s consumer hotline at 617-727-8400.

The office of Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell also said it was taking the matter seriously.

Paula Fleming, the chief marketing and sales officer for the local Better Business Bureau and the parent of a high school senior, said the scheme appeared to be what’s known as a diploma mill, a business that offers fake college graduate diplomas for money, even though diplomas from institutions that aren’t accredited are seen as fake and can have legal consequences.

“I find it very disturbing to hear that there is a diploma mill locally advertising and trying to get people to give their hard earned money,” Fleming told NBC10 Boston.

Fleming said that people interested in online education shod research the school, checking the website for grammatical errors, digging into their social media and cross-checking information with the Department of Education.

The BBB offered these tips:

1. Make sure it’s accredited. The Council on Higher Education Accreditation or the U.S. Department of Education should recognize the school. Visit these websites and search for your school to find its Accreditation Information. If you can’t find your school on either of these websites, it may not be an accredited school. Aside from that, also keep an eye out for programs that ARE accredited, but NOT by the two above agencies. Anyone creating a fake business can also create a fake accreditation, which often happens with scams.
2. Don’t be fooled by your temptation. Diploma mills will state that you can fill out a form, upload your resume, and enter your credit card information to receive your diploma. Although those seemingly “quick and easy” programs are the ones you’ll want to gravitate towards, those catchy slogans should serve as a red flag.
3. Beware of a program that requires a lot of money upfront. Most colleges will bill you based on the number of credits or courses you take each semester. A diploma mill will probably ask for a flat fee to sign up.
4. Look for evidence of student services. Colleges will always have student resources. These include a page for the library, a list of classes, a staff directory, advising, and more. You should be suspicious if there aren’t any resources for students to show substantial coursework and interaction with professors

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The FBI recently warned consumers against using free public charging stations, saying crooks have managed to hijack public chargers that can infect devices with malware, or software that can give hackers access to your phone, tablet or computer.

“Avoid using free charging stations in airports, hotels or shopping centers,” a tweet from the FBI’s Denver field office said. “Bad actors have figured out ways to use public USB ports to introduce malware and monitoring software onto devices. Carry your own charger and USB cord and use an electrical outlet instead.”

The FBI offers similar guidance on its website to avoid public chargers. The bulletin didn’t point to any recent instances of consumer harm from juice jacking, and the FBI didn’t immediately return a request for comment on what prompted the reminder from its Denver office.

The Federal Communications Commission has also warned about “juice jacking,” as the malware loading scheme is known, since 2021.

Consumer devices with compromised USB cables can be hijacked through software that can then siphon off usernames and passwords, the FCC warned at the time. The commission told consumers to avoid those public stations.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.

Whether you’re gearing up for a fresh start in a new home or helping your college student move in, it’s important to stay vigilant against moving scams.

According to the Better Business Bureau, 5,918 complaints were filed against moving companies throughout 2023. Consumers who fell victim to moving scams and reported them to the BBB’s Scam Tracker lost an average of $350.

Some of the most common ones include:

• No-shows — where the so-called movers take your deposit and never show up on moving day.
• Upcharges and extra fees – a company ends up charging you more than what you were originally quoted.
• And having items stolen – the moving truck fails to arrive and either your belongings are gone, or the company requires you to pay an additional fee to deliver them.

“You just want to make sure you’re taking your time, doing your due diligence, asking multiple people and resources and not just falling for a pretty website or word of mouth of a stranger,” explained Paula Fleming, chief marketing officer at the Better Business Bureau. “Making sure that you’re really vetting them out to protect not only your money, but personal items that have sentimental value.”

To protect yourself against these scams:

Research the moving company thoroughly. Check their website and look for customer reviews. If there is no physical address from the company or information about a mover’s registration or insurance – that’s a red flag.

Avoid companies that use a rented truck or offer a moving estimate over the phone instead of conducting an onsite inspection.

Scammers will also ask for a large deposit upfront. Legitimate companies usually only require a small deposit or a payment on delivery.

Finally, never sign blank or incomplete documents. Make sure that all terms, costs, and services are clearly outlined before you sign any agreement.

Make sure to keep an inventory of all your belongings. The BBB recommends labeling all your boxes and taking pictures of everything before packing it away just in case something gets damaged in the moving process. And if something doesn’t feel right or a company doesn’t answer your questions, it’s best to walk away and find a more reputable mover.

If you have a consumer problem, contact NBC10 Boston Responds by filling out our online consumer complaint form. We will get back to you!

Ariel Foster, 19, of Boston, is charged with larceny over $1,200. She is free on bail and is expected to be arraigned Friday in Woburn District Court.

Burlington police detectives said they were called to Lovisa, a jewelry store at the Burlington Mall, on Feb. 22 for a report of a credit card machine breach.

Their investigation determined that on three dates in February, items scanned at the register had their price increased, and the cost of the item was then refunded to a credit card belonging to Foster, police said. The eight transactions involved a total loss of $547,187. Foster was an employee at Lovisa and was determined to have been at the store when the credit card breaches occurred.

Investigators subpoenaed Foster’s financial institutions, which they said uncovered a refund transaction from Lovisa America LLC into her bank account. Her bank records also showed that Foster made several high-priced transactions between Feb. 2 and Feb. 22, including an expenditure of more than $35,000 for a Tesla, almost $6,000 to Delta Airlines, over $20,000 to a 5-star hotel in Maui, Hawaii, and almost $5,000 in Louis Vuitton purchases.

“My personal opinion is greed took over. When I first saw the amount, I was surprised. I thought it was a mistake,” Burlington police chief Thomas Browne said. “She would have an item in the store that she would mark up over-priced and then she would return the difference onto a credit card that she owned in her name.”

“At this time there is no indication or belief that she did not act alone,” the chief added, noting that more charges are possible as the investigation is ongoing.

Burlington police, Boston police and Lasell University police executed search warrants at Foster’s residence and her dormitory at the university in Newton on Wednesday. She was taken into custody without incident.

On Lasell’s campus Thursday afternoon, fellow students, including one who saw police outside Foster’s dorm, were reacting to the shocking news.

“I was shocked when I found out, like I got a text this morning about it, I couldn’t believe it,” said Cameron McDonough.

“I was in the building when I saw a bunch of police come into my building and everyone was panicked because they weren’t sure what exactly it was,” said Celina DeLano.

Lasell University has said it’s conducting its own investigation.

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Whether you’re gearing up for a fresh start in a new home or helping your college student move in, it’s important to stay vigilant against moving scams.

According to the Better Business Bureau, 5,918 complaints were filed against moving companies throughout 2023. Consumers who fell victim to moving scams and reported them to the BBB’s Scam Tracker lost an average of $350.

Some of the most common ones include:

• No-shows — where the so-called movers take your deposit and never show up on moving day.
• Upcharges and extra fees – a company ends up charging you more than what you were originally quoted.
• And having items stolen – the moving truck fails to arrive and either your belongings are gone, or the company requires you to pay an additional fee to deliver them.

“You just want to make sure you’re taking your time, doing your due diligence, asking multiple people and resources and not just falling for a pretty website or word of mouth of a stranger,” explained Paula Fleming, chief marketing officer at the Better Business Bureau. “Making sure that you’re really vetting them out to protect not only your money, but personal items that have sentimental value.”

To protect yourself against these scams:

Research the moving company thoroughly. Check their website and look for customer reviews. If there is no physical address from the company or information about a mover’s registration or insurance – that’s a red flag.

Avoid companies that use a rented truck or offer a moving estimate over the phone instead of conducting an onsite inspection.

Scammers will also ask for a large deposit upfront. Legitimate companies usually only require a small deposit or a payment on delivery.

Finally, never sign blank or incomplete documents. Make sure that all terms, costs, and services are clearly outlined before you sign any agreement.

Make sure to keep an inventory of all your belongings. The BBB recommends labeling all your boxes and taking pictures of everything before packing it away just in case something gets damaged in the moving process. And if something doesn’t feel right or a company doesn’t answer your questions, it’s best to walk away and find a more reputable mover.

If you have a consumer problem, contact NBC10 Boston Responds by filling out our online consumer complaint form. We will get back to you!

Whether you’re gearing up for a fresh start in a new home or helping your college student move in, it’s important to stay vigilant against moving scams.

According to the Better Business Bureau, 5,918 complaints were filed against moving companies throughout 2023. Consumers who fell victim to moving scams and reported them to the BBB’s Scam Tracker lost an average of $350.

Some of the most common ones include:

• No-shows — where the so-called movers take your deposit and never show up on moving day.
• Upcharges and extra fees – a company ends up charging you more than what you were originally quoted.
• And having items stolen – the moving truck fails to arrive and either your belongings are gone, or the company requires you to pay an additional fee to deliver them.

“You just want to make sure you’re taking your time, doing your due diligence, asking multiple people and resources and not just falling for a pretty website or word of mouth of a stranger,” explained Paula Fleming, chief marketing officer at the Better Business Bureau. “Making sure that you’re really vetting them out to protect not only your money, but personal items that have sentimental value.”

To protect yourself against these scams:

Research the moving company thoroughly. Check their website and look for customer reviews. If there is no physical address from the company or information about a mover’s registration or insurance – that’s a red flag.

Avoid companies that use a rented truck or offer a moving estimate over the phone instead of conducting an onsite inspection.

Scammers will also ask for a large deposit upfront. Legitimate companies usually only require a small deposit or a payment on delivery.

Finally, never sign blank or incomplete documents. Make sure that all terms, costs, and services are clearly outlined before you sign any agreement.

Make sure to keep an inventory of all your belongings. The BBB recommends labeling all your boxes and taking pictures of everything before packing it away just in case something gets damaged in the moving process. And if something doesn’t feel right or a company doesn’t answer your questions, it’s best to walk away and find a more reputable mover.

If you have a consumer problem, contact NBC10 Boston Responds by filling out our online consumer complaint form. We will get back to you!