Thursday, March 15, 2007

How to Take Action Once You Have Been Scammed by a Work From Home Scam

OK, so maybe you didn't know about the N.E.M.O. Job Scam Blog. You have been taken by a Job Scam and you don't know what to do. Here are some tips to get your credit back in order and help you through this process.

1. Close all bank accounts at the bank where the scam took place. It is a good idea to change banks to avoid "social engineering" attempts by the con artists to fool bank workers into giving out new account information. Also, contact your credit card company to report any fraud that involves the credit card.
2. Order a credit report from all three credit bureaus every 2 to 3 months. Watch the reports for unusual activity. If you have given your SSN to the fraudster, we advise that you place fraud alerts on your three credit reports - Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. For information on how to establish fraud alerts, read Privacy Rights Clearinghouse Fact Sheet 17a on identity theft, http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs17a.htm.
3. Victims of payment-forwarding scams should contact their local Secret Service field agent. The Secret Service handles complaints of international fraud. Fraud victims should also file a police report with local law enforcement officials as well.
4. Victims should report the company name, the job posting, and all contact names to the job sites where the scam was posted.
5. Victims should permanently close all email addresses that were associated with the job fraud.
Visual examples of what the fraudulent jobs look like, and what these scams look like in action are at http://www.worldprivacyforum.org/umabtips.html