Beware of Scammers!!!

There is one that I learned while working at the bank that can actually be somewhat scary. If you sell something to someone, there are tons of different forms of payment you can accept. Paypal, cashiers check, money order. Some people even still accept personal checks. The biggest worry with personal checks is 'will it bounce?' But really, there is more to worry about, too! When you deposit a check into your account, the bank sends it through the system. During that process, your account number and bank's routing number get printed on the back of the check. This is for tracking purposes in case the check bounces and needs to be returned to you. But the thing is, that information stays on the check. So when the person who wrote it gets a copy of that check, they can see all of the information printed on the back! They will now have your bank's routing number, your account number, and your signature if you signed it! So my advice is to never accept personal checks from someone you dont know! You have more to lose than just a bounced check!

Scammers are rampant now in the internet, in fact most of them I think made scamming as their business. One time I received an email telling me I won a lottery worth more than 5 million and claimed that they are from microsoft London, I was shocked because I never buy a lottery ticket, and they are that easy to give huge amount of money, nevertheless I send them an inquiry, then they asked me some very personal information like bank accounts and everything, so I never proceed with their instructions.

One of the things that we must warn our kids about is making sure that they don't give out their e-mail passwords to someone who asks for them over the internet. Last week at school, several hundred students on campus got e-mails that looked like it was coming from the University's IT department, asking for them to verify their log in and password information. Luckily, most had the sense not to do this and the few that did were quickly helped to change their passwords before the culprits could do something to the university's computer system!