America’s healthcare costs are skyrocketing, and many Americans look for ways to save, including turning to online pharmacies for cheaper prescription drugs. While there are legitimate online pharmacies, many are fraudulent. At best, they’ll take your money and fail to deliver the promised prescription. At worst, they could send you a drug that is counterfeit that may worsen your condition or even be fatal.

A recent survey of 12,000 online pharmacies found that 95 percent of them posed safety concerns to their customers. Media reports have circulated of drugs being laced with lethal doses of fentanyl. At Fraud.org, we have received numerous complaints of consumers paying for drugs online and never receiving them.

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to avoid counterfeit prescriptions whether you are purchasing online, or from your neighborhood pharmacy:

1. Verify your online pharmacy. Before purchasing a drug online, go to the website safe.pharmacy to make sure your pharmacy is recommended. If it is not on the list, do not purchase drugs from that online pharmacy.
2. Pay attention to the appearance of the drug and its packaging. If the appearance or coloring of the drug seems different from what you expected, or if the packaging appears to be tampered with, this is a red flag.
3. Avoid pharmacies that do not require a prescription. If the pharmacy only requires you to fill out a questionnaire, the pharmacy is probably a seller of counterfeit drugs. Legitimate pharmacies will always require you to submit a prescription from a health care provider before they sell any medicine that requires a prescription.
4. Make sure that the pharmacy has a licensed pharmacist available for consultations and provides you with contact information such as a physical street address. If a pharmacy does not offer these basic services, it is probably illegitimate.
5. Be wary of prices that seem too good to be true. Regardless of whether you are getting your drugs online, at a neighborhood pharmacy, or in a provider’s office, be wary of drugs that are offered at a substantially lower than market-value price. Use drug price comparison tools like GoodRX.com to get an idea of what normal market prices are for a particular drug.
6. Consult your doctor or pharmacist. If you think you may have used a counterfeit drug, consult a medical professional immediately even if you are not experiencing adverse symptoms. If you have a suspicion that you have received a drug that is a counterfeit, take it to your pharmacist. Pharmacists are trained to identify the appearance and packaging of legitimate medications.

There are many safe ways to save money on prescription drugs. You should never risk your health for a deal on prescription drugs. By following the above steps, and by spreading the word to your friends and family, you can keep yourself and your family safe from fraud and serious health risks associated with counterfeit medications.  If you would like to learn more about counterfeit drugs, you can also check out Fraud.org’s new Fake Rx Action center!

If you think you have stumbled upon a counterfeit prescription drug, please report it by filing a complaint at Fraud.org via our secure online complaint form. We share complaints with our network of nearly 200 law enforcement and consumer protection agency partners who work to shut down illegal pharmacies, keep dangerous counterfeit drugs off the streets, and put fraudsters behind bars.

Imagine logging into your airline frequent flyer account and—after years of saving to claim a free flight—you find a balance of zero miles. Sadly, with an estimated 14 trillion frequent flier miles and hotel points floating around unused, scammers have a very large, lucrative target in America’s hard-earned miles. 

With the Thanksgiving travel season just around the corner, that unfortunate scenario could be a real possibility if you don’t know how to avoid or spot frequent flyer scams.

Scammers can easily purchase frequent flyer account usernames and passwords on the dark web due to numerous data breaches in which this sensitive info was compromised. If a consumer does not take care to use proper password hygiene, scammers may be able to break into their online loyalty accounts and drain all of their points simply by guessing, or by using a compromised password from a previous breach.

Regardless of whether you are saving frequent flyer miles, hotel points, credit card points, or even pizza or coffee reward points, these points have value and are often a target of scammers. Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to guard your points from being stolen:

• Use strong passwords. Secure your points the same way you would your bank accounts. Avoid simple or easy to guess passwords to prevent point theft, and never reuse passwords. If you reuse a password across multiple sites or accounts, and one of the accounts is breached, other accounts with the same passcode are extremely vulnerable. If you have a hard time remembering many unique passwords, a password manager program can be a lifesaver.
• Utilize two–factor authentication. While two-factor authentication may make logging into your accounts take a little more effort, it adds an extra layer of security which could very well make the difference between a free trip and paying out-of-pocket. For information on whether your rewards program website offers two-factor authorization, visit www.twofactorauth.org.
• Monitor your accounts. Keep an eye on your account for unauthorized withdrawals or suspicious activity. If you spot anything suspicious, report it to the company immediately.
• Safeguard your frequent flier or loyalty account number. Treat these numbers like you would a credit or debit card number and keep them secret. Posting a boarding pass with a frequent flier number or even recycling a hotel invoice or boarding pass which has the number printed on it, may open your account to theft. Always shred these documents and never post them on social media.
• Use your points! Storing high balances of points needlessly only opens yourself up to fraud and potential theft.

Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, scammers can sometimes find ways to circumvent our safeguards. If this happens to you, contact the company that you earned the points from, and file a complaint at Fraud.org via our secure online complaint form. We share complaints with our network of nearly 200 law enforcement and consumer protection agency partners who can and do put fraudsters behind bars.

Read our other Fraud Alerts here.

When a business promises to let you try a product or service for free, it can be enticing. But companies that offer free trial offers often slip automatic renewal clauses into the fine print so that consumers are locked into expensive and recurring charges, even if the original product started out as “free.”

Automatic renewal clauses are found in a range of services such as gym memberships, subscription meal boxes, and entertainment streaming services. Unfortunately, many unscrupulous companies depend on free trial offers upfront, followed by hidden automatic renewal clauses, to trick consumers into an automatically renewing contract or to mask rate increases.

Unbeknownst to the consumer, many companies bury language deep in the fine print of their contracts that leave it up to the consumer—by a date of the company’s choosing—to cancel a contract at the end of a free trial. If the customer fails to notify the business in time, they will be regularly charged.

Many times, consumers are unaware that their “free trial” rolls over into a binding contract until they start seeing new credit card charges or products they didn’t expect arriving at their house. Some companies even hide language that requires a consumer to stay in the plan for a period of months when their “free trial” rolls over into a contract.

Nearly half (48 percent) of consumers have had a free trial rollover into an expensive, automatically renewing contract. Fortunately, there are several steps consumers can take to protect themselves:

1. Do your homework. If you are offered a free trial, research online reviews. If there are several complaints about how the company started charging consumers for product they did not purchase and made it difficult to stop the shipments, this is a huge red flag.
2. Read the pre-selected boxes. By law, companies must disclose the presence of an automatically renewing contract to consumers making the purchase online. Many companies will do this by pre-checking boxes that state that it is OK for them to bill you and continually send you additional products on a weekly or monthly basis. If you do not want a surprise bill, read over the content of the website carefully.
3. Mark your calendar. Free trials often have an expiration date. After the free trial expires, companies will charge your card or send you another product and bill you. If you want to be able to make a decision on whether to continue receiving the service or products, mark your calendar by the cancel date so you can ensure that you are not unknowingly locked into a lengthy contract.
4. Check your credit card statements regularly for mysterious charges. In addition to protecting yourself from identity theft, this will allow you to spot charges from services you did not mean to subscribe to or that you did not provide consent to.

If you find a mysterious charge on your bill or if you receive unexpected product in the mail, you have rights. First, attempt to work with the merchant cancel your subscription and have the charge refunded. If you are not successful, contact your credit card company and inform them that you did not authorize this charge.

It is illegal for online retailers to fail to clearly disclose the presence of an automatic renewal clause. And many states have enacted legislation to protect offline transactions from these deceptive clauses.

If you have become a victim of an automatic renewal clause, we want to hear about it! You can file a complaint at Fraud.org via our secure online complaint form. We’ll share your complaint with our network of more than 90 federal, state, and local law enforcement and consumer protection agency partners who can hold these unscrupulous businesses accountable.

Read our other Fraud Alerts here.

Starting a small business is both challenging and rewarding. Unfortunately, scammers are eager to exploit the learning curve small business owners must take on to launch a new business.

NCL has begun receiving dozens of complaints from consumers who sought to build a website for a side gig and from established small business owners seeking to improve their website or purchase IT equipment to better serve their community. One complaint we received from a consumer in Texas is typical of the scam:

“I was looking for someone to make a website for my small clothing business that I had been wanting to commercialize … I was told that the website and the online shop would be done within a maximum of 7 business days after the first payment of $5000… It has been a month [since I paid] and here I am still waiting for [the owner of the supposed IT resource company] to get back to me. I couldn’t get through to them by phone or email … they, stole my money and my hope.”

The fake web developer scam can take many forms, but regardless of the shape the scam takes, the result is always the same. Sadly, we have received dozens of complaints detail similar stories with small business owners reporting loses from $2,500 to as much as $50,000. While the web development scam can be devastating, there are steps you can take to ensure that your small business starts off on the right foot.

1. If it sounds too good to be true, it is probably a scam. If you find a web developer or an IT solutions company that offers you products that are well below the cost of their competitors, or if they can deliver you a digital product in an unusually short period of time, they are probably scamming you.
2. Check reviews. See what their former customers wrote about them. If a company provides an inferior product or charges their customers and does not provide any product, people will often take to the internet to voice their concerns. Before sending any money, check reviews–and the company’s response to the reviews–on sites like Yelp and Google.
3. Check to see if they have complaints filed against them at the Better Business Bureau (BBB). When consumers are wronged, they will often go to the BBB seeking help. If a business has a lot of complaints filed against them, they are probably not a good choice for your small business.

Spotting a fake web developer scam can be tricky, but with a little research you can greatly reduce your chances of falling prey to them. Still, even the best fraud spotters can get tricked from time to time. If you spot this scam, or fall victim to one, please file a complaint at Fraud.org via our secure online complaint form. We’ll share your complaint with our network of more than 90 law enforcement and consumer protection agency partners who can–and do–put fraudsters behind bars.

Read our other Fraud Alerts here.

One of the most sensitive pieces of personal information is a consumer’s Social Security number (SSN), used by companies, the government, and other institutions to identify individuals–and highly sought-after by identity thieves.

In our era of data breaches, electronic transactions, and privacy concerns, scammers are aware of how concerned consumers are about guarding their SSNs, and that is why we are seeing an increase in the “Social Security imposter scam.”

The Federal Trade Commission received more than 76,000 reports about the Social Security imposter scam in the past 12 months alone. With average losses of $1,500, this new scam is quickly becoming one of fraudsters’ favorite tricks.

The scam usually begins with a consumer receiving a call from someone claiming to be with the Social Security Administration. The caller informs the victim that their SSN has been suspended because it was stolen or has been involved in a crime.

In a variation on this scam, the caller may also reach out to tell a victim that they qualify for an increase in benefits. All they need to do is provide the scammer with some information. Typically, these callers will ask their victims several questions to get personal information that they can then use to steal their identity or drain their bank accounts.

Because of the numerous data breaches, these scammers may have access to accurate personal information—such as an individual’s real SSN—that they can use to build trust and appear legitimate. Regardless, before concluding the scam, fraudsters will almost always request payment to “unfreeze” the SSN or to process the increase in benefits. The scammer may request that they be paid via an unusual payment method such as by gift card, or some form of cryptocurrency like Bitcoin.

One complaint we received from a consumer in Florida is typical of the scam:

“I received a call from the Social Security office explaining my Social Security number had been stolen and someone is committing money laundering [with the number].” The thieves had “abandoned a car with drugs in it, [that was] purchased in my name [and] found in Texas.”

In order to resolve the issue, the consumer was “told to secure assets by purchasing gift cards,” and provide the gift card numbers to the Social Security office. The consumer was told that he would receive a refund equal to the amount he paid to unfreeze their account by the Federal Reserve in a few weeks.

Unfortunately, the consumer never received a refund, and he lost nearly $20,000 to this scam.

While the scam can be devastating, there are several steps you can take to prevent yourself, and your loved ones, from falling victim to this scam:

• Don’t trust caller ID. Scammers are very good at spoofing your caller ID to make it appear they are calling from a government agency. If you receive an unexpected call from Social Security, don’t answer it. Instead, call Social Security’s customer service number at 1-800-772-1213 to see if they were actually trying to contact you.
• Remember, Social Security will never suspend your Social Security number. If someone contacts you saying your number has been suspended, they are trying to steal from you.
• Social Security will never call and demand that you wire them money or pay them with gift cards or cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Any supposed Social Security officer that makes this request is a fraudster.
• Don’t give out your personal information on request. If you are asked to confirm your Social Security number or bank account number by a phone call or email you did not initiate, it is a scam.
• Don’t trust a caller just because they know some of your personal information. Sadly, due to numerous data breaches, we have received reports that fraudsters are providing victims with their SSN to build trust. Just because an individual knows your Social Security number or some other piece of personal information, they are not necessarily legitimate.
• Spread the word. The Social Security imposter scam is relatively new, and many Americans may be unaware of it. To prevent additional victims from falling for this scam, we need your help. Please mention this scam, or forward this alert, to friends and loved ones. Together, we can stop this scam from growing, and protect Americans from identity theft, and prevent victims from losing their savings to fraudsters.

The Social Security imposter scam can be difficult to detect and is growing in popularity. If you come across this scam, or if you fall victim to it, report it! You can file a complaint at Fraud.org via our secure online complaint form. We’ll share your complaint with our network of more than 90 law enforcement and consumer protection agency partners who can and do put fraudsters behind bars.

Read our other Fraud Alerts here.