Joining us today we have Michelle Reinen who is an administrator with the state's division of trade and consumer protection and she joins us once a month, sometimes a little bit more often than that, to tell us about the latest scams and just some general information on how to avoid getting the scam.
Michelle, thank you for joining us this morning.
Well, thank you for having me.
As always, I really appreciate your assistance in getting the word out.
Well, and there are a couple of ones that we wanted to go through with you today.
One of them is a postcard scan.
I thought maybe that this had something to do with veterans.
Is that right?
It is veterans is one example and older consumers is a second example that we have where scammers are using the good old-fashioned techniques They are sending postcards to people and like we've talked about in past months They are doing it to target audiences.
So not just broadcasted postcards that everyone's receiving Veterans are receiving one kind of postcard older consumers another and it's really about
fake savings programs so they can try and get your personal information and financial information as well.
Okay so the postcard just comes through the snail mail then.
They do these postcards are just coming through the United States mail I'll give you an example of the first one for the veterans And it says that the veterans or their spouse might qualify for some extra monthly veterans benefits And it's called the veterans savings program in this mailer, but it doesn't really exist So the scammer pretends to be affiliated with the US Department of Veterans Affairs or the VA and it
promises extra money through this veteran savings program.
And it lists the state the veteran is living in and mentions real VA benefits that truly exist, hoping that this postcard will seem more legitimate.
And then the message tells this individual that they need to call right away or risk losing out on these extra benefits.
But when you check with the VA, these benefits don't really exist.
If you check with your PSO, I mean, it's just
a made-up ploy trying to get consumers to respond and apply, if you will, these veterans to apply for this benefit savings program that doesn't exist.
So now this scammer will have that information that they take in as a result of someone having received this postcard.
So they're basically they're just fishing for your financial information then.
They completely are.
The second example for older consumers, this one does the same kind of thing.
It tries to lend itself to be more legitimate because it looks like it's coming from the AARP, you know, a very well national organization.
And it says that you can get valuable gas and grocery cards or vouchers, which would benefit everybody.
It has official looking barcodes on it, tracking numbers, expiration dates, a customer service phone number to create, again, that false credibility.
It uses really urgent language to pressure consumers into responding quickly.
It says that it's a limited time offer.
It's a final notice.
But when you go to make the phone call or visit the website, you're asked to pay a fee for this one, which
is very small.
It's called a processing or activation shipping and handling fee.
It's around $5 to receive this hundreds of dollars in gift cards or vouchers.
But when you give that financial information for that $5, we see different things happening.
It could be you end up with additional unauthorized charges appearing on your credit card account beyond that $5.
You could be signed up unknowingly for a monthly subscription program.
So then it's coming off every single month and you might lose track of that $5.
And of course, those promised gift cards and vouchers, they're never received by the consumers.
two different ways through the U.S.
mail where consumers can really end up in a situation where they end up losing out.
Okay.
Moving on, you had some information about a Walmart settlement.
It's a refund offer, I guess.
This is a refund situation and we want consumers to know about it so they don't get tricked into giving out information because all impacted consumers have already been contacted by the FTC including those eligible in Wisconsin.
And so we fear that scammers are going to turn around and say, oh, to get this hand us this information.
And what happened is that Walmart settled with the Federal Trade Commission for charges that alleged the company failed.
to implement effective anti-fraud policies and procedures and didn't properly train its employees, failed to warn customers about potential fraud related to wire transfers or money transfers, something we talk about all the time in general.
And under the settlement term, Walmart's required to take appropriate action to effectively detect and prevent the fraud-induced money transfers.
But as part of this, there's also a monetary
settlement and they need to make payments of more than $9.8 million to consumers who were harmed by this failure to stop the scammers.
And Wisconsin has about a thousand, a little more than a thousand individuals who will receive more than $163,000 as part of this.
Now, the Federal Trade Commission, as I said, has already sent the checks to those individuals and they need to
cash them within 90 days.
And the check says that.
So go ahead and take care of that.
But know that the Federal Trade Commission is never going to require people to pay money or provide account information to get a payment from them.
So if anyone gets a phone call, a contact, an email, a text message saying that they could be eligible for this settlement,
you need to disregard that because that's already been processed.
That's a scammer and we beg consumers to report that to consumer protection.
But if anyone has questions and thinks that they should be part of this, go to the FTC website, ftc.gov, to review the frequently asked questions about this settlement and they can find the information there that would
of any concerns that they should be included.
Okay, and how do people contact DatCap if they do want to register a complaint with you?
You can call us at the Consumer Protection Hotline 800-422-7128 or you can go to our website at datcp.wi.gov.
Not too difficult to do.
All right.
Next.
Winter utility scams.
I believe the moratorium date is coming up what the 15th of this month?
Actually, we've already started in started November 1st and it goes through April 15th.
So that's where the 15th comes in.
We are in it.
So what this winter moratorium means is it prevents utility providers from shutting off residential essential heat services because of unpaid bills between November 1st and April 15th.
And why that matters is because scammers call consumers and they say
that you're behind on your bill and they're gonna disconnect your service right away unless you make payment during that phone call.
That's not how utility providers work when there is delinquency in paying bills.
Our consumers are behind, but it's also not how it works in our state because of this moratorium.
There's an entire process.
So if you get that call saying that there is a work order in process, there's a truck on the way, maybe they send you a made up bill or billing statement or tracking numbers to make it seem legitimate and give you
lot of pressure, hang up that phone call.
dig out your last bill if you're at all concerned call your utility provider direct report this but also just say I believe I'm up to date is there a problem and you can work it out with them and you have time and there are resources available as well but do not pay someone who calls you by the phone or texts you or emails you and says that you're delinquent and there'll be a disconnection for your heating services.
already received a number of phone calls from consumers who've received this call that last week in October.
So we know those scammers are out there right now.
Okay.
Yeah, I came home one time when I was working in another city.
It was a Friday and I had no power.
So I called the electric company and I said, Hey, I pay all my bills on time.
And they said, Oh, we made a mistake.
We were supposed to shut off your downstairs neighbor's power.
So
I got my
power back and my neighbor wasn't too happy when they came home that night.
Right.
And there's a process.
So I'm sure they worked that through with your neighbor and they probably shouldn't have been surprised that it happened.
But yes, disappointment will still happen.
You can't let those bills go for three or four months at a time, you know.
So anyway.
No, and there are services out there, and there is assistance if you need that.
So just, you know, tap into that and ask for that help if you're in that situation.
You can call 211.
They'll have resources in your neighborhood or in your community.
You can call the utility company, ask them what kind of assistance is available.
The Public Service Commission has options as well.
So there are resources if you find yourself in that situation.
Okay, and to recap again the winter heating moratorium began on November 1st and runs until April 15 now I got my dates right so
you're spot on
Michelle thank you very much for joining us this morning and giving us some information on the latest scams and Other things that we need to know appreciate it.
Yeah.
Well.
Thank you very much I appreciate again your assistance and in keeping that Wisconsin consumers safe