Better Business Bureau Serving Southern Arizona BBB Announces the Top Five Scams in Southern Arizona for 2014

As 2014 draws to a close, Better Business Bureau Serving Southern Arizona is reflecting back upon the year in scams: which scams victimized Southern Arizona consumers the most in 2014, and what consumers can do to protect themselves in 2015?

In 2014 BBB staff fielded thousands of phone calls and inquiries from consumers reporting attempted scams, and from consumers who had the misfortune of losing money to scam artists.

Although consumers reported many different types of scams- as well as countless variations of well-known existing scams- these five scams popped up again and again, and, in BBB’s experience, affected the greatest number of Southern Arizonans:

Data Breaches
2014 was the year of the data breach. It seemed that every month another company was announcing they had been hacked, and that consumer information had been stolen. JPMorgan, Stub Hub, Hope Depot, Jimmy Johns, Neiman Marcus, and, locally, Oro Valley Hospital and Northwest Medical Center were just some of the well-known corporations to suffer damaging data breaches.
BBB Tip: The bad news is that this trend is likely to continue. BBB urges consumers to keep an eye on their mailboxes for notifications that their private information has been stolen, and on their credit reports to ensure no one has stolen their identity.

IRS Scam
BBB received numerous calls throughout 2014 from Southern Arizonans who said someone contacted them from the “IRS Tax Litigation Department,” and threatened them with a lawsuit or imminent arrest unless they wired money- using a pre-paid debit card- to scam artists.
One Tucson man told BBB that a man with an Indian accent, claiming to be from the IRS, threatened to have him arrested within the hour unless he wired the scammer $7,000 in “back taxes.”
While the scam became extremely common in Southern Arizona, the IRS estimates that it’s taken consumers for more than a $1 million nationwide, and say its “the largest ever phone fraud scam targeting taxpayers.”
BBB Tip: If consumers are contacted about a tax debt, BBB recommends that they contact the IRS themselves to independently verify if they owe any money at all.

Tech Support Scam
While tech support scams have been known as fairly common scams for several years now nationally, they began popping up in Southern Arizona far more frequently than they ever have before in 2014.
Here’s how they work: a scam artist contacts their victim via a pop-up on a computer screen, claiming the victim’s computer has a virus, and urging them to call a phone number to remove it. When the victim calls the phone number the scam artist claims to be a Microsoft representative, or with a company affiliated with Microsoft or another well-known tech company, and proceeds to direct their victim to a website that will actually download a virus onto the computer, before demanding hundreds of dollars to “remove the virus.”
BBB regularly spoke with Southern Arizona consumers- many of them elderly- who were victimized by this scam in 2014.
BBB Tip: A good rule of thumb: neither Microsoft nor any other tech company will contact you by phone- or a pop-up in a web browser- to notify you that your computer has a virus. BBB recommends consumers rely solely on their computer’s anti-virus software for security alerts.

Elder Abuse Scam
Every day in 2014 BBB received multiple calls from elderly consumers who were contacted by scam artists either by phone, mail, or email. Southern Arizona has a large elderly population- especially during the winter months- and the sad truth is that our senior citizens are disproportionately targeted by scam artists.
Elder abuse takes many forms including scam phone calls and letters claiming the recipient has won a lottery, to much scarier scams that are carried out by crooked caretakers, and sometimes even the victim’s own children or relatives.
BBB Tip: BBB urges all Southern Arizonans to regularly check-up on the elderly people in their lives to ensure no one is taking advantage of them or abusing them. If you suspect an elderly person is being taken advantage of or abused call BBB at (520)888-5353 or Arizona Adult Protective Services at (877)767-2385.

Government Grant Scams
A variation of an advance fee/prepayment loan scam, multiple Southern Arizona consumers contacted BBB in 2014 after they were scammed by con-artists- posing as federal government officials- who offered them a “grant” for $5,000-$10,000, contingent on the consumer sending the scammer several hundred dollars using a pre-paid debit card.
BBB Tip: BBB reminds consumers that the federal government will never contact them and offer a grant they didn’t apply for. Consumers should also be extremely wary of any company offering advanced fee loans.
For more news about scams or other consumer issues visit www.bbb.org/tucson, or if you have a scam you would like to report call BBB at (520)888-5353.

About Better Business Bureau
As a leader in advancing marketplace trust, Better Business Bureau is an unbiased non-profit organization that sets and upholds high standards for fair and honest business behavior. Every year, more than 65 million consumers rely on BBB Reliability Reports® and BBB Wise Giving Reports® to help them find trustworthy businesses and charities across North America. Visit www.tucson.bbb.org for more information.

Contact: Nick LaFleur
Media Relations Specialist
Office: 520-888-6161 x 106
Mobile: 520-302-4139
nlafleur@tucson.bbb.org