There is never a shortage of unscrupulous tacticians out there, thinking up new ways to pry our personal information from us or to get us to unknowingly sign up for a service with fine print that we barely understand. These scams are constantly evolving, and even though we think we can spot them a mile away, sometimes they reach up and bite us. Here are three to watch out for.
Free Credit Reports
There are abundant free credit report commercials touting companies that require an annual subscription fee to obtain the "free" credit report. While some may be legitimate companies selling a service, the advertising is misleading to many. Any advertised "free credit report" will undoubtedly require the user to register (and pay for) a subscription to a "credit watch" or monitoring program. If you wish to pay for a service like this, then it is not a scam.
However, anyone can obtain three free credit reports annually through annualcreditreport.com. You can get one free report from each of the three major reporting companies each year. You may obtain them all at once or spread them out over a year, effectively creating your own credit monitoring program.
The Job Hunt Credit Check
When job hunting, beware of job offers that require a credit check through a particular "free" credit check company. There are two reasons companies will collect this information. One is to collect personal information for future identity theft, and the other, more commonly, is to get you to sign up with a credit reporting company. By the way, there is no job available.
To foil this scam, tell them you will provide them with a credit score from one of the main credit reporting agencies, which any reputable employer requiring a credit check would accept. Be leery of any "company" that is willing to hire you sight unseen and without an interview. There are several personal, banking and credit information gathering scams related to fake jobs.
Apartment Rental Credit Check Scam
This is a simple scam done through affiliate marketing. The scammer will advertise properties for rent all over the nation through popular free websites. The advertisements will look like any other rental property ad, vague and without an address. As people respond to the ad, the scammer will email them a rental application (fake), a request for a credit report (an affiliate link in the email), and a request to set up a time and day to do a walk-through of the property. The scam is the affiliate link to the "free credit report." After you sign up with the credit report company, you will be told by the prospective landlord/scammer that the property has been rented. You will move on with your house/apartment hunting and be none the wiser until you start getting billed for the "free credit report monitoring" on your credit card. The scammer gets paid for everyone he signs up on the affiliate link.
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