Scams and scam newsletters
Learn about scams to protect yourself.
Knowb4 has training about scams, along with test emails they use to make sure you understand and implement the training. They also have free tools. They also have a weekly newsletter that tells you about the latest scam. Here are more resources from them including online videos, ebooks, whitepapers.
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has a free scam page. It’s also en español.
The US government fraud page. Beware, this includes censoring valid peer-reviewed COVID studies and labeling them “misinformation”.
AARP (for retired persons) also has a fraud page. You can be a member of AARP if you are age 50 or more. The AARP scam tracking map and way to report a scam. There are currently 37,000 active scam reports.
USDA scam and fraud page.
IRS scam page.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission tracks alerts for defective or dangerous products, like toys painted with lead paint, baby teething rings filled with kerosene, etc. (Yes those are actual products.) Most of the problem products are made in China. Many products from China claim they conform to ASTM standards of being lead free but are not. Search their product recalls here. Another way to search. Here’s an example from a search for items from China.
Dollar tree recalls burn relief gel. The packaging is not child resistant as required by the Poison Prevention Packaging Act. The burn relief gel contains lidocaine, posing a poisoning risk if swallowed.
A related site called Saferproducts.gov. “The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission CPSC does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the contents of the Publicly Available Consumer Product Safety Information Database on SaferProducts.gov, particularly with respect to information submitted by people outside of CPSC.” A zip file of this database is on this page. An backup of this page with the zip file is here.
General tips
The IRS will never call you if you owe money. They will send you a letter with contact info.
Never give anyone your social security number, any ID info, credit card info, or the address or even your phone number if they call you. What they want in some cases is to verify your phone number so they can sell it to other telemarketers.
The BBB (Better Business Bureau) is easily bought so do not trust their ratings.
A search for “free scam alerts”.
Fund-raising for police and fire fighters are somewhat of a scam as the police and firefighters hire a third party and the police only get about 30-40% of the funds you give.