Scammers Hitting Millions of People Waiting for Passports

July 22, 2021

Rockford, IL – July 20, 2021 – Passports Scams are rising with the State Department having significant processing backlogs. Reporting wait time for both new and renewal routine passport applications can be up to 18 weeks. Even the wait time for “expedited passports” takes up to 3 months and includes a $60 fee. Currently, there is an estimated backlog of between a million and a half to 2 million applications." Dennis Horton director of the Rockford Regional Office of the Better Business Bureau says, “Scammers, posing as Passport expeditors are stepping in and convincing their victims for a higher fee they can get quickly get through the processing time, including the initial internal intake of the applications, and mailing. Along with money losses in these scams, passports contain critical personal information that unlocks identity theft for years to come.”
 

Needs vs. Wants

July 8, 2021

One of the most important parts of setting up a monthly budget is separating needs from wants. Before assigning dollar amounts to any categories, it’s important to know which parts of your monthly expenditures are an absolute need, and which items would be nice to include, but are not a necessity. Below, we’ve outlined how to tell the difference between wants and needs, as well as how to separate these two categories on a monthly budget plan.
 

Losses in Sweepstakes and Lottery Scams Surge 35%

June 10, 2021

Rockford, IL – June 10, 2021 – Sweepstakes and lottery scams resulted in higher financial losses during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the previous three years, according to new research from Better Business Bureau® (BBB). BBB warns consumers never to pay money to claim a prize. If anyone asks for money before delivering a prize, it is likely a scam.
 
The research is an update of BBB’s 2018 in-depth investigative study, Sweepstakes, Lottery and Prize Scams: A Better Business Bureau Study of How “Winners” Lose Millions Through an Evolving Fraud. Since the study’s publication, there has been a 16% decrease in complaints to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). However, financial losses reported to all three agencies rose dramatically in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic, with FTC logging an increase of more than 35% in reported dollar losses. The updated research highlights how these scams work and the importance of educating consumers, particularly those who may be susceptible to a specific scam.