Doritos Fake-Out Shows Internet Scams Thriving

(June 17) -- Internet scam detective Audri Lanford's phone is ringing off the hook these days over, of all things, Doritos.

A fake coupon for a free bag of Doritos has gone viral, leaving consumers angry when they can't cash it in, retailers holding the bag if they do redeem it and Frito-Lay dealing with damage to its image.

The scam problem has increased in the past few weeks as more and more people e-mailed the coupon to one another. And though a $5 bag of chips may not sound like a big problem, Frito-Lay spokeswoman Aurora Gonzalez said the losses could end up in the multimillions: The dollar value of fake coupons submitted in recent weeks equaled 5 percent of Frito-Lay's real coupon offerings for all of 2009, she said.

The Doritos scam -- whose source and motive are unclear -- is part of a growing trend of Internet scams. In the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, for instance, schemers have pumped out appeals from fake charities. And an old Nigerian e-mail scam now carries the twist of supposedly coming from a U.S. soldier who claims access to Saddam Hussein's millions -- but needs a little help getting it out of the country.

"The opportunity for people to scam each other on the Internet keeps increasing," said Jenny Shearer, an FBI spokeswoman.

Last year Internet scams took in $559.7 million -- more than double the year before, according to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, an FBI program where consumers can report fraud. About 336,655 people filed complaints last year. But the real number of victims likely is higher, as experts say many scam victims are too embarrassed to file complaints.

Lanford, who is co-director of the public service group Scambusters.org, said losses are often much bigger than a bag of chips. The Nigerian e-mails and the "soldier"-in-Iraq spin-offs often claim to have a large amount of money they need help getting out of another country. The victim is promised a big payoff from the "millions" but first must wire money to the scammer. Lanford said it's not uncommon to hear of people losing $60,000.

"The biggest thing people can do to avoid being taken in is never respond to spam," said Lanford of Boone, N.C.

Most charities don't send out unsolicited e-mails asking for money unless you have donated to them before, Lanford said. If you do want to donate, go directly to a charity's website -- don't click on a link from an unsolicited e-mail.

The Gulf oil spill, like the Haiti earthquake and Hurricane Katrina before it, has spurred a new round of donation requests from fake charities. Such scams usually begin within a half-hour of a disaster, she said, with the crooks making up charities or setting up fake websites under real charities' names. Lanford said a good place to check the bona fides of charities before donating is the Better Business Bureau's www.give.org.

Another helpful resource is the Coupon Information Corporation, which can check a coupon's validity. In the case of the Doritos scam, a genuine coupon for a free bag of chips would have a hologram on it and two bar codes, and would never be sent by e-mail, Gonzalez said.

Shearer said advances in technology are making it easier for scammers to hide. Where once law enforcement might nab suspects by raiding a Nigerian Internet cafe, today's wireless technology means it's harder to track down the crooks. To help stem the tide of scams, the FBI works with law enforcement all over the world and has cyber agents in its 56 U.S. field offices, she said.

Because sending unsolicited e-mail is free, scammers can send out large volumes of duplicitous appeals like the one this reporter got from "Maj. Lawrence K. Wilson." "I am ready to compensate you with good percentage of this fund because no strings attached as Iraq is a war zone," he wrote (in English not quite befitting an Army officer).

"Even if they don't have a great success rate," Shearer said, "someone is going to bite."

Consumers need to heed their sense that something is too good to be true, she added. "If you have that gut feeling, you should listen to it."