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A grandmother outsmarted some would-be thieves on Long Island. Police say they intended to scam her out of thousands of dollars, but she wasn’t having it. The quick thinking of a 73-year-old Seaford grandmother — who only wants her first name used, Jean — is being credited for taking down an alleged predator. “I knew he was a real scammer. I just knew he wasn’t going to scam me,” Jean told CBS2’s Kiran Dhillon. The former 911 dispatcher says Thursday morning, she received a call from someone claiming to be one of her grandsons. The caller said he had been...

The House on Wednesday took a major step toward cracking down on illegal robocalls by passing legislation allowing for tougher penalties against the scammers who generate billions of unwanted calls each year. Lawmakers passed the measure, sponsored by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), in a 429-3 vote. The bill takes aim at illegal spam calls by toughening up the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) ability to take action against illegal robocalling operations and requiring all carriers to implement technology to make sure calls are authentic. "The rising tide of unlawful, unwanted robocalls started as a nuisance but...

Those scammers are sneakier than you’d think, but you need to protect your money and information.

With stiff sentences for 21 conspirators last week in the United States and a round of indictments in India, the Justice Department says it has broken up what appeared to be the nation’s first large-scale, multinational telephone fraud operation. Over four years, more than 15,000 victims in the United States lost “hundreds of millions” of dollars to the sophisticated scam, and more than 50,000 individuals had their personal information misused, the department said Friday. The money was routed through call centers in India back to the ringleaders in eight states. The fraudulent calls came suddenly and frequently while the scam...

"Can you hear me?" Police in several states are urging people to avoid answering this simple question from a phone number they do not know. Authorities in Virginia say the question is aimed at getting unsuspecting victims to say "yes" -- an answer the frauster then records as a way to authorize charges on a phone, utility or credit card bill. The scam is a variation of one that began late last year, according to law enforcement. "You say 'yes,' it gets recorded and they say that you have agreed to something,” Susan Grant, director of consumer protection and privacy...

They are extremely persistent and claiming to be the IRS and threatening to throw you in jail and all kinds of things,” the 76-year-old Torrance resident said. “They try to make it sound official.” In the past month, the IRS and several South Bay police agencies have issued public warnings about the IRS scam and similar cons perpetrated by thieves on the telephone. “You are never going to get a call from the IRS demanding an immediate tax payment,” IRS spokesman Raphael Tulino said. “A lot of folks will hear it’s the IRS and act out of panic or dismay,...

DUBLIN, Ireland - Ireland has become the first country on earth to cut off direct-dialed calls to entire nations in a bid to crack down on Internet-based fraud. The crackdown, announced this week and due to come into force Oct. 4, will block calls to 13 locations — all but one of them far-flung islands — to deter fraudsters from breaking into people's computers and hijacking their modems for profit. The government-appointed Commission for Communications Regulation said it was obliged to act after receiving more than 300 complaints this year from Internet users who discovered that their connections had been...