Scams, Shams and other fun stuff.

[Reloadron]

Sometimes I think within a few weeks of the first pony express letter being delivered in this country the first case of mail fraud likely surfaced. Likewise a few weeks after Alexander Gram Bell said Watson come quick I need you the first telephone frauad was in the works.

As the Internet (invented by my friend Al Gore) has grown and evolved it has opened a magnificent platform for countless new types of fraud, with some being truely creative.

While reading the "Just plug it in" thread we deviated a little with a few post like the following:

oldman_gammer comments:

I get enough junk email from UK and Nigeria asking for all that because I either inherited or won bazilions.LMAO

Stormcrow comments:

You too? Man, what a small world for us with previously unknown deceased wealthy relatives in parts of Europe and Africa.

Ron comments:

What the hell do you mean "junk mail"? Please don't tell me that mail isn't real? Damn, I just sent the certified check so I could start collecting. This stuff is real, right? Please say it's real?

stinger608 adds reassurance:

Oh yea, its real Ron!!! Hell I just got my first check today for $256,783.00
Muhhhhh

Note: I was happy with the reassurance as I was growing concerned. Much like my MS Office 2007 finally arrived, I guess my check will show up any day.

oldman_gammer adds the following good example:

I had a 26' Searay sport cruiser for sale on a boat site. One day I get this email from a guy wanting to purchase it.Cool rite? WRONG! This guy send me a cashiers check for $14,000 for the purchase,taxes and transfer and tells me he will send a guy to pick it up and I am to give him the left over money for transportation sevices.So I take the check to my bank and ask the manager to look it over and see if it is real.Yep,it was real. I brought the check home and called the bank on which the check was drawn,and BINGO! it was a good check,but the number on the check had already been used for a much smaller amount and therefore was counterfiet. I contacted the local police,who did nothing and wanted nothing to do with it.I contacted the state police,who wanted nothing of it and told me to contact my local police.I kept the check and emailed the dumb ass who sent it to me and wrote him a very nice letter
If I would of had more time to deal with it from the get go,I would have takin it to the FBI office in town and let them complete that little ole boat sale!

Has anyone got any good scam or scam stories to share? Stories other than bank emails or Nigerian emails. One of my coworkers got bitten on Ebay with a car sham. He literally paid out $10,000 for a nonexistent car.

There are a large number of people in this country (as well as globally) who awake every day with the sole intent of developing newer and better ways to seperate people from their money or possessions. Many are successful at their endeavours.

Ron

[screwballl]

*shrugs* yeah... it all goes with a bit of common sense. some people have none, why else would these scams be so successful? Buy a car online? Common Sense dictates to not buy anything worth more than $500 online and if you do, make it from a verifiable and reasonable location such as Newegg, ZipZoomfly, geeks.com, buy.com or an actual retailer. ebay and amazon are not "verifiable and reasonable" because you can have some 18 year old kid from California put up a $10,000 Ferrari, get the money and disappear. Could you verify who this person was? Is it reasonable to expect that they are trying to scam you? even if the authorities do get involved, you will likely never see your money and the person will get 30 days jailtime and be right back out continuing his money schemes.

[Panda Man]

See this thread:

http://www.epforums.org/nigerian-sca...341/index.html

[Reloadron]

Originally Posted by screwballl

*shrugs* yeah... it all goes with a bit of common sense. some people have none, why else would these scams be so successful? Buy a car online? Common Sense dictates to not buy anything worth more than $500 online and if you do, make it from a verifiable and reasonable location such as Newegg, ZipZoomfly, geeks.com, buy.com or an actual retailer. ebay and amazon are not "verifiable and reasonable" because you can have some 18 year old kid from California put up a $10,000 Ferrari, get the money and disappear. Could you verify who this person was? Is it reasonable to expect that they are trying to scam you? even if the authorities do get involved, you will likely never see your money and the person will get 30 days jailtime and be right back out continuing his money schemes.

Absolutely, and couple common sense with the old saying if something is too good to be true.. However, despite how many of us may look at it, there are obviously no shortage of people who will bite the bait.

Thank you Panda Man for the example of the bank scam version, there are no shortage of that variation. That and the version asking you to provide all your personal information, the same information you should well know the bank has. Yet, people comply on a regular basis.

What I was seeking was examples of scams and if anyone knew people directly who had been a victim of such scams.

Ron

[screwballl]

My bank has a notice next to each teller window inside about these scams like what Jody (old_gamer) mentioned, that they will help you contact the authorities and even fill out some paperwork on their own side.

[gamerfreak]

http://easynetworknyc.com/downloads/thepowerbook.pdf

[Yellowhello]

Originally Posted by gamerfreak

http://easynetworknyc.com/downloads/thepowerbook.pdf

I saw that one awhile ago and I still love it!

[gamerfreak]

Originally Posted by yellowhello

I saw that one awhile ago and I still love it!

Yeah its pretty OFN, but still great.

[Reloadron]

Thanks gamer I never read it before. That was good!

There is just something heartwarming when the screwer ends up getting screwed by the intended victim (screwee).

Ron

[azianai]

my personal fav are the paypal "account update" emails i get on one of my gmail accounts. They basically copy/pasted the whole formal paypal letterhead, and just direct link the "click here" to a tinyurl page. The help and everything else routes to paypal's sites so its pretty slick. Unfortunately, my paypal isn't linked to that email, so there's absolutely no chance to fall for it, but for most unsuspecting people, it can.