If you should win a prize at Publisher's Clearing House, they will never, ever e-mail you. They will contact you by snail-mail, telephone, or in person with their Prize Patrol. Here is a good example of a PCH scam. I'm not sure exactly how this particular one would play out, as there are a few different methods the scammers use to get ahold of your money. They could charge you a fee, after which they would send you nothing, or they would send you a fake check. I can't imagine them sending a bogus check for a million bucks, though, unless it's one to "take care of taxes" or whatever. Whatever happens, they want to steal from you anyway they can. This entry is located here, in the upper right hand corner. Please follow me on Twitter @inscamerated. Thank You!
Dang, that little guy on the left is supposed to be ROFL. Oh well. Here's something new, or at least, I haven't seen it before. It's a promotion for Data Entry Bucks (DEB), which itself is a scam. This scammer, however, figured he would get clever, and use a URL shortener whose link leads back to his own computer, I'm assuming. It's something pretty close to that anyway, and the link doesn't even lead to DEB's website. If you get his spam about it, the return e-mail address isn't even valid. So what I'm thinking happened is that s/he got access to DEB's materials for nothing, and is selling them for $27 instead of $40. Either that, or the scammer will simply take your money and send you nothing, because there isn't any way to contact him or her. This entry will be located here on the right for awhile, below Web Colleagues, and there are some data entry scam videos linked here. Please follow me on Twitter @inscamerated. Thank You! Here's another one that's supposedly from the African EFCC, headed up by Ms. Farida Waziri. It never really is from the EFCC, of course. What's amusing about this one is the length the scammers go to, trying to convince you that they are not the scammers at all. They just hope you don't notice their free e-mail addresses. So far they've "recovered" $422 million from "the scammers," and they want to give you $8.5 million back, since they say you were scammed. This entry will be located here for awhile, in the upper right hand corner. An ABC Nigerian 419 Documentary is linked here, along with three other videos. Please follow me on Twitter @inscamerated. Thank You!
There isn't much information about this "Kenneth Danquah," not so much as a Wikipedia article, but he does appear to be a real person who is the president or leader of something in Ghana called the CUA. About half the links about him on Google are spam and scam links, so this one's been going around for at least a little while. This is the first I've seen of it. This scammer claims to be Mr. Danquah, and he wants you to help him secure some funds abroad for safekeeping. He refers to "mouth watering deals" LOL, but to a real policitian, particularly an American one, $20 million is just spit in a bucket. Oh, and the scammer makes a pretty pathetic attempt to "comply" with the 2003 CAN-Spam Act by providing PETA's unsubscribe link. This entry is linked here, and there are four different Nigerian 419 scam videos located here. Please follow me on Twitter @inscamerated. Thank You!
I never did understand much about the telephone numbering system in the UK, but I did learn a little something about 070 codes. Specifically, that scammers outside the U.S. and the UK love to use them in connection with the British +44 international dialing code. I do occasionally see an American area code such as 206, though. See this article at 419scam.org.
This scam, supposedly from some UK "barrister" who is not listed in the Bar Standards Board, claims that his "client," a late "Engr Rollins," has made you beneficiary to his estate of 1.2 million GBP. Then he goes on to say that the money is for the needy, less fortunate, and for yourself as well. It sounds kind of reasonable, but no self-respecting lawyer is going to send you an e-mail about it without also posting you a paper letter complete with documentation. Other than that, it looks sort of okay until you get to the phone numbers, which begin with +44-701 and +44-709, and the names of his "partners" at the bottom. I ran across a Yahoo Answer about this scam from someone who says he's a lawyer. He said, "Barristers offer legal servcies [sic] via chambers and are self-employed. They are not permitted to join forces and become a firm." Click Here Further, according to Google, there is a William Moore Law Firm in Florida. "Welcome to the website of William Moore. We maintain offices in Ft Lauderdale, N. Miami Beach and W. Palm Beach." Click Here. There are several more attorneys named William Moore located throughout the U.S., but the only Barrister William Moore is listed in Anti-Fraud International and Bitten Us as a scam. Click Here and Here. There's some good natured ribbing about William Moore Law "Frim" LOL. This entry is linked here, and there are a couple of different inheritance scam videos located here. Please follow me on Twitter @inscamerated. Thank You! These scams are easy to figure out, I have no idea why they even bother with these, and it makes me angry that they try something this simple. I guess they think we're stupid dogs or something, I really don't know. The claim goes that you personally helped this trash "transfer some funds with all past efforts" but that it "failed somehow." Unless you were sleepwalking on multiple occasions, you know that you didn't help anyone transfer anything, and you're thinking "WTF?" So now they want to offer you a bunch of money as "compensation" for something that failed, because I guess the trash "feels bad" or whatever. I'd call it desperation. This just isn't going to make any sense to anyone at all, because each of us knows darn well it never happened! Some scammers are the Scarecrow I guess - no brains. I hate to say it, but anyone who actually falls for this can't be any smarter than a grapefruit. This entry is located here, and please follow me on Twitter @inscamerated. Thank You!
Here's another Western Union scam, and it's funny, or at least I think so. You supposedly have a $1.2 million "inheritance" coming to you, without the scammers explaining why, through WU because the "President of Benin" doesn't want the money going to any "fraud stars" LOL. You're to pick up $5,000 each day until the "fund" is "finished." As I've already explained so many different times, none of the money ever exists, and as I explained recently, attempting to pick up wired money that's not in your name is a crime in the U.S., and probably in other countries as well.
Also notice that the scammers do not have the American name format right, as the "Western Union manager's" name is "Dr. Austin Joe." They're completely oblivious to the fact that "Joe" is usually a nickname, but don't help them. Let them figure it out on their own. There are people whose first name is Austin, of course, but it's glaringly obvious that they meant Joe Austin, and that's why you will see such names as William Thomas or Thomas Barry; the names are interchangeable. This entry will be linked here for awhile, in the upper right hand column, and a "top four" money scam video is located here. Please follow me on Twitter @inscamerated. Thank You! Any spam you receive that claims you can get government grants or benefits for yourself alone are always scams, because the scammers always charge a small initial fee, maybe $2, to "access their materials." That's how they get access to credit card numbers. What they are hoping isn't noticed in the small print, is that afterward, they intend to charge anywhere from $30 to $80 every single month, or even more. They claim that this is to continue using their website, where they hope their "client" will continue to look for a grant they can't get. Government benefits such as social security and food stamps are easy for individuals to get, as long as they're qualified, and they're always free to apply for. Scammers generally know that people understand that, so they don't bother trying to sell access to benefits. Government grants, on the other hand, are not so easy to get, and for individual people, it's just about impossible. Grants are similar to benefits in that they are both free to apply for, neither of them has to be paid back, government programs for each have to exist first, and I believe a certain amount of tax has to be paid on each of them as well. The bottom line here is that if someone is actually trying to sell access to either benefits or grants, it's always a scam. They are both always free to apply for, you just need the required time to do so. My "grants" page is linked here, and there are three different grant scam videos here. Please follow me on Twitter @inscamerated. Thank You! I am sorry to say that even if you have been scammed in the past, there is no such thing as any "compensation" for it. I received this Western Union scam-mail last night, and it claims that as a "beneficiary," I am somehow "entitled" to $1.5 million as "compensation" for being a "scammed victim." Apparently, in an attempt to keep off of the U.S. IRS's radar, I was supposed to pick up $3,500 with each MTCN number, until I had been paid the full amount. Scammers today are well aware that financial institutions have to report any cash received by a U.S. customer, that's $10,000 or more, to the IRS, so they attempt to steer clear of their radar, and any other nation's taxing authorities as well. That's as if the money ever even existed, which it doesn't, the scammers just want to convince a mark that the money is real. Included with the scam-mail was an MTCN, a sender's name, a test question, a test answer, that $3,500 was available for pickup, and all I had to do was send the scammer $75 as an "activation fee." I went to Western Union's website, and indeed, this was a real MTCN which said the money was available. It isn't any longer.
What's new about this is that it got me to play devil's advocate. "Could I scam the scammers and get their money?" I had a nice little fifteen minute chat with John at Western Union's Consumer Fraud Division. He said that no, unless the order specifically indicated that I was the person to pick it up, then I could not receive it, regardless of whether I could quote the sender's name, MTCN, test question and answer, or not, unless I were willing to break some federal regulations in an attempt to obtain it anyway. He also told me that the spam only claimed that $3,500 was supposedly sent, but that it most likely wasn't true at all, and was probably much less, as little as a dollar. He also said it could very well be a stolen MTCN. The scammers, of course, do not know virtually any of the names attached to e-mail addresses they spam, so they do not include any names as to who is supposed to receive the "cash," if there's any at all. He simply took down my information, more about the scam-mail itself, and I said thanks for the help. You can also report these WU scam-mails, complete with full headers, to [email protected] So, if you guys get these Western Union scam-mails, do not ever send the scammers any money. You will always lose it, and you will never get anything in return. Attempting to receive unclaimed money in the U.S. that's not in your name is a federal crime. This entry is linked here, in the upper right hand corner for awhile, and there's a Top Four money scam YouTube video about it located here. Please follow me on Twitter @inscamerated. Thank You! U.S. military personnel sometimes do find a great deal of money in the Middle East. If it is U.S. dollars, I don't believe they are allowed to keep any of it. It seems it's a different story with foreign currencies, however. I heard a story from a reserve soldier though, of another soldier, a friend of the reserve guy, who took home 400,000 Kuwaiti dinar when they were worth a dime each, before he was redeployed. Back when our boys kicked Iraq out and left, the dinar shot right back up to its older previous value, and beyond. When the soldier heard about it, he phoned back home and told his wife to deposit the money, and they made a cool $3 or $4 million bucks. The Kuwaiti dinar currently stands at US$3.63. Whenever scammers see news in the media about U.S. soldiers finding money, they take advantage of it right away, and spin their stories about how you can get your hands on it, too. They aren't anywhere near the Middle East, of course, nor are they in the military, so they have no way of getting their hands on any of it. The money they supposedly have doesn't exist, and it never does. This entry is linked here, in the upper right hand corner for awhile, and five different military scam videos are located here. Please follow me on Twitter @inscamerated. Thank You! |
Scams
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AuthorMy name is Gary, and I live in the Midwestern United States. This site is intended to expose the frauds and scams that are so pervasive on the internet, especially today. One hundred per- cent of the e-mails you get that promise you millions are never, ever real. They'll tell you they're "dying," trying to gain your sympathy. They're not dying, they're lying. Click Here for the "Dying" scams. Don't fall for it, and never send them any money, no matter what they tell you. Oh, and good luck hacking this website. It's got a nice strong password on it. Archive
July 2012
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