Scams to watch out for

I will be posting the various scams that we get occasionally in our Admin mail. How people believe these is totally beyond me.

first one.......

OMG.. snookered. Congratulations! Can i have a beautiful big boat now??? Pls....oh pls...

I honestly cannot believe, let alone understand how ppl do get conned into these things.

I remember one from a few years ago
"Join Filesoup and you will be the recipient of a super duper invisibility ring"
Yeah right never got mine

10.7 million? time for snooks to buy his own mucho bigo server for the soup with security no one can touch

I doubt there is anyone here who'd fall for most of the scams out there, but make sure that you tell your elderly friends and family members just learning to use the computer. A lot of people I know who've been victimized by scams are over the age of 60.

Loans, credit cards and ATM cards are appealing to the needy and desperate who are willing to pay shipping, security and processing fees. The scammer will bleed them $100 here and there, one fee at a time. In Africa where these scams originate, the average wage earner brings home about $50 a month. A good scammer can bring in $5,000.

Another scam that younger people are falling for (olders too) is the romance scam. People who are introverted or socially reclusive often think it reasonable to get to know someone well via writings. Older people called them pen-pals in the days before computers. Today's scammers can be patient, attentive and suave. They will often woo the lovelorn for 6 months or more before they spring a desperate financial crisis on the unsuspecting victim.

Another is the job scam. Scammers hire you to process checks for them and they're fake. Or you get a job as a nanny or a travel guide or a cruise ship attendant, but before you actually meet the employer they ask you to fill out applications for personal information and of course direct deposit information for your paycheck.

But the most frequent scams that normal, moderately computer literate, folk fall for is the fake check scam. The way it works is this: A seller decides to sell his computer, trombone, roller skates, whatever, so they place ads on free classifieds like CraigsList. Lots of cities have newspaper online freebies as well. Scammers haunt these sites. If the seller is asking $100, the buyer will say, "I'm out of state or country but I will have my shipping company pick it up. I'll send a check for $500. Your XYZ is worth that where I am located." The seller gets a cashier's check delivered by courier service and banks it. Bank says it looks good. Buyer sends seller instructions on where to wire the extra $400. Don't be fooled by the buyer providing a stateside or European address. He's in west Africa. In Africa, they don't need identification to pick up money at Western Union. All they need is the MTCN (money transfer control number) and the test question and answer, which they will give you. They retrieve the money you send, 10 days later, sometimes longer, the check bounces and the bank makes you pay the money back. The only good thing is that they never pick up the item you were selling.

One last scam to be aware of . . . be careful when you buy ANYTHING online. If you buy with a credit card, be sure it's a reputable company with a secure server for processing or pay by PayPal.

That's it for the scams but there's one other thing you might want to consider. When you sign up for any website, forum, email or service, always use a different password than your email. And when you get your passwords resent to you because you've forgotten, delete the email permanently. Write your passwords down and keep them in your desk drawer or in your wallet. There's much less chance of a scammer getting your pws there than there is if he gets in your email. You'd be surprised how many people store numbers and pws in their email accounts! Don't do this!

Another one.............

and another.......

Heheheh, Our Mail is a popular target today.

Sighs, If only one of these was real .....

You're lucky, all we seem to get over at PT is shedloads of viagra and other meds spam.... do they know something I dont? Is it a well known fact I'm unaware of that punks have trouble getting it to stand up?

I heard of a scam (it was on TV) where a woman was contacted by the "Canadian Lotto" As a promotion 10000? names had been chosen worldwide and entered int the lotto free of charge. She had won 25 million dollars? (the ? are because I'm not sure of the exact amounts) All she need to do was send 10000 pounds? to have to money released. Which she sent.

Then next day she was contacted by the Canadian police to tell her she been conned and that to get her money back could she send the same amount again so that they could track it (I know I know) which she did. Bugger.

Anyway the TV reporter tracked down the "business man" in Canada whaowas an Iranian political refugee whos business was leasing luxury cars. Brand new 100 000 pound cars.

If it sounds too good to be true IT IS always ALWAYS ALWAYS.

Oh NOOOOoooooo so i will not be getting the money that the nice African man promised me, after I sent the release fee of £1000

Here we go again.