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Can five million Britians be duped? Yes, according to a study done by the British consumer protection organization Which?. Which? contacted more than 1000 Brits to see how widespread the scam problem is in the U.K. The results?
- More than 28 million of 60 million citizens had been exposed to one or more scams.
- Five million of those 28 fell victim to a scam.
- The most popular scam related to "an automated phone call that invites people to claim a prize. A third of adults have received such a call and two million have responded, usually by calling a premium-rate number, which can cost up to GBP 1.50 ($2.70 U.S.) a minute."
The funny thing is that I've even seen people outside the U.K. fall victim to these international lottery scams. Here's a typical email that arrived in our honeypot inbox this week:
As I was saying, I've received email from U.S. residents wondering if they'd really won after receiving an email like this. They never questioned how they'd won even though they weren't residents of the country where the lottery was held and had never even entered the lottery.
Greed makes us stupid, doesn't it? That's what the scammers count on.
UPDATE!
Many of you have also received snail mail versions of this scam. In this scam you receive a letter saying you've won as well as a check for $3,000 - $4,000 dollars to cover the taxes and processing fees - supposedly.
Anyway, listen up people.
This is a scam. The check is fake.
It may initially be accepted at your bank but will eventually be worth absolutely nothing. So when you deposit it and then send them a check from your account, you will lose money.
Ask yourself... Why would they send you a check and then have you send them a check right back for the same amount? Does that make sense? It does if you're trying to scam someone.
No, this won't be a post about some political scandal in Iraq.
Instead, I wanted to post an scam email — one where a supposed American soldier wants to share some of Saddam Hussein's booty (booty here meaning "Plunder taken from an enemy in time of war.")
Here's the email:
I haven't seen an email like this since "Bradon Curtis" a "special forces commando" working in Afghanistan wanted to send us some Taliban money a few years ago.
As always, these emails should produce more laughs than greed as they land in your in-box. The scam is one of the oldest in the book and will involve you giving up more and more money as you try to get your grubby, greedy mitts on 7.2 million of Saddam's money.
A U.K. 17-year-old risked life and limb by removing a fake fascia of an ATM machine. The nearby crooks gave chase and the hero, Luke Bridges, had to run for his life.
So what was the reward for this daring-do? A pocket calculator...
Maybe that would have been a cool gift in 1978, but I'm guessing it only cost the bank around a dollar and looks like one of those free giveaway items.
The bank, NatWest, reiterated in a statement that no one should risk removing one of these devices:
"We would never encourage anyone to put their safety at risk by attempting to remove any such device. We advise anyone who notices anything unusual about a cash machine to report it to the bank or the police immediately."
Probably good advice. In any case, the story gives you a good look at what these PIN skimming devices look like. Pay close attention to the machine whenever you go to use an ATM.
See the actual scammy W-9095 tax form.
This scam has been around for a while, but always seems to resurface, especially around tax time.
The scam involves fake IRS forms, usually titled W-9095 or W-8888. It begins with a letter in the mail requesting that you fill out the fake form and then fax it back to the given fax number. If you don’t fill out the form and return it in seven days, they say you’ll lose an important tax exemption.
The form itself doesn’t miss any of the juicy tidbits of your financial life. It asks for:
- Name
- Address
- SSN
- Mothers Maiden Name
- Date of Birth
- Bank Address, Account Number, and PIN
They don’t miss anything, do they?
Be smart and keep your eyes open for this scam as you scurry to finalize your taxes this year.
Evidently a spam email message has started to circulate telling people they've been randomly selected to receive millions of pounds from Princess Diana's Memorial Foundation.
Ummm... right.
Here's the content of the email:
| SUBJECT: You are a Beneficiary of the Diana Memorial Foundation Grant
ATTENTION: Grant Beneficiary This is to bring to your attention that your email has been randomly selected to receive £2, 598,000.00 (Two Million and Five Hundred Ninety Eight Thousand Great Britain Pounds) and for further instructions on how you are to put claims to your grant, you are to FORWARD a copy of this notice to our International Grants Officer as well as give him a call via contact details below: Blah, blah, blah... |
Okay, it didn't say "Blah, blah, blah..." but it might as well have.
This is a simple "West African advanced fee" a.k.a. "419" scam. You reply. They say you need to send money in order to get the millions of pounds, dollars, francs, liras or whatever. You send some money, maybe your bank account number, maybe your SSN. They take your money and ask for more. Maybe they steal your identity. Maybe they sell your information to someone else.
It's all described in detail here.
Just use your head.
Last time I checked memorial foundations exist to collect money - not give it away to random people via email.
Do you buy a lot of stuff on internet auctions like eBay? I've bought a few inexpensive things, but I wouldn't consider buying an expensive item from someone I've never seen before.
Auction fraud does occur on eBay and Yahoo Auctions, just ask Darren Barringer. Darren paid for a laptop on eBay in June 2002, but received a Montreal phone book in his FedEx package instead. That made him upset and curious. So he decided to look through other auctions to see if he could pick out the fraudulent ones. Here's what he found as possible signs of a fraudulent listing:
* Low priced high-ticket items, like high-definition TVs, laptops, or jewelry — especially if there are multiple items for sale.
* Brand-new sellers with no sales history.
* Sellers requesting wire transfers for payment, or payment in foreign currencies.
* Auctions that begin and end over a weekend, since eBay customer support is light during those days.
* Seller telephone numbers or addresses that can't be verified.
I'll be creating some additional information about internet fraud, and auction fraud specifically in the coming weeks. Until then, please be careful when clicking the "Buy" button.
Getting scammed is a bummer. You beat yourself up wondering why you weren't smart enough to see through their tricks. Getting scammed twice has got to feel a lot worse.
Some telemarketing scam artists apparently have created a list of previous fraud victims and are trying to scam them again. Their pitch is that they can recover the money that was stolen in the first fraud, if they sign up for the Teleguard service and pay a fee. They try to create an air of authenticy by stating that they're working with the Better Business Bureau or a state Attorney General's office.
So how can you tell if the people who call you are legit or not?
USE YOUR BRAIN!
Listen how Robert Kenesky, 81, of Sanborn, NY used his brain to fight fraud. The scammers tried to prove they were legitmate by putting him on hold for a few moments and then connecting him with someone who said they were from the New York Attorney General's office. His response?
“This guy rattled on for a while, and then I said, ‘Now wait a minute. If this is the attorney general’s office, I know it takes longer than 1 minute to get through to you people.”
Then he hung up the phone. Very smart.
Another e-mail scam where people ask for money. Are we that dumb? This time the sender is supposedly "Bradon Curtis", an American "Special Forces Commando" who wants to share some Taliban drug money with you but needs a bit of cash for the shipping. How nice for Memorial Day weekend. Here's part of the text:
"We will thus send you the shipment waybill, so that you can help claim this luggage on behalf of me and my colleagues. Needless to say the trust (placed) in you at this junction is enormous. We are willing to offer you an agreeable percentage of (these) funds."
The "Nigerian e-mail" scam is over ten years old and has possibly cost the victims hundreds of millions of dollars. There's no way to tell, really, because many people are too embarrased to call the authorities once they realize they've been had. Read a typical e-mail and see if you'd fall for their tactics. I received one of these emails last week, so it's clear this scam is still going on.
Anyway...
It looks like part of this ring of scam artists and drug dealers have been caught in South Africa by local police and detectives from the UK's Scotland Yard. Hopefully they can lock these boys up and keep them away from computers and fax machines for a few years.
Boy says thefts taught victims a lesson, police say
A stoned 16-year-old Wisconsin boy has been stealing credit card information from people over the internet since he was 12. He used the same old email scam - with a twist. He would use a hacker tool to pull email addresses from people while they were chatting on AOL instant chat, and then send them an email that looked like it was from the America Online billing department.
Once he had their personal information, he went out and bought himself a nice bong, DVD player, and a pair of Air Jordans. His message to you? His victims should thank him because he was "teaching them a lesson." Nice.
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