The Story of Scams – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Story of Scams

<p><strong>Scams<&sol;strong> are an old story that&&num;8217&semi;s written anew every day&period; Some <em>scams<&sol;em> have been around for at least a century&comma; such as the Spanish prisoner scam&comma; which has evolved into the Nigerian <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;category&sol;email-scams-examples&sol;"><strong>letter scam<&sol;strong><&sol;a> of today&period; Many <em>newer scams<&sol;em> utilize the latest in technological advancements to make it ever easier to part fools from their money&period; And not just fools-careful&comma; intelligent people also fall prey to the many <strong>scams<&sol;strong> that pervade our everyday life&period; Scam artists&comma; the rare <em>criminals<&sol;em> justifiably referred to as &&num;8220&semi;artists&comma;&&num;8221&semi; often have a knowledge of psychology that would make Sigmund Freud proud&period; These criminals know just which buttons to push to appeal to our fears&comma; friendships&comma; charitable instincts&comma; compassion&comma; optimism&comma; greed&comma; and desire for quick-and-easy solutions to life&&num;8217&semi;s problems&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Almost everything we do can be adapted to a scam&period; Fertile ground for scammers includes <em>phony lotteries&comma; charities&comma; telephone services&comma; healthcare &lpar;particularly weight-loss programs&rpar;&comma; travel services&comma; government programs&comma; scholarships&comma; employment opportunities&comma; dating services&comma; and of course investments<&sol;em>&period; And then there&&num;8217&semi;s the mother lode of today&&num;8217&semi;s scams&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;prevent-identity-theft-most-common-ways&sol;"><strong>identity theft<&sol;strong><&sol;a>&period; Identity theft has become a worldwide epidemic of varying scams that carry the potential to empty your bank accounts&comma; ruin your credit&comma; or even send you to jail for a crime someone committed using your name&period; Regardless of how careful you think you are&comma; you can become a victim of identity theft when your personal information is accessed from sources that may legitimately have this information&comma; but fail to protect the security of this critical information&period; Steven Spielberg&comma; Martha Stewart&comma; Oprah Winfrey&comma; Ross Perot&comma; and even Warren Buffet have all been targeted in this fashion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 id&equals;"scams-are-always-in-season" class&equals;"rb-heading-index-0-27712">Scams Are Always in Season<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><em>During the holidays<&sol;em>&comma; when people are in a charitable mood&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s never a shortage of legitimate-looking phony charities that are more than eager to take your money&period; You owe it to yourself to take the steps necessary to confirm that any charity you&&num;8217&semi;re considering not only is legitimate&period; Additionally&comma; you should learn just how much of your contribution is actually used for charitable purposes and how much goes to administrative purposes&period; &lpar;The proportional percentages in even some legitimate charities may astound you&period;&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>During tax season<&sol;em>&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s not just the IRS that&&num;8217&semi;s seeking your money&comma; but also <strong>scammers<&sol;strong>&period; Phony notices and fraudulent tax schemes not only can cause you to lose money&comma; but even subject you to possible criminal sanctions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Much has been written about the problems in the <em>sub-prime mortgage market<&sol;em> and an increasing rate of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;mortgage-and-real-estate-fraud-examples-2015&sol;">mortgage foreclosures<&sol;a>&period; But where others see problems&comma; scammers see opportunity&period; Whatever the problem-health issues&comma; relationships&comma; <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;tag&sol;financial-fraud&sol;" title&equals;"financial" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"536">financial<&sol;a> difficulties-a scammer is there with an offer to &&num;8220&semi;help&&num;8221&semi; that ultimately just makes things worse&period; In one particular foreclosure scam&comma; con artists tell homeowners in jeopardy that they can avoid foreclosure by transferring an interest in their home to a third party&period; The third-party con artist walks away with the money&comma; and the foreclosure is unaffected&period; Scammers prey on us when we&&num;8217&semi;re at our weakest and most vulnerable&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 id&equals;"scammers-do-their-homework" class&equals;"rb-heading-index-1-27712">Scammers Do Their Homework<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><em>Scammers are adept at telling us what we want to hear<&sol;em>&period; For instance&comma; the scammer may say that his program is a legitimate business proposition in which you actually are sold some inexpensive item as part of the program&period; This factor&comma; he says&comma; is what differentiates his program from an illegal chain letter&period; Some purveyors of these particular scams even indicate in their written materials that the U&period;S&period; Postal Service approves their particular program&period; The truth is that the U&period;S&period; Postal Service never endorses or approves any particular business program&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Perhaps you respond to an advertisement to be a personal shopper or to do market research&period; You even receive a &&num;8220&semi;certified check&&num;8221&semi; to pay you for your efforts&period; Certainly&comma; that check must be legitimate&excl; However&comma; the check is written for more than the amount you&&num;8217&semi;re owed&comma; so you&&num;8217&semi;re required to send your own check back to the company to &&num;8220&semi;refund the difference&period;&&num;8221&semi; The only problem is that the certified check that the scammer sends you is phony&period; Unfortunately&comma; the check that you send is not&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Everyone loves to be a winner&comma; and scammers know that fact as well as anyone&period; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;financial-fraud-lottery-fraud-scammers-target-the-elderly&sol;">Lottery scams<&sol;a> come in many variations&period; Some require you to send &&num;8220&semi;processing fees&&num;8221&semi; while you wait for the prize check that never comes&period; Other phony lotteries require you to pay to the company sponsoring the lottery the income taxes that you will owe on your prize&period; The problem is that legitimate lotteries never ask you for tax money&period; Either you pay the income taxes due on your winnings directly to the IRS&comma; or the taxes are deducted from the prize before you receive it&comma; in which case you receive a Form 1099 from the sponsor of the lottery informing you of the amount already deducted from your prize for taxes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Whatever involvement you have with the federal government&comma; from Social Security to Medicare to veterans benefits to the IRS&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s just more fodder for scammers&period; They take advantage of the confusion many people suffer with the rules of these programs&comma; and twist those rules to lure you into sending money to scammers posing as government representatives&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 id&equals;"scammers-may-be-closer-than-you-think" class&equals;"rb-heading-index-2-27712">Scammers May Be Closer Than You Think<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><em>Scams can be high-tech&comma; low-tech&comma; even no-tech<&sol;em>&period; They can be accomplished through sophisticated computer programs or merely by going through your trash&period; Scams are committed by people involved in organized crime located continents away from you&comma; or your neighbor down the street&period; In fact&comma; many fraud victims are scammed by members of their own families&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Surprisingly&comma; wealthy and financially-literate people are actually more likely than average folks to be suckered by an <strong>investment scam<&sol;strong>&period; A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing&period; A scam artist can take a sophisticated person&&num;8217&semi;s interest in obtaining a high-return investment&comma; along with her elementary knowledge of bonds&comma; and concoct what appears to be a believable story about &&num;8220&semi;secret prime bank investments&&num;8221&semi; that can bring great profits in a short time&period; The only problem is that these prime bank investments don&&num;8217&semi;t exist and never have existed-regardless of how legitimate they may sound&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Perhaps you&&num;8217&semi;re skeptical about an investment opportunity that sounds almost too good to be true&period; Your fears may be allayed when you&&num;8217&semi;re told that many people from your own social circle&comma; or even your church or synagogue&comma; have invested with the person providing this investment opportunity-and all of them have received the promised substantial profits&period; This person even looks like you&period; He may have the same racial&comma; ethnic&comma; or religious background&period; He wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t cheat you&period; He hasn&&num;8217&semi;t cheated your friends and family&period; What could be better&quest; Those are probably the same thoughts that went through the minds of millions of victims of a common scam named after one of its earliest proponents&comma; Charles Ponzi&period; Ponzi paid off early &&num;8220&semi;investors&&num;8221&semi; with the money given to him by later &&num;8220&semi;investors&comma;&&num;8221&semi; using this as seed money to lure more people into his trap&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Scams can even take advantage of your concern about being scammed&period; You receive email that appears to be from your <em>bank&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;credit-card-fraud-avoid-when-paying-online&sol;">credit card<&sol;a> company&comma; or online auction service&comma;<&sol;em> indicating that fraudulent activity has been detected on your account and that you must respond to the company immediately or your account will be closed&period; Unfortunately&comma; the hyperlink in the email notice takes you to a phony site that uses information that you provide to make you a victim of identity theft&period; Perhaps you&&num;8217&semi;re too smart to provide that personal information when directed to the phony site&period; Even so&comma; it may be too late&period; Merely by clicking the link provided in the email notice&comma; you may have unwittingly invited into your computer a Trojan Horse malicious software program that secretly gathers all of the personal information on your computer and sends it back to the identity thief&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Fortunately&comma; there are clues in this type of scam&period; For instance&comma; if you receive an email from PayPal that addresses you with a salutation of &&num;8220&semi;Dear PayPal User&&num;8221&semi; or &&num;8220&semi;Dear PayPal Member&comma;&&num;8221&semi; you can be sure that it&&num;8217&semi;s not genuine email from PayPal&period; PayPal will always address you specifically by your first and last name&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 id&equals;"scams-will-always-be-around" class&equals;"rb-heading-index-3-27712">Scams Will Always Be Around<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The key to avoiding scams is knowledge&period; You need to learn how to recognize the telltale <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;description-and-discovery-of-a-scam-email&sol;">signs of a scam<&sol;a>&period; You need to learn to recognize the patterns of a scam&period; You need to learn to think like a scammer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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FraudsWatch is а site reporting on fraud and scammers on internet, in financial services and personal. Providing a daily news service publishes articles contributed by experts; is widely reported in thе latest compliance requirements, and offers very broad coverage of thе latest online theft cases, pending investigations and threats of fraud.
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