To start with I would suggest never giving out your address or phone number if possible before actually calling and speaking with the interested party. Craigs List makes this easy by providing an anonymous service option. If receiving a response from posting there, ask the person to provide a phone number that you can use to contact them. If your instinct is that they seem like reasonable people after a phone conversation, you can proceed from there. Never give out bank or other financial information in the early stages of contact.
Here are some typical features in a SCAM answer. Something will be said like: I am a religious person and go to church every Sunday (these guys are really giving religion a bad name). I am very respectful of property (in case of rental). In one case the "property owner" said it was a magnificent property, but they were out of the country and would rent it out sight unseen for a very low price if the potential renter would just mail a cashiers check without seeing the place.
In fact, there always seems to be some reason why the parties cannot meet--out of the country, in a remote area without phone service doing some great humanitarian work, on the road and lost cell phone, etc. They often say their father will be responsible for all payments, and in the case of renting your property will even give several months in advance as soon as you provide the requisite full name, address, phone number, and your bank information so they can send the money there.
There is often a convoluted personal history. My mother is from Brazil, my father is from Austria, and I am on a remote island in Hawaii with no phone, but that's OK because my father will pay everything. In one case several years ago I got two different scam emails apparently from the same person with varied details except they said they were a female 5'8", and they were NOT a lesbian. I have never had anyone legitimate volunteer their height or weight, or their non-homosexual status. I have had a few male renters mention that they were gay, but this is the DC metropolitan area and some might find that a plus.
[Feb. 2017] Here is one of the more bizarre scam stories I received recently.
"I will introduce myself first to you, My name is Miss. Xxxxx Xxxxxx, I lost my Father, my hero and my lord Mr. Xxxxxx Xxxxxx years ago. He was poisioned to death by his associate in business. He formed a company by one Mr. Xxxx Xxxxx who poisioned him only to take benefit of the multi million venture. He was arrested immedaitely my Father died and he entered an agreement with my father's brothers that I and the immediate younger brother of my father will represent my father's interest in the company. After six months I was kicked out of the company because I said that we have to change the company's lawyer who I termed was part of the elimination of my father.
I did not know that they have changed all the company's document without my name appea ring any where. I will have to let you know more detail on that but let me move to the point why I am contacting you. I have been nick named bastard by my father's relations, They have named me all source [sorts] of names even calling me outcast because my father is late [dead], while my father was the bread winner of the family. They have pushed me out of my father's mansion and still want to eliminate my life.
I got through the records of my father account books three weeks ago while crying and meditating, which I beleive was inspired by the spirit of God, I discovered that there is a huge sum of money he deposited in a bank, which is $x,x00,000. The note attached to the deposit agreement he made with the bank indicated that, the money was to be used to purchase machinery for the establishment of a new company of his own.
Please all I need from you is to do all you can to help me to get this money out of the bank. etc. etc." [So of course all Miss X needs from me is all my bank information, etc. Spelling mistakes left in.]
This past year I have received two urgent emails from acquaintances of mine saying they were in a country in Europe, everything had been stolen from them and they desperately needed money to get back home. There were also more details about their "tragedy". Fortunately, I had their phone numbers. NEVER answer this kind of email. When I phoned they explained that someone had hacked their email and contacted all their contacts, and they were working with the police to try to stop/catch these crooks. They also had to change their email service and a lot of other messy detailed actions.
In this case there may have been a "worm" infecting their system that could actually catch their key strokes while being made, even their passwords. You need to back up your data, then need to clean your system [don't ask me now that is done]. Don't use simple minded passwords, leave your email information lying around were it can be looked at like in the office, change your password often, and have good virus protection. One friend had lost her cell phone with a lot of information on it.
I even called the FBI a few years ago when a number of these scams came my way. These mostly seemed to have an African origin. The FBI said there was a lot of this coming out of Nigeria, but the problem is that they could have their phone or email service coming from anywhere, so it was very hard to track them down and prosecute. So I guess the first principle has to be ALWAYS BE ALERT FOR A SCAM.
Here is the content of a scam email I have received. They even have the nerve to say they are anti scam workers with the IMF. Recently Bank of America was hit by these types too.
"Attention: Beneficiary
WORLD
BANK AUDITORS/INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUNDS (IMF) had meeting
with
the British Government, Nigeria and as we received a report of
scam
against you and other British/US citizens Etc. The countries of
Nigeria
have recompensed you the following meeting held with the
four
countries' Government and various countries' high commission for
the
fraudulent activities carried out by the four countries' Citizens.
According
to the number of applicants at hand, 184 Beneficiaries has
been
paid, half of the victims are from the United States, and we
still
have more 37 left to be paid the inheritance fund of Nine
million,
seven Hundred Dollars ($9.7Million USD. Signed by British
Government
of United Kingdom,On behalf of IMF.
Did
you sign any Deed of Assignment in favor of (TOM BROWN) Thereby
making
him the current beneficiary with his following account
details?
[omitted for space, but they say he is CITI Bank]
We
shall proceed to issue all payments details to the said Mr. TOM
BROWN,if
we do not hear from you within the next two working days from
today.
DR.ERIC
UBA, DIRECTOR
OF PAYMENT/ SPECIAL DUTIES, WORLD
BANK AUDITORS"
And
then there is this next one. Can you believe the Federal
Reserve wants to give me $1,570,000. Well, neither can I! Hey
you pikers at the Fed, the IMF wants to give me $9.7 million.
"Attn; Beneficiary
We
use this medium to inform you of the payment approved to be made to
you by the WORLD BANK through the Federal Reserve Bank New
York. In a meeting that took place on the 21st of
Aug. 2014, you have been granted Financial
Assistance/Sponsorship and awarded compensation by the WORLD BANK
Charity Humanitarian Mission aimed at providing financial support
for people around the world.
We
have been asked by the WORLD BANK to Compensate/Award you the sum of
US$1,570,000.00 from a reserved account which shall be released to
you either by wire transfer or Pre-loaded VISA ATM card. This
payment has been approved by the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
the WORLD BANK and the FBI/INTERPOL. These precautions were taken to
prevent legal issues while receiving your funds so be rest assured
you will have no legal issues. To receive the funds immediately contact
our offices directly via all of the information below: OFFICE
OF CHAIRMAN FEDERAL RESERVE BANK
JANET
YELLEN
xxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com [I put x's in place of their addresses]
OFFICE
FOR FUND REMITTANCE
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@usa.com
Furthermore, we
wish to inform you that we recently received a letter from a Mr.
Bradley Williams detailing explicitly that you passed away and him
being your next of kin is entitled to the funds. He requested for
your funds to be transferred to him.
To
avoid remitting your funds into the wrong account, all mails should
be directed to office of the chairman Federal Reserve Bank JANET
YELLEN with your FULL
NAMES, ADDRESS, LOCATION, AGE and CONTACT NUMBER.
The
Federal Reserve Bank New York will not be held liable if funds
are transferred into the wrong account. Your funds will be
remitted to you immediately we hear from you.
The
WORLD BANK charge you to use these support funds wisely for it is
our aim to help as many individuals become financially independent.
We
assure you of the legitimacy of this transaction and its safety,
contact Janet Yellen now by email (xxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com or
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com) and
call our office directly (202
xxx-xxxx) to
receive your funds ASAP. Congratulations!
Yours in
service, Janet
Yellen, Chairman
Federal Reserve Bank New York"
Most recently (Jan. 2017) comes this email I condensed from an "anti-Spam group", HA.
"Attention: Beneficiary
...the World Bank president...treated on solution to Scam victim problems. ...your name submitted...therefore the United Nations...agreed to compensate...USD$500,000.00.
...contact Agent xxxx...forward...Your full name, your country/city, your delivery address, your telephone number, your age, your occupation and your ID card or passport."
How can anyone be so stupid to think the UN is giving them 1/2 million dollars?? And the gall to say these Spammers seek "solutions to Scam victim problems", as they Scam you.
I recently went to clean out my Spam folder and found the following examples:
1) Alanna Dow wanted to offer me a"customer service assignment" paying $200. All "she" wanted was my name, address, phone number, sex, age and email address. What, no request for bank account numbers and SS number??
2) Several Bank of America notices they "detected unusual activity" and I should "download" since some of my activities would be suspended until this was fixed.
3) Fed Ex International Mail Service "could not deliver your(my) item." I should "download" their "shipping label."
4) Wells Fargo detected "unusual activity" at my [nonexistent] ON LINE account, and of course I must "download" to fix it.
5) American Express said I must "authenticate account" by "downloading file and update account." Since for years I have sent back all their mail to every variant of my name they could find, with the request to take me off their mailing list and DO NOT SOLICIT, this Spam was either a very sneaky attempt to get me for their customer, or another typical Spam email.
Of course there were many of the usual solicitations for male enlargement (my sex is ambiguous because of my name), Viagra, Dr. Oz weight loss help, Canadian pharmacy, million dollar offers from Africa with inheritances, instant loans, service repair contracts, and messages in Chinese that I cannot read. Delete, delete, delete, delete......... There were also a few legitimate contacts that were sent to Spam and I got them too late to act on the invitations, so I guess I just have to look at the Spam folder more often. Grrrrrrr!!
One thing you can do if you suspect a message might be legitimate is to go to Google and place the email address of the sender there and see what appears. You may get information that the email has been identified as a scam or other useful facts. I was recently getting a big red screen view saying that I must phone a certain "legitimate" IT company to keep from loosing important stuff. When I Googled the phone number provided, sure enough, it was tagged as a scam phone number.
Most recently (Jan. 2017) comes this email I condensed from an "anti-Spam group", HA.
"Attention: Beneficiary
...the World Bank president...treated on solution to Scam victim problems. ...your name submitted...therefore the United Nations...agreed to compensate...USD$500,000.00.
...contact Agent xxxx...forward...Your full name, your country/city, your delivery address, your telephone number, your age, your occupation and your ID card or passport."
How can anyone be so stupid to think the UN is giving them 1/2 million dollars?? And the gall to say these Spammers seek "solutions to Scam victim problems", as they Scam you.
I recently went to clean out my Spam folder and found the following examples:
1) Alanna Dow wanted to offer me a"customer service assignment" paying $200. All "she" wanted was my name, address, phone number, sex, age and email address. What, no request for bank account numbers and SS number??
2) Several Bank of America notices they "detected unusual activity" and I should "download" since some of my activities would be suspended until this was fixed.
3) Fed Ex International Mail Service "could not deliver your(my) item." I should "download" their "shipping label."
4) Wells Fargo detected "unusual activity" at my [nonexistent] ON LINE account, and of course I must "download" to fix it.
5) American Express said I must "authenticate account" by "downloading file and update account." Since for years I have sent back all their mail to every variant of my name they could find, with the request to take me off their mailing list and DO NOT SOLICIT, this Spam was either a very sneaky attempt to get me for their customer, or another typical Spam email.
Of course there were many of the usual solicitations for male enlargement (my sex is ambiguous because of my name), Viagra, Dr. Oz weight loss help, Canadian pharmacy, million dollar offers from Africa with inheritances, instant loans, service repair contracts, and messages in Chinese that I cannot read. Delete, delete, delete, delete......... There were also a few legitimate contacts that were sent to Spam and I got them too late to act on the invitations, so I guess I just have to look at the Spam folder more often. Grrrrrrr!!
One thing you can do if you suspect a message might be legitimate is to go to Google and place the email address of the sender there and see what appears. You may get information that the email has been identified as a scam or other useful facts. I was recently getting a big red screen view saying that I must phone a certain "legitimate" IT company to keep from loosing important stuff. When I Googled the phone number provided, sure enough, it was tagged as a scam phone number.
[7-22-16] - This creative scammer (so called bank official) wanted to give me 40% of $37million of a dead mans unclaimed deposit: "My proposals is that i will like you as a foreigner to stand in as the next of kin or distant cousin for us to claim this money, so that the fruits of this old man’s labour will not get into the hands of some corrupt government officials who will later use the money to sponsor war in Africa and kill innocent citizens in the search for political power." So much better to put money in the hands of corrupt non government people.
[11-18] - I recently receive a notice I believe was from my bank which offers some advice which seems useful: "Unfortunately, scammers target your information year-round. Watch out for scams and other scenarios that target your payment information.
- Fake receipts, shipping notices and too-good-to-be-true offers These email scams could infect your device or trick you into disclosing payment card information. A new scam claims to notify people about recent iTunes® purchases linked to their Apple ID. Keep in mind, criminals can copy and paste any company logo on an email. Stay safe by checking your account information through the actual company website.
- Unexpected requests to update your account In a new direct deposit scam, employees receive a phony email appearing to be from their HR department with a link to log in to their account. Scammers capture their information and use it to redirect their direct deposit to another bank account. Be sure to never supply log in credentials or personal information in response to an email.
- Conducting sensitive transactions on public Wi-Fi connections Your payment card information could be intercepted if you use unsecured Wi-Fi connections to shop online. Instead, use an internet connection that you know is secure, like your mobile service provider or home Wi-Fi network.
- Sending money electronically The holiday season could mean more meals out with friends and family. Zelle® is a great new way to split the check and send money to people you know. But, we don't recommend using Zelle with people you don't know or if you aren't sure you'll get what you paid for (like items bought from online bidding or sales sites)."
So be careful out there there this holiday season and the rest of the year too. Cheers
If you have had an internet scam/fraud experience, by all means share it with a Comment.
