The another event of scam operators plying their trade, this moment in Tazewell region but that doesn’t indicate they won’t attempt their luck in other Virginia counties or go to the state line into West Virginia. Law enforcement authorities recently warned people about all the latest scams.
The scammer sends an email from a dear one who is either imprisoned in a foreign country or stranded in one; of course, the victim is request to send money to a lawyer. Like this, I got one mail a couple of months before. The scammer Collects a friend’s mailing list and sends a message saying he had been robbed in Scotland and required money to get home. Nobody believed it, but people who have family and friends they don’t see regularly might be more prone to fall for this scam. One Tazewell woman transferred $5,000 after receiving an email stating that one of her relatives had been imprisoned in Somalia. The relative was actually in home at that time.
Scammers make these messages believable by taking personal details from social media sites such as Facebook, twitter, etc… They can rapidly study how to describe the victim’s home, list the names of his or her children, and provide other details to make message as trusted one.
Other scams involve tricks such as telling victims that they’ve won $200. Naturally, they are asked to pay a fee so the prize can be processed and forwarded to them.
Scammers may claim that they are administrators from Social Security or a bank that have to verify Social Security numbers or bank numbers. They state the real numbers by persistently listing incorrect ones. A variation of this trick uses a professional-looking website that looks like original bank site. I received like this, but it wasn’t from my bank.
To avoid this type of scam you have to think before sending money. Once you send money, there is little possibility of getting it back.
I received the 'Friend stranded in foreign country' scam email, and I replied to them, telling my friend to change their password , as I usually do if I get a suspicious email from a friend, and usually I never hear from the scammer again, who is absolutely shocked about being rumbled. This time, however, I was the one who was shocked when the scammer wrote back, saying they were serious (?!) and insisting I help them out. I was not prepared for this and did 1 moment doubt as to whether this was a scam after all. I did manage to warn my friend through facebook in the end.
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