Scammers New Technique

Everywhere in the internet world you can see the ads like “Get big money for little work”. Is it possible? No, in real world we can earn money by hard work only. All ads are scam. Normally via email we are getting many spam mails and disregarding them. But on occasion period, the scammers will think masterfully and they will send mail to students regarding occasions. The students will think that it is coming from legitimate site and they are quick to pounce.

This occasion scammers send the mail to check to a potential victim, higher than the price asked. Then the scammer will ask the student to deposit the check and excess amount will send back to you via wire service such as western union. That check is fraudulent and it will be bounced by the bank.

One instance involved a student who was selling textbooks online. One buyer sent the student a check for more than the asking price. After noticing the check was in a dissimilar name than the original buyer, the student called the company issuing the check, who then informed him it was a fake.

Remember that you are not a bank. You must think, why would someone offer to buy something from you for $500 sends you a check for $1,300? Some people are so eager to make money without any hark working.

How you can protect yourself against fraudsters

Deal Only With Real Regulators — It's not hard to figure out who the real regulators are and how you can contact them. You'll find a list of international securities regulators on the website of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and a directory of state and provincial regulators in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. on the website of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA). If someone encourages you to verify information about a deal with an entity that doesn't appear on these lists — such as the "Federal Regulatory & Compliance Department," the "Securities and Registration Compliance" agency, or the "U.S. Securities Registration Bureau" — you're probably dealing with fraudsters. You'll find legitimate contact information for the SEC in the Contact Us section of our website and on SEC Division Homepages. If you're ever unsure whether you're dealing with someone from the real SEC, use our online Question Form to ask us.

Be Skeptical of Government Approval — The SEC does not evaluate the merits of any securities offering, nor do we determine whether a particular security is a "good" investment. Instead, the SEC's staff reviews registration statements for securities offerings and declares those statements "effective" if the companies appear to have satisfied our disclosure rules. In general, all securities offered in the U.S. must be registered with the SEC or must qualify for an exemption from the registration requirements. You can check to see whether a company has registered its securities with the SEC and download its disclosure documents using our EDGAR database of company filings.

Look Past Fancy Seals and Impressive Letterheads — Most people who use computers know how easy it can be to copy and paste images. As a result, today's technology allows fraudsters to create impressive, legitimate-looking websites and stationery at little to no cost. Don't be taken in by a glossy brochure, a glitzy website, or the presence of a regulator's official seal on a web page or document. Again, the SEC does not authorize private companies to use our seal — even as a legitimate link to our website. If you see the SEC seal on a company's website or materials, think twice.

Check Out the Broker and the Firm — Always verify whether any broker offering to buy or sell securities is properly licensed to do business in your state, province, or country. If the person claims to work with a U.S. brokerage firm, call FINRA's Public Disclosure Program hotline at (800) 289-9999 or visit FINRA's website to check out the background of both the individual broker and the firm. Be sure to confirm whether the firm actually exists and is current in its registration, and ask whether the broker or the firm has a history of complaints. You can often get even more information from your state securities regulator.

Be Wary of "Advance Fee" or "Recovery Room" Schemes — An increasing number of investment-related frauds target investors worldwide who purchase "microcap" stocks, the low-priced and thinly traded stocks issued by the smallest of U.S. companies. If the stock price falls or the company goes out of business, the fraudsters swoop in, falsely claiming that they can help investors recover their losses — for a substantial fee disguised as some type of tax, deposit, or refundable insurance bond. As soon as an unwary investor pays the "advance fees," the fraudsters disappear — leaving the investor with even higher losses. For more information about these types of frauds, please read our publication entitled The Fleecing of Foreign Investors.

Beware of fraudsters and scammers

source: http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/fakeseals.htm

Loan scam 17 companies on CBI radar

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has now raised its focus to 17 companies that supposedly received loans. The investigating agency has served warning to all companies in multi-crore scam. They asked them to submit details of the loans they got as suspected beneficiaries.

Totally eight people have been arrested by the CBI. Ramchandran Nair, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of LIC Housing Finance, RN Tayal, General Manager of Bank of India and Venkoba Gujjal, Deputy General Manager of Punjab National Bank. Private company concerned is money scam and three of its senior-most officials; have been arrested.

In other case, Nar0esh Chopra of LIC Mumbai has been accused of receiving Rs. 16 lakes from Money Matter scam Rajesh Sharma. Chopra purportedly traded confidential information on LIC investments to the Adani Group.

Sources in LIC have told NDTV that the scammers were committed in the officers' own capacity, and no norms were violated. LIC had reported on Wednesday, All procedures were adhered to in approving the loans.

Deepak Parekh, the chairman of HDFC Bank said: People working in public sector organizations had sanctioning loans by taking money and they zeroed in on real-estate sector and certain developers who must have paid money to get loans sanctioned. The arrests came after a CBI investigation that covers 5 cities and lasted over a year.

419 trivia

Nigerian criminals are confused by Western names because the Nigerian order of surname and first name is the opposite of English usage.

As a result some of the writers are not aware of what is supposed to be a first name or a surname. Especially confusing to them are Western surnames derived from first names by appending s which they mistake for first names.

Scammers often use titles since they think they will impress people. They assume roles to impress victims abroad by picking titles that astound fellow Nigerians. Nigerian scammers show their weak geography skills when they treat the Irish republic as a part of the UK or Canada as a part of the USA.

Nigerian Scammers also often export domestic institutions to other countries. Neither Benin, nor Togo, nor Senegal nor UK has a Federal High Court. Neither Benin nor Mauritius is "Federal Republics". Nigerian scam websites are predominantly green and white: These happen to be the colours of the Nigerian national flag.

Phone Scam Steals Millions from Elder American

A very big phone scam exploits the good name of the Make a Wish Foundation and it has siphoned over $20 million from unwary Americans and has been rising in recent months. Some of the authorities said it is speedy becoming one of the ugliest telemarketing schemes mainly to target the aged in years.

Many scammers pretending to be calling from government agencies as the Internal Revenue Service and the FDC (Federal Trade Commission) have put a new twist on an old defraud.

They were thrashing offshore, thousands of miles away, but they're using internet phone technology to masquerade their location.

Victims see a 202 area code on their phones when the calls come in. They dial apparently authentic U.S. phone numbers to call the scammers back. Unlike the standard telemarketing frauds, these weren't people hiding behind a phone number you couldn't call, a voice you couldn't re-erect.

These were people who left telephone numbers and would talk to you," said Paul Allvin, a vice president of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, who became alarmed when he started hearing from multiple victims a week about the fraudulent calls. Paul Allvin, a vice president of the Make-A-Wish Foundation said these were people who left telephone numbers and would talk to you.

One team of con artists spoke with Patricia Bowles, the owner of a Virginia modeling studio, almost every day for more than a month. Eventually, they had persuaded her to send more than $300,000 through Western Union and Moneygram in what she thought were luxury taxes and insurance fees on the $1.1 million prize they promised would be arriving any day.

Source: phone scam

Election scam

Elections less than a week left, state and federal officials are asking for the public’s help in spotting election scams and voter fraud.

New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office warns Granite Staters to be wary of voting scams concerning the Internet. According to a news release from the agency Wednesday, Officials are inspecting reports from voters who said they received phone calls heartening them to vote early using an Internet website. NH doesn’t allow voting on the Internet. Votes cast on websites will not be counted only on Nov2 providing personal information on such websites may expose voters to identity theft.

Officials are asking anyone who receives a call about online voting to listen to the call, write down the site address, and also record the phone number listed in caller identification systems. Report those calls immediately to the Attorney General’s Office at 866-868-3703. Residents can register to vote at their polling place and vote on Election Day. U.S. Department of Justice has also established an Election Day phone hotline for election fraud.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark S. Zuckerman, NH election officer, will be on duty while the polls are open. Federal Bureau of Investigation will have special agents available in each field office to receive complaints about election scam or voter fraud. An election fraud fact is posted on the U.S. Attorney’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/nh.

Arizona authorities warning seniors about scam

Arizona authorities are warning about scam in which thief’s pretense as grandchildren over the phone and ask for bail money.

The most recent scam was happened on Oct 18. A 75-year-old Cottonwood man got a call from a woman who recognized herself by name as his granddaughter and told him she had been under arrest in Canada and that she needed bail money. After, somebody who said they were a police sergeant called and told the man to give $5,600 in bail money to contact in Florida where the man followed the instructions but later found out his granddaughter never had been arrested and was safe at her home in Utah.

Sheriff's spokesman Dwight D'Evelyn reported that two such incidents occurred in September last year. He said such types of scams are difficult to investigate because scammers usually live outside the U.S. and discard cell phones before they can be traced. He said detectives judge whoever is responsible uses social networking sites, like Face book to recognize family members through profiles and photos.

He warned people to tell their parents and grandparents about this scam and that any requests for money to be wired must be seen as a red flag. He finally reported, these suspects purposely target seniors who may be more gullible and cooperate quickly out of concern for their 'jailed' loved one.

Internet scammers

The scammers upload fake attractive photos. They pretend to be the foreign specialists working in Nigeria.

After they set up some lovely mail with you, fall in love and maybe even send a presents, they will tell you that their employer pays them with Money Orders, and they can’t cash them in Nigeria.

Scammers finally will send you the Money Orders and ask you to deposit them into your bank account and then wire the money to them through Western Union. But those Money Orders are no good, and not even worth.

The people in the pictures are usually not the ones that are behind the screen. They have one goal likely to get as much personal information Credit card numbers, account details, personal home address etc. Kindly notify these kinds of scams and bait the scammers.

Fake Health Insurance Scams

Jewelry maker Beth Wicker suffered from stroke last April. She still in the hospital to get recovered from stroke and told her health insurance policy which was supposed to be paying her bills was fake.

Wicker reported to CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews:"That this is scam. The insurance I thought I had doesn't exist." The call to Wicker's cell phone came from Scott Richardson, the top insurance regulator in South Carolina. He said, we wanted them to know they were in a bad deal.

To protect from insurance scam:
One of the largest scams involved an official group called, the American Trade Association which was never licensed to sell insurance. Sometimes customers like Wicker would receive policies from real companies whose names were being used without consent.

In the meantime, David Vladeck at the Federal Trade Commission has cracked down on various scams, where an estimated 100,000 families lost nearly $100 million.

FTC says 3 companies such as Health Care One of Arizona, United Benefits of Tennessee and Consumer Health Benefits in Florida promised their customers major medical insurance. But they gave them medical discount cards.

Investigators says the scammers are targeted middle aged Americans who lost their jobs and their company sponsored health insurance during the recession, not able to pay for insurance on their own and then go on the Internet looking for something different. The basic scam was selling insurance. CBS News agreed to withhold his name, but he worked briefly for a scam operation, before blowing the whistle.

Beth Wicker still owes medical bills of around $17,000 and doesn't have insurance. She often wonders why the scammers aren't in jail. She said "I don't know why somebody can't track them down and shut them down instead of letting them just repeatedly do this over and over.

No investigation so far led to an arrest and the scammers are still out there. So what can consumers do? There are two key things to know. First, don't give in to any sales pitch that pressures you to act now. That's a red flag. Second, health care products like limited liability, mini med, insurance and medical discount cards can be lawful, but they need a license and that can be verified by checking with your state insurance department.

Sheriff's Office warns of internet and phone scam

The Carteret County Sheriff’s Office is warning citizens about scam who pose as Drug Enforcement Agency agents and attempt to extort money from victims over the phone.
According to a news release about scam: scammers call the victims, who formerly purchased drugs over the Internet or by telephone, and recognize themselves as Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents or law enforcement officials from other agencies. The scammers inform their victims that purchasing drugs over the Internet or by telephone is illegal, and that enforcement action will be taken against them unless they pay a fine.

Sheriff’s office said: impersonators asked their victims to pay the fine by wire transfer to a chosen location, generally overseas. If victims refuse to send money, the impersonators intimidate to arrest them or search their property. Some victims who might have purchased their drugs using a credit card also reported deceptive use of their credit cards.
The sheriff’s office advised that, the public must be aware that DEA agent will never contact members of the public by telephone to demand money or any other kind of payment.
The public needs more cautions when purchasing controlled substance pharmaceuticals by telephone or by the Internet. It is illegal to purchase controlled substance pharmaceuticals online or by telephone unless very severe requirements are met. All pharmacies must be registered with DEA that dispense controlled substance pharmaceuticals by means of the Internet.
If anyone receiving a telephone call from a person purporting to be a DEA special agent seeking money should refuse the demand and report the threat to the Sheriff’s Office or their local police department.Sheriff Office

Internet scammers target young people in their sights

The consumer regulator scouring the internet nowadays for scams who target young people.

ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) is running the Australian arm of an internet clean for scams that are happening in more than 40 countries. The deputy chairman of ACCC Peter Kell said about 45 employees is looking for scams who were aiming young people, such as sites offering free tickets to concerts.

He also reported: Scammers are targeting particular keywords which might range from things like a miracle cure to easy money. They were taking those sites down if they turn out to be scams and sending more general warnings about the sorts of information that people might put on their Face book page. Criminals have used that information to impersonate young people and target their friends or family for money.

Mr. Kell says young people are not as mindful of the risks online. They are technically know-how, but they're not always experienced consumers and they may not always be able to pick up the signs that there's a scam or there's inadequate information.

Mr. Peter Kell says it is not always easy to get sites taken down. It can vary noticeably. In some jurisdictions it can be very tricky to arrange for a site to be taken down. In some cases if the scammers know that law enforcement agencies are onto them, they just abandon the site.

Combat between Scammers and Scambaiters

Everyone with an email account had received at least one letter from a desperate person in Nigeria who claims a large amount of money. But desires help with expenses in order to regain it. Over the years, thousands have fallen victim to this fraudulent appeal.

But some were decided to fight back against these scammers. They are called scam baiters and they decided to give scammers a taste of their own remedy.

The primary goal of scam baiting is to distract the scammer and to stop the scammers operation. Scam baiters have also begged telephone calls from scammers. These calls are frequently intended to be entertaining and to just waste the 419 scam mail senders time and money on an overseas call.

Phishing emails

Phishing emails are the most widespread Internet and email scam today. It is the identity and password theft based on convincing emails and web pages. These emails resemble valid credit authorities like Citibank, eBay, or PayPal. They frighten you into visiting a phony web page and make you to enter your ID and password. They will even suggest you a story of how your account has been attacked by hackers or scammers to entice you into entering your confidential information.

The email message will require you to click on a link, but instead of leading you to the real login https: site, they will to a fake website which is often very convincing looking. You then innocently enter your ID and password where your information is intercepted by the scammers, who later access your account and swindle you for several hundred dollars.

This phishing con depends on people believing the legality or their emails and web pages. Strictly the beginning of the link address should have https://, Phishing fakes or scams will just have http://, make a phone call to the financial institution to verify if the email is legit. Meanwhile, never click on the link in any doubtful email.

The following scheme may also work: You send someone money for instructions on where to go and what to download and install on your computer to turn it into a money-making machine for scammers.

You get a unique ID while signup and you have to give them your PayPal account information for the big money deposits you'll soon be receiving. The program that you are supposed to run opens multiple ad windows, repeatedly, thus generating per-click revenue for scammers.

In other state, your ID will be limited to a certain number of page clicks per day. To make any money whatsoever from this scheme, you are pretty much forced to scam the scammers by hiding your real IP address with Internet proxy services such as "find not", so that you can make more page clicks. It’s a true calamity if you get conned into this scam.

Nigerian dating scam

The Nigerian dating scams target the lonely and susceptible persons and they are hugely profitable.

The most common comment of victims is "I can't believe I was so stupid!"

All over West African countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal etc scammers are zeroing in on their prey, singles looking for love online. Scammers spend their day trolling the dating sites and chat rooms for contact emails and send off thousands of scam letters and scam emails awaiting the victim's replies.

They are offering the chance of finding true love and there are plenty of takers. However later, the susceptible hearts accept requests that will ultimately lead to financial losses and heartbreak. The scammers mostly choose chat rooms and dating sites since the person in love offers the chance of the biggest payoffs.

Scammers use photos taken from profiles of other people on dating sites, they never use photos of themselves, and they are photos of innocent victims. They may also use many aliases like emails, age, photos, gender and sexual orientation in order to cast their net to catch as many victims as possible. Scammers often use attractive female photo profiles as lots of men will respond to an attractive woman's personal ad based on the photo alone. Sometimes the scammer purchases goods with stolen credit cards but have problem getting them delivered as many US merchants are now wary of shipping to Nigeria.

If the scammer has asked for money, stop further communications with them where no matter how truthful they may, enjoy the relationship but don’t send them money.

Man Loses $300000 in Love Scam

• The latest USA Crime News: Serious and Crazy Crime News.
• A NJ man loses his pension and more in online scam promising romance.

Watch out the video here: Man Loses $300000 in Love Scam

Scammers enact grandchildren

ONEIDA City Police are alerting area residents to a phone scam which has already been played on one Oneida man.

In this case, the victim an elderly male receives a phone call from someone stating they are a grandchild of the victim and they have been under arrest in another country and need bail money agitated to them. After that money is sent by wire to an out of the country location and the victim later learns that their grandchild was not in that country.

Federal authorities are contacted as the money is picked up outside the country where tracking down the pickup of the money is difficult due to the delay in reporting and the locations used by the suspects. Police says: They will aim elderly victims as they may have grandchildren who do not live nearby or they are not capable to quickly confirm that it is not the grandchild. A previous incident of this kind of scam, with a deviation, happened few years ago in which the victim was advised that a grandchild had been concerned in an accident in Canada, seized and needed money related to the accident. But in that case no money had been sent. The location of where the money was to be sent was tracked back to a hotel in Toronto and the information was turned over to Canadian authorities.

If anyone receiving a call of these types were asked to contact police.

Now Scammers have targeting door-to-door recently with the "Blacktop Scam”. By means of internet access, it’s easy to read about these scams and know how to avoid them. It is important for the police and potential victims to make scam baiting and to get the word out to newspapers and family. So everyone will be aware of these scams.

Employment scams

A scam that coerced job hunters to forfeit an upfront fee to stuff envelopes at home has been shut down by a district court in the U.S.

According to a grievance brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, an U.S. Global Resources company promised job hunters up to $4,400 per month to stuff brochures into envelopes.

In turn to get the jobs, yet, applicants were told they had to pay a $40 refundable fee to receive their employment kit.

After paying the fee, applicants received nothing but only a pamphlet entitled Secret Home Employment Guide, which listed other fake work at home opportunities and how to promote them. Those applicants who asked for refunds were incapable to reach anyone with the company.

Beware of CWG Scam

Add one more scam to the Commonwealth Games. You can win a million dollar lottery instituted by the Commonwealth Games to be hosted by Delhi. A scam email with New Delhi Games as the topic is doing the rounds on the Web. It says, we are pleased to officially validate your email account as the winner of $1,000,000 with the Common Wealth Games Programme held in New Delhi, India starting from 3rd October to 14th October, 2010.

The required email asks you to send a scanned copy of your identification along with your cell phone number and address for the money transaction. In one such email HT City called the Delhi landline number mentioned in it. A man replied in a heavy foreign accent, and asked us if we had replied to that email. When asked about the whereabouts of the lottery office, he stated as “British High Commission, Chanakyapuri.”
An official at the British High Commission said: This is not our phone number, and clearly someone is trying to trick people. RK Gaur, press information officer at CBI also reported
“We haven’t received any complaint of the scam so far”.

Special web pages have been created on the net warning people to stay away from the scam.

Russian mail order bride scam

Beware Russian Web Order Brides where many men falling for Online Scams, giving away their Hearts and Money etc.

Scam the scammers

Scams target people of all backgrounds, ages and income levels. There is no one group of people who are more likely to become a victim of a scam. If you think you are 'too clever' to fall for a scam, you may take risks that scammers can take advantage of.

Scams succeed because of the basic two things:

Initially, a scam looks like the real thing. The other thing, scammers manipulate you by ‘pushing your buttons’ to produce the automatic response they want.

While they are constantly on the look-out for dishonest operators, some scams only come to their attention when people report them. Scambaiting is the practice of pretending interest in a fraudulent scheme in order to influence a scammer in many possible ways.