Friday 11 April 2008

When something looks too good to be true...

it usually is.

A man in the Borders area of Scotland is £500,000 ($1m) lighter after falling for a sophisticated scam, perporting to sell shares - in non-existing companies. Using high-pressure sales techniques (hence the by-name "boiler room scam") the man was pushed into buying the shares.

Beware of emails pretending to bring you lottery wins. First question to ask yourself: did I recently buy a lottery ticket, and if so, did you check whether you had won? Normally, you have to go back to the retailer that sold you the ticket to claim any winnings. In doing so, you don't put down your email address, do you?

Beware of the West African email scams. They say they have the fortunes of an unfortunate individual who perished (e.g.) in the Concorde crash outside Frankfurt Airport in 2000 - except, Concorde crashed outside Paris. In order to get your share of the millions, you only have to give all your personal and banking details, including PIN codes and what have you.

If you ever fall for that, you may lose more than just money.

11 comments:

  1. Yep... people need to think first...

    be well,
    Dawn
    http://journals.aol.com/princesssaurora/CarpeDiem/

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  2. oh, I've gotten emails like that and just laugh it off cause it is screaming scams all over it. I just deleted it.
    Gem

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  3. I get those bogus email from time to time.  Unbelieveable that anyone would fall for them  Usually, it's some poor, lonely elderly person.  But I actually know of a college educated middle aged man that fell for the Nigerian scam.  Ended up in jail and charged with a felony...the problems go on for him...lost his job and now can't get another one because of the felony charges.  He may be college educated but certainly has no common sense.  Linda in WA

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  4. I've gotten those emails from Nigeria as long as I've been on the computer.  They even showed something about it, exposing it for what it was.  There is even a song put out by some Nigerian musician called CHOP YO MONEY.

    Caveat Emptor.  ALWAYS.  

    Nelishia
    http://journals.aol.com/nelishianatl/PRAYINGANDBELIEVING/

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  5. Will people ever learn  ? is it greed that puts blinkers on them do you think ?....love Jan xx

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  6. Thank you for highlighting this problems about scams. I feel for the guy in scotland,Some of these scams look real.Its not always all about greed for the victim. People who live from hand to mouth need extra money and if they can make a good investment there going to fall for scam sadly its a way of life these days
    love and hugs
    katie

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  7. I get those scam emails daily and just hit delete. There seems to be more and more of them lately.

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  8. As much as this is publicized constantly, it's amazing how many (greedy) people fall for this stuff.  I get these all the time.  Once in a while I'll reply and play with these people giving them ridiculous and so obviously off-the-wall information.  Needless to say, I never hear from them again!  Nelishia got one the other day offering to sell us an island in the South Pacific.  I wanted to send them a picture of a beach and tell them we had this property for sale that offered a great view of the Smoky Mountains and just minutes from downtown Knoxville,TN!

    Dirk

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  9. I suppose we all want to be rich, and it's easy to be sucked in.  I just hit delete now, don't even read them any more.  Although I was very excited the first time I heard I had won the lottery!!!!!!  A million pounds I think it was.!!!  I hope that poor man has learned his lesson.!!!
    Hugs
    Carolxx

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  10. I've gotten these scams in the mail. I don't even read them, just delete and report them. I don't know why I bother to report them anymore they change addresses so quickly it's pointless. (Hugs) Indigo

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  11. I've recvd those scam e-mails... don't understand how those people live with themselves.

    Joann

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