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SCAMS
A variety of devious and deceitful SCAMS exposed!

Criminals might assume you are stupid or gullible, and if they were proved right then crime would pay. However, you can stop their evil ways from getting the better of you! If you know about SCAMS and the various devious tricks that crooks get up to, then you are safe, and they are sorry!

Here on this page (and those connected), are informative examples of scams to beware of. This page is elaborated from the Rogues Gallery of suspicious emails.

VIRUSES: Computer viruses get into your computer if you let them in! The usual ploy by virus senders is to send you an e-mail which is designed to trick you into opening an attachment or clicking on a link. This problem is explained at the page of anti-virus measures, and there are some virus messages shown off at the Rogues Gallery page2 and at the Virus Museum. A few of these bogus messages pretending to come from known companies are shown here as special pages: Microsoft message , Worm Klez E Security , Yahoo Games Screensaver message , Mail Returned is sometimes a virus

BANK HOAXES: Messages which claim to be from the bank are usually NOT from the bank at all. They are phishing attacks by crooks trying to steal your identity and so steal your money. Hoax bank messages usually take the form of enhanced security protection notices. Don't be fooled by them.

ADVANCE FEE FRAUD: The Advance Fee Fraud or Nigeria Scam, also the 419 Scam: A messages arrives supposedly from some dignitary or some official, offering you a large slice of a few million dollars if you get involved in moving some money. It's a scam, and it's been around so long now that you really should be aware of it. Examples of this have been stuffed and mounted on the Rogues Gallery page, and you can see how standardised the emails are. Despite a lot of work by various crime fighters including The 419 Coalition , www.419eater.com , Freeman Institute , http://allafrica.com/419_scam.html , Outblaze , Scamorama , www.makemoneyfastworld.com/content/view/29/38/, etc, the 419 or "Nigeria Scam" is Nigeria's 4th largest national earner. Note: The Nigeria Scam is not exclusive to Nigeria

To summarise how the 419 Advance Fee Fraud works, what happens is that you are expected to pay small sums up front to cover expenses so you can claim the big amount, which of course is nonexistent.

DATE SCAM: Obtaining money by deception is also a feature of Dating Scams, where someone on a dating site asks you for money for some purpose or other, and, if you've been fooled into falling in love with the scamster, then you might end up paying.

LOTTERY WINNER SCAM: You've been chosen by your email coming up lucky as emails are randomly selected to win a big prize... no, I wouldn't have thought so either! It's another ADVANCE FEE FRAUD. Rogues Gallery 2 has at least one example of a lottery scam message for you to marvel at. Surely people aren't fooled by those, are they?!

CHEQUE SCAM: It looks like an honest order, and the deal seems like you can't lose, and you get paid by cheque, which clears, so what's the problem? The Cheque Scam catches people out because of the assumption that a cheque that's CLEARED is safe. It isn't. It was a stolen cheque, and then there is trouble.

TRIANGULATION SCAM: This takes a bit more thinking about, as you buy something secondhand and it arrives, but then later something goes wrong. This requires a more detailed explanation. See the Triangulation Scam and avoid being caught out.

ATM / hole in the wall cash machine: These are not always what they seem, and can have been meddled with. More about this explained as ATM SCAM

SCARY MESSAGES: or panicmail, the idea being that your guard will drop if you are frightened by the fake urgency in the message. See TERRAKT IN AUSTRALIA , and AOL warning. Also, you may receive a fake eBay message accusing you of fraud, or you may be accused of sending spam. eg. john@advertiger.com message. Also messages alleging you have made a video and put it online and you'll be in trouble. That, and various other scary things are PANICMAIL

SPAM SCAM: Spam may be a nuisance, but did you know, most of the stuff being sold in spam is fake, a scam, or otherwise not what it's claimed to be? For example mortgage spam may not get you a loan at all, and may be just to get your personal details. Also, various sexual dysfunction remedies are fake if they are sold in spam, and the problem of fake drugs is an even bigger danger.

CONFIDENCE TRICKS: These include the Chain Letter. It's usually an incoming message that's long, but looks friendly and tries to get you emotionally involved in some long story, and then at the end you are threatened with ill luck if you fail to comply with the demand that you FORWARD IT ON! Don't! Never forward-on any message containing a threat or insult or emotional blackmail, even if it pretends to be on the side of good and makes out you are bad for not sending it on. This type of thing is known as a CHAIN LETTER. There's a lot more to this, and it's important you are forewarned! See the CHAIN LETTERS page

PYRAMID SCHEMES: Pyramid Schemes are a type of GET RICH QUICK schemes, and although the notions expressed in the hyped-up sales material seem to make sense, there is a fundamental flaw in the mathematics which is covered up by a confidence trick. Some people will get rich by Pyramid Schemes, the people who start them, usually. Most people, however, will LOSE! Beware! Don't get caught out. If it's MLM (multi level marketing) but there's no genuine product, then it's most likely to be a Pyramid Scheme!

GET A UNIVERSITY DEGREE: Even if you haven't achieved University level of academic education, you must surely have enough good sense to realise that you can't buy a degree from some scamster and expect to get a better job. It's a scam! See Qualifications on Qualifications

JOB OFFER: You're apparently being offered a job, unsolicited, online. The job consists of processing payments from around the world, as cheques, which you put through your bank account. Shame it's a money-laundering scam! See Job Spam Scam. Incidentally, the scamsters often fake-up the identities of reputable companies such as Waller Truck.

FAKE PRODUCTS: Often they look like copies of reputable well-known brand names. Sometimes they are just cheap copies. Sometimes they are worse than that and are barely functional. One such line of counterfeit products is the fake USB memory sticks

COMPENSATION FOR NIGERIA SCAM: If you've already been scammed, you might or might not give a second glance to messages such as the message from Kofi Annan or the message from EFCC Nigeria which look as if they are going to send you compensation for being scammed. Well they're not, because these messages are also scams! The scamsters have even been known to pretend to be Robert Mueller III of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Come on, use some commonsense, folks!

PARCEL DELIVERY SERVICE: If you receive a card or voicemail saying there's a parcel for you and you've got to phone an expensive premium rate number, it could be a Parcel Delivery Service scam

SURVEY ABOUT FAMILY FRIENDLY FILMS: Not what it seems. It's not a person asking your opinion; it's a robot telling you what to think. I've heard it's backed by a far right wing christian organisation. Feature Films for Families

VIRTUAL GREETING CARD: Although there ARE genuine eCards, you have to be careful as some of the incoming items are bogus eCards. Check with your friend to find out it they really sent it. Do this BEFORE opening it! Virtual Greeting Cards to Beware of. These are much more common at opportune times such as Xmas and Valentine's Day. Most notorious is the Hallmark Virus e-card. This is obviously not from Hallmark, but it's also a much over-stated threat, as per the Hallmark Warning (chain letter).

VODAFONE MESSAGE: Message from Vodafone offering you £50 if you register with the Vodafone E-Topup system. Can that be real? Not if it's anything like THIS Vodafone E-Topup Hoax Message

VARIOUS: Here are a few others which are worth a mention. You don't have to read them all, but you can see the type of thing: Bank Security Update Scam , eBay Spam Hoax , O2 online billing , Amazon security verification of identity , Friendship Screen saver, spice girls' vocal concert , goldfish , free screensaver, Congratulations You Have Won The UK National Lottery , Microsoft letter hoax , free Klez E immunity tool , Yahoo Games Screensaver , Lottery Scam , Mail Returned virus messages , Bank Security server update hoax + PayPal account expires virus

Final note: If you live in a civilised country, you may have become accustomed to the notion that it is the job of the police to crack crime and to catch criminals, and that there's not so much villainy going on in this modern age. Be careful in assuming such things, because although the police can catch crooks locally, and for serious crimes they can deal with serious crime at a national level, the problem is that a lot of "scam" crime is small-time crime at an international level, which makes it difficult for the police of any country to deal with it. The scamster's worst enemy is your commonsense. If you are well informed and sensible enough to avoid being scammed, then the crooks are out of business.