Scams/cons to be aware of

[Spazosaurus]

My fellow Gatters. In a world gone insane, where our little children are kidnapped, raped and murdered, where people are killed for something as trivial as $5...ladies and gents, in a world...in a country where crime is rampant and at every turn someone is looking to take something that isnt theirs, take your hard earned possessions away from you just so, I think we need to be extra vigilant and be aware of some of the scams and cons these scum come up with to distress us. And I think that this fact that has prompted the creation of this thread. I would like for our friends and colleagues here to share their stories and experience on anything and everything, from the business places run by criminals who continually try to rob you with their pricing gun to the criminals that rob you with real guns. Please, share your concerns and experiences. Who knows, you might save someone from an incident that will scar them for the rest of their lives, or even SAVE someone's life.

I'll start the ball rolling with a scam I've recently become aware of...

Bandits unscrew the number plate of your vehicle and wait for you to come back to your car, however long that may take. They wait for you to hit a highway or a thoroughfare at which point they drive behind you and hold your number plate out their window and signal you on the premise that it had just fallen off of your vehicle. When you stop, it is when they strike. They take all your personal belongings along with your car, not before they hit you some serious gun butt or even worse, kill you.

People. If this happens to you, do not stop. If you can, try to identify THEIR numberplate and make a report. Your number plate can be easily replaced by the man on the main road by Laventille for about $15. This is not worth your life.

I stickied this thread because I would like for others to share any scams/things to be wary of they know about to the rest of us.

[Saxito Pau]

I have heard of this. Good looking out.

[Spazosaurus]

Ok i'll go again...

A bandit airs out one of your tyres and proceeds to find a good spot to wait for you to come back. He comes along, quite nicely dressed and looks innocent enough and offers to help you change your tyre. When the deed is done, you get a story that he park his car somewhere (far walking distance, close driving distance) and you offer to help by driving him to his car. It is at this point the gun comes out and he orders you out of the car.

I know these are vehicle related, but can be about any scam at all.

[haterforever]

let me add one. beware of buying and selling in the classified ads in papers, esp when looking for apartments, cars, laptops etc. bandits either place false ads or look for ads in the papers they think they can benefit from.  IN the case of apartments and cars, the bandits place false ads and tell you to walk with a downpayment/security, and when you meet them they take the cash and run away.

[Spazosaurus]

good one hater. Keep them coming people.

[W1nTry]

I know of 2 situations to be aware of:

#1. Throwing of stones/debris off of flyovers on the north/southbound highway. I'm sure ppl have gotten this in email and I have a friend that indeed this did happen to, so it's not just a myth. They throw a 'big stone' off the flyover overhead and damage either your car or worse the windscreen. Naturally ppl tend to stop to assess the damage. They then proceed to 'appear' out of nowhere and relieve you of your damage property.

#2. Scamming the elderly. This also happened to a family member (and if I EVER find the person i'll castrate him with a rusty dull pot spoon with an entry wound via his @$$). A man (usually) in his 30-40s very well dressed and well mannered, rings the doorbell (or very well let's himself onto your property) without your knowing. Then proceeds to say he's known your deceased husband/relative and even possibly worked for them. Goes on to tell you that he's had a bit of a hard time lately and wishes for a drink of water or to use the bathroom. Once you turn your back they proceed to look through your house taking whatever cash, jewellery, alcohol, etc. Now as I said the target demograph is OLD ppl, so do warn your grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc.

[woodyear99]

#2. Scamming the elderly. This also happened to a family member (and if I EVER find the person i'll castrate him with a rusty dull pot spoon with an entry wound via his @$$). A man (usually) in his 30-40s very well dressed and well mannered, rings the doorbell (or very well let's himself onto your property) without your knowing. Then proceeds to say he's known your deceased husband/relative and even possibly worked for them. Goes on to tell you that he's had a bit of a hard time lately and wishes for a drink of water or to use the bathroom. Once you turn your back they proceed to look through your house taking whatever cash, jewellery, alcohol, etc. Now as I said the target demograph is OLD ppl, so do warn your grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc.

Steups castrate for real yes, no respect at all.

[woodyear99]

This article deals with email scams, they mention a site called 419eater that actually tries to waste the scammers' time lol

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/07/20/laughing-all-the-way-to-the-bank-my-one-week-tally-of-internet/

On Monday of last week, I was just another laid-off guy trying to pay off credit cards and find full-time work. But what a difference a week makes: By Friday, I found myself awash in lucrative overseas job offers ... and rolling in dough as multi-multi millionaire.

Well, at least that's what my spam said.

We've all fielded dozens of those Nigerian scam emails, the creepy ones usually titled "DEAR LOVED ONE." Or: "Congratulations on your lottery prize." Or start off: "I am most humble seeking your assistance with a matter of a great importance." (You don't have to be an English professor to know the grammar gives those ones away.)
But amid this Great Recession -- when most of us must do with less and less -- it seems a cruel irony we all have a surplus of these phony-baloney emails to deal with. And so, I concocted a little experiment: What if, instead of hitting "delete," I actually saved a week's worth of these missives, then tallied up my hypothetical proceeds?

The good news is that I'm way stinking rich, as soon as I figure out how to cash in.

How stinking rich, you might ask?

    * I won $6.3 million in various lotteries, in places as far away as Spain and Australia. I've never been to either place, nor can I speak Spanish or Outback.

    * Was given a "Swift ATM card" with a $1.5 million balance. How come? Here's the reply, in best banker's vernacular: "After and [sic] evaluation with computer permutation and manual records, we have found out that you are among the 50 people that have legally and creditably used ATM and credit card effectively."

    * Got offered a $150 million loan, and up to 25 years to pay it off.

    * Was asked to help transfer almost $141 million in funds from foreign banks on behalf of deceased people. Well, one was almost dead, though she was working hard on it. Here's what she wrote: "Recently, my doctor told me that I have limited days to live due to the cancerous problems I am suffering from, though what bothers me most is the stroke that I have in addition to the cancer."

For some reason, an overwhelming majority of these emails came on a Friday -- more than on all other days combined -- which leads me to believe that there's some connection to the end-of-the-week payday. Of course, you can't get the big lottery prize or proceeds from the funds transfer until you provide valuable financial and personal information first.

And while you and I might find it impossible to believe that anyone actually falls for this stuff, the con artists behind it all play a numbers game based on percentages. That is: They send thousands and thousands of these emails, and even if just a fraction of 1% get a response, that's enough to provide fresh leads for cleaning out someone's bank account.

While counting my mock proceeds and having a laugh was good enough for me, for some that's not enough. Web sites such as www.419eater.com gather together groups of "scambaiters," people who mess with minds and livelihoods of the scam artists. (419 is the section of the Nigerian penal code that addresses fraud schemes.)

"It doesn't matter if you are new to this sport or a hardened veteran," the folks behind 419 Eater proclaim on their welcome page. "If you are wasting the time of a scammer or frustrating them in any way, well that's good enough for us, and we would welcome you to join with our now very large community."

Be advised: These 419 Eaters are tight-knit, guard their identities closely, and can play hardball with the scammers. As for their rationale, "For the most part these criminals are not 'poor people trying to scratch a living,' but are indeed very prosperous compared to their law-abiding countrymen, and many operate in highly organized and highly successful criminal gangs."

Calling what they do a "cybersport," the 419 Eaters maintain that by pranking and toying with the folks behind financial scam emails, "much fun can be had and at the same time you will be doing a public service."

In the midst of this, flustered scam artists say and do the darndest things. Many get tricked into posing with signs such as "WELCOME TO THE HALL OF SHAME" to mark pages on the site. And one fellow apparently infuriated with the tactics 419 Eaters who'd gotten the best of him emailed this not-so intimidating threat:

"I will condom you to a painful death." Ouch!

[New Era Outlaw]

I'm really tempted to cuss the living daylights out of those Nigerian scammers, but apparently, Encyclopedia Dramatica has done me one better and TROLLED THE F*** OUT OF THEM.

Researching what they did exactly is pretty NSFW (that's your warning right there, by the way), but, if you must know, they actually got the scammers to pose naked.

Yes, you heard right.

They got the scammers. To. Pose. NAKED.



......ewwwwwww.


...they also got them to hold up signs saying things like 'WE LIKE DONGS', too, which was pretty hilarious, but, all the same. Are they really that desperate for cash? Damn.

[SPK]

Hmm...when it comes to scambaiting, there's one site I always check up on, there's especially one individual who has made these scammers pay over the years, by wasting money by freighting junk at their expense. BTW, all scammers can end up on the hook, not those based from western Africa alone: anywhere from Mexico to Romania to China, they've twisted scammers round their fingers.

Oh, and there are all sort of modalities that they push them through, from simple time-wasting to basically making them go naked as NEO said, but to go even further and engage in certain types of activities that tend to be a bit disturbing, such as the CSR modality....*shakes head and shudders slightly*.

It's just sad what they look to do for money.

[woodyear99]

Hmm found a listing here of 10 common scams done online or on the phone. Never heard of the prediction scams before, makes you wonder who thinks up this stuff yes.....

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6740374.ece

Amir Orad, the executive vice-president and chief marketing officer of the online security specialist Actimize, is a leading expert on financial crime, cyber security, payments and authentication.

Here, he shares his expertise and describes ten common scams that have cheated people out of millions of pounds worldwide.

“Criminals and fraudsters tend to thrive in financial crises, and from our experience with the largest banks in Europe and the rest of the world, recent activity has simply reinforced this conviction.

“As Actimize provides anti-fraud and financial crime solutions for banks and financial institutions, we have witnessed a wide variety of scams, ranging from the simple and obvious to the complex and astounding.

“Here are the top ten scams that are currently trying to relieve unsuspecting consumers of their hard-earned money. These have been categorised into two groups. The first five are those that try and fool people into sending money directly to the bad guys – pretending to be in trouble, a job offer, a favour etc known as 419 or advance fee fraud.

“The second five detail scams whose purpose is to steal personal credentials and computer data to convince the bank to send money. Here, at least, most banks will return the lost funds to consumers unless the bank can prove they were reckless.”

1. Social Networking scams
Fraudsters hack a social networking account, such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or Bebo, and then contact friends and family of claiming that they are in trouble and need money to be sent immediately to a specified address.

2. Prediction scams
This scam arrives in the form of an e-mail that provides the results of a football game taking place the following day, at no cost. The next day the receiver discovers that the prediction is true. Over the next couple of weeks further e-mails are sent providing results that also turn out to be correct.

Following a number of e-mails, another one is sent offering the recipient the chance to buy the results of future games for a hefty sum. The trick is that most of the people who received e-mails would have had a wrong result and so fallen out of the process. But statistically, a small proportion of all the people involved would have received e-mails with the correct results each time.

3. Economy-related scams
Prying on those in financial trouble, these scams can be performed via internet, telephone or post and include a range of financial help and offers such as loan and debt consolidation, fix-your-credit-rating, repossession assistance, phoney advance loans and mortgage foreclosure rescue schemes.

4. "It’s me" scam
This is a scam that has been prevalent in Asia but is now being seen in the West. The fraudster calls an elderly person declaring that their granddaughter has been in a road accident. Cries for help are screamed down the phone line and the fraudster informs the person that money needs to be sent immediately to cover the medical costs.

5. The "offer you can’t refuse"
This involves the sale of a product for which the fraudster provides an overpayment in the form of a cashier’s cheque, usually stolen, and asks for the excess to be transferred back. This can also occur when targets are offered a job, for example, to earn 20% commission. They receive a £10,000 cheque and are then asked to deposit it and return £8,000. The cheque later bounces, by which time the £8,000 is already in the hands of the bad guys.

6. Unauthorised billing group
Many technologies and industries are exploited by this scam, whereby a fraudulent company or service continues to charge an account without the owner’s consent. This also includes online suggestions for limited trials or “verification only” of cards and then charging more than mentioned at the beginning. Most banks, however, will return the money to the account.

7. "Man-in-the-phone" scams
Man-in-the-phone scams use deception and trickery during a telephone conversation to persuade an individual to divulge information. The fraudster phones someone and informs them that there has been a security risk on their account. The fraudster then conference calls in the real bank, whose representative asks for the secret information. Since it’s the real bank with the real account information, the individual often answers the security questions, then provides all bank details, while the fraudster eavesdrops in the background.

8. E-mails containing Trojans
Another e-mail scam is promotional offers, especially ones for anti-spyware solutions. These can include links or attachments infected with Trojans that record keyboard strokes and attempt to steal sensitive details such as passwords etc.

9. Fake escrow services
This is a scam that is growing more common on eBay and other online auctions. Legitimate escrow services act as a third-party go-between: buyers send money to the escrow company, which holds the funds until the seller delivers the merchandise. However, fraudsters are commonly setting up fake ones to con buyers as well as sellers.

10. Phishing scams
This is probably the most common form of fraud and it is still as common and as successful as when it was introduced. Masquerading as a legitimate organisation, usually in the form of an e-mail announcing a bank account or PayPal security breach, the fraudster attempts to acquire bank details, passwords, or login details, often via a spoof website.

[Saxito Pau]

The other day my mom presented to me this letter that came via postal mail:

FROM: MIKE BALOI
TEL: 27 835 311 379.
FAX: 27 112 197 374.
EMAIL: mrmikebaloi@hotmail.com
DATE: 03 March 2011.

Dear Sir,

In order to transfer out (US$15 Million) Fifteen Million United States Dollars from First National Bank (FNB), I have picked up the trust and courage to write you this letter with divine confidence that you are a reliable and honest Person who will be capable for this important business transaction believing also that you will never let me down either now or in the future.

My name is Mr. Mike Baloi a senior Auditing Officer with the FNB in South Africa There is an account opened in this bank in 2000 and since 2002 nobody has operated on this account again. After going through some old files in the records. I discovered that if I do not remit this money out urgently it would be forfeited to the government.

The owner of this account died since 2002. No other person knows about this account or any thing concerning it. the account has no other beneficiary and my investigation proved to me as well that this company does not know anything about this account and the amount involved is (US$15 Million) Fifteen Million United States Dollars.

I want to transfer this sum of Fifteen Million United States Dollars into a safe foreign account abroad. I am contacting you based on the fact that you are a foreigner because this money can only be approved for payment to a foreigner. more so it can not be approved by any local bank here, as this money is in US Dollars hence the former owner of this account is a foreigner too. I know that this proposal will come to you as a surprise as we don't know ourselves before. However I got your contact from a trade consultant here in South Africa though I did not disclose the purpose of my seeking for a foreign business partner to him.

I have involved a very senior official in the Operational department and we have agreed that after the transfer of the money into your account, you shall be entitled to 30oh of the total sum. We the officials will take6 0% while l0% is for expenses. All necessary precautions have been taken to ensure 100% risk free situation on the side of both parties.

Please note that this deal can only take place on the following conditions:-

l. You will provide the bank account and other relevant Particulars/information for easy and onward Remittance of this money.

2. Absolute confidentiality and sincerity will be required and guaranteed considering our (me and my partners) positions in the bank.

All things being equal, this transaction will be within l0 working days as soon as we hear from you. Please treat with utmost confidentiality. Contact me as quickly as possible through my fax No: +2711 2197374. or above telephone number.

Regards,

MR MIKE BALOL

Within 5 seconds of beginning to read I handed it back to her and told her outright it was a scam. She didn't believe me at first, but only after I explain the nature of the letter to her. but here is the kicker of this particular letter:

1. It had no return postal address, neither on envelope nor letter
2. It was mailed out on March 3rd
3. It came from South Africa, according to the obvious South Africa stamp on it
4. It was addressed to my dad
5. My dad DIED in 2005!

My question is: HOW did someone in freaking SOUTH AFRICA get my deceased Father's name and FULL mailing address?

I plan to forward this to the Fraud Squad and the newspapers... if others in Trinidad are getting this same later, somebody here will get greedy and get ketch.

[Arcmanov]

My sis got a similar one, and she actually believed it too.
Only hers came from, you guessed it: Nigeria.
I had to steer her to Google to avoid being scammed.

Lots of people in T and T get ketch with this already.
The lure of easy money nah. 

The saying 'if it looks too good to be true, it usually is' has to
be one of the best (and truest) in existence oui.

[phoenix31tt]

My dad get a similar letter to Saxman's

as to how they get the names and info... i suppose somebody in one of the utilities etc probably sold it...

[SPK]

How they got it - quite often if they did any sort of telemarketing-based application or similar methods, then the information may tend to be sold afterwards to scammers.

My bro got such 419 snail mail before, we worked it out to being due to him signing up for those cruise ship jobs, which was another scam in its own right. He only started getting the mail about 3-4 years after the application.

[Fkacn_tt]

the new one is that they are hacking your email and sending deals using people on your contact list, thinking of it it's not that new but my moms almost got caught, luckily i was paying attention and stopped here before she gave out he credit card info.

This is a really good thread it will help me educated my family especially those a bit new to this internet thing as they say. keep up the good work guys.

[woodyear99]

Remember folks if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Also these 419 email scams are nothing new. My dad was telling me back in the 80s he got random phone calls about prizes which sound very similar to those we now see in emails.

Anyone following that vicky boodram cruise scam? Checked out the facebook group, apparently they still waiting for their money.

[Jdcrys_Shinkuu]

I believe there are companies setup that operate with legitimate loop holes as well. for instance i was called on my cell phone from someone from the US. i thought it was a school i applied for or even family. when i answered the call the person is telling me that i won a chance in the US green card lottery and all i need to do is to pay the processing fee. they asked for my credit card information. but from the time i realised it wasnt the school or family i figured it out and went along with it to see just how deep these guys are willing to go. most times even the person on the other end isnt aware of whats REALLY going on. but thankfully i had my net so while she talking, i googling! lol the US law states that while they have had many reports documented about these people they are legit and operate within certain loop holes.

my gut said look at the strategy...

1. A deal you cant walk away from
2. real emphasis on benefits
3. making it easy for you. you dont need to work hard
4. ask for confidential information.


i mean she even went as far as asking me for a friends credit card who would loan me the money. i told em i dont have a credit card one time... nor anyone who has one...

tell dem i living in d bush n have no current oi! lol

[W1nTry]

Hmm never got hitup by anything like that but socially engineered data mining is BIG, sadly most users suffer ID10T errors in the process of these scams...

[TriniXaeno]

Forget social engineering. Its just a fancy term for an old strat.

They've been doing this thing for decades.

Insurance agents are experts at it. Wow. They'll mine the hell out of you and your next of kin.

Letting them loose on facebook = gg