Other Internet and Email Scams
As a lot of people become aware of 419 Nigerian scams the scammers have come up with other creative ways to con people.
Here are some of the current internet scams that seem to circulate on chats, personals and penpal sites. You can read my other article about Advanced Fee Fraud here.
The Romance Scam
Being this is the internet we can mostly know about the person we meet only by what he/she presents himself/herself to be. There are many hiding in the cloak of anonymity of the internet. There are individuals who have pure intentions of just connecting to other people but sadly there are many who are just in for the "fun", or worse, to scam.
There are different types of people who seem to do this scam. There are the cunning ones and there are the very obvious ones (those who supposedly fall inlove with you only after 1-2 emails). The cunning ones are harder to distinguish. It starts as a seemingly innocent email offering or asking for friendship after awhile the person pretends to have romantically fallen for you. It's normal, you say? Of course, there are true love stories that happen this way. But the story doesn't stops here...
- The person starts asking you to cash checks or money orders for him. He/She'll pretend that he is temporarily in a foreign country (commonly in any of the African countries) for work or business and needed some checks or money orders to be cleared in your country (mostly they target people living in Western countries). He/She'll need you to wire him/her money or send money through Western Union immediately. He/She'll pad his/her lies with sob stories so you will be sympathetic and willing. The problem is that the check or money order he sent to you is fake. Once the bank discovers the fraud, you will be responsible for repaying the bank. The worst case scenario --- you'll end up in jail. Or
- the person will persuade you to receive packages for him/her and forward them to wherever country he/she supposedly is. Don't ever do this! You might be unknowingly participating in a scam and might get in trouble yourself. Many scammers use stolen credit cards to shop online and they look for people to receive the packages for them because it raises a red flag to online merchants if they have it shipped to their country which has a high incidence of fraud (such as Nigeria). Who knows where some of these packages come from? Or
- you agree to meet and she asked you money for "fees" and visa sponsorship to get to your country. Or
- the sob stories start pouring in. She/he might tell you that she/he is very poor, lost his/her parents, living in a refugee camp, or other heart-wrenching lies. She/he will probably even tell you that she/he only thinks about you everyday and wants to talk to you on phone but she/he cannot afford it. Oh, can you please send her/him money so she/he could buy one? And while you're at it can you send some money for tuition fee, books, food, etc. etc. etc.
Other red flags:
- she starts sending you seductive photos
- she professes love just only after a few emails or a short length of time
- she never really answers your questions or acknowledges what you write in emails and instead talk about something else
There are a lot of these scammers who troll instant messengers, online dating sites, penpal sites and social networking services. This type of scam frequently originates from Russia and Ukraine. Most of these scammers are males or crime organizations posing as girls and are preying on lonely guys. They will send you pictures of attractive looking people which probably were just stolen on the net. They will string you with their lies, emotionally manipulating you, with the primary concern of milking you money, visa sponsorship or using you on their criminal activities.
The bottom line: NEVER send money and be careful.
The Job Recruitment Scam
This is a twist. Instead of going after well-off people I noticed that these scammers mostly use this tactic to those people from poor countries such as African countries, India and Pakistan who are hopeful immigrants or seeking lucrative employment.
Out of nowhere you will get an email from a stranger who supposedly works or has connections in a hotel (usually based in Canada) or shipping line and the said business establishment is currently hiring. They will conduct interviews via email and you will just have to answer simple questions. You will be then referred to a lawyer/immigration officer via email. You will be asked to send personal documents such as a copy of your passport and Social Security number (opening a huge risk for identity theft) and pay fees to process your visa application. More and more fees will be asked from you and fake documents will be provided in return. The reality is there's no job opening, no visa processing being done and the said scammers are not even based in Canada (or whatever country) but mostly from Africa.
The Hitman or Online Extortion Scam
The FBI already released an advisory about this online extortion scam wherein an email from someone who claims to be a hired assassin threatens to kill recipients if they do not pay a large sum of money to the sender.
Do not be scared. Do not respond to the email and just delete it.
Read more about various internet scams on Wikipedia.