Can You Recognize a Scam

[ginkgo]

If you cannot then you are likley to get scammed and get upset. Here is an email that I got today.

Typist Wanted We are looking for work-from-home typists.Our typists will be paid with multiple sources of income for each article they type. We are looking for dedicated workers that can spend one hour per day typing and posting articles. Pay is except ional. [They mean exceptional]

This opportunity is available worldwide. Training and guidance are provided throughout our program. You can start making money the FIRST DAY after training. With our program it is very simple process. You type, and you get paid. The more you type, the more you get paid. This is not an e book, or a list of companies that you have to apply to and hope you get the job.

This is an actual Type-at-Home Job. Our members receive complete online training and guidance. You are NOT paying for a job the job is paying you. There are NO HIDDEN COSTS for additional sign-ups, additional programs or tools to do this job. We provide you with everything you need. Click this link.
[End of email]

It costs $45. This is a total scam. Companies can get typists locally. Also they will not charge you to hire you for a job. Another one is you spend that money for materials to build stuff at home that they will pay you to build.

[SnerpGoodWord]

I always have a hard time imagining that anyone would fall for this sort of thing. But I guess it must work every once in a while, because the spammers keep it in the rotation.

At least with fake Viagra from Indonesia you know why idiots buy it.

[mainstreetcm]

So wait there really isn't a Nigerian Princess putting millions of dollars into my bank account? I think I need to call my bank...

But really, most things (I did not say ALL) advertised via unsolicited email are usually a scam or a waste of your time. Maybe it's just me, but the fact that there is no space after the first period and sentences like "With our program it is very simple process" make this a dead giveaway that it is a scam.

The sad part is some of these affiliates will post an ad in a newspaper, make the client call a phone number and then put them in a high pressure sales situation to get them to sign up for the membership. "But I thought you neededa job?"

I always have a hard time imagining that anyone would fall for this sort of thing. But I guess it must work every once in a while, because the spammers keep it in the rotation.

I did too, until my friend told me about his grandmother who amassed about $40,000 of credit card debt from buying "limited edition coins" from those QVC like shows. It was then it dawned on me that if you can convince someone through a television set to buy something, doing so through the internet would be just as easy, if not easier.

[Mounds]

I'm very good at spotting a scam. In my insect hobby, about 1/3 of all insect related ads are scams. Usually if sounds too good to be true, it is.
The complete lack of grammer and spelling errors in this ad would have tipped me off.

[Orionjoel]

In my opinion it is easier to get someone caught up in a scam on the internet, because it requires less action. Think about it through the TV, you can see the ad, but then you have to get up get your phone, dial the number and wait for the operator, at any point you could deside to much effort and move on.

Where as on the internet, you are on a website all it takes to get involved is a click of the mouse button. Enter a Credit Card and there you are stuck in the cycle.

I can definetly pick a scam, or more so assume that as previously said anything that sounds to good to be true actually is. The only thing i sometimes think, is that what if I am over cautious, but this is quickly negated by the next thing i find about someone who got caught in some scam, and the details match the one i was of two minds about.

[Curtis2011]

One of the best ways to know it is a scam is that the person doesn't fully explain it to you while they are talking to you, or in their commercial, or in their internet sales page.

I remember sitting down with a guy who was touting his Amway (Scamway) "opportunity" to me.

As he was telling me about it, I simply said "What do you DO that makes money?" and he said, very defensively, "look, it's too complicated to explain. It would take me all day to explain and I don't have the time" lol. He then tried to persuade me to come to a "free seminar" that I have heard from other sources is actually a high pressure sales pitch.

I asked him how he makes money because I already knew the answer: he only makes money if I personally buy his products! Then, I am stuck trying to resell them to other people if I want to make any money myself.

Usually if someone is being honest about an opportunity, they will explain it to you 100%, and even clarify any questions you have. If you ask any SBI'er that makes money from it how they do it, they will gladly explain it to you. Compare this to most people who are selling Get Rich Quick schemes, who promise to give you a "secret technique" as soon as you give them your credit card number.

[luckyJTF7s]

Curtis: Scamway. hehe. I must live under a rock not to have heard that b4, but ... that's hilarious!!! Scamway. heh.

I almost got taken in by one. It was not email. I decided to look into mystery shopping; the idea of getting paid to eat at Jack Astors or what-have-you... I'd met several legitimate mystery shoppers over the years, but none to call and get an organization name from.

OK, scam. WOW was this a good scam. They had you apply for the job. You submitted an example review you had done for vetting. Their website was super-professional. The open opportunities page was very detailed, with a decent handful of current surveys for every major city in Canada. A wide client base of known names. Two weeks go by, they approve me. Nice touch, make me wait. And wait. And wait. I didn't get my first assignment for months. Nice touch. By the time you get one, OMG you are psyched. Mine was for a decaying elderly movie theatre down the street. Exactly the kind of place head office would vet. The review sheets were crazy detailed. 4-5 pages. Buy popcorn, what was nametag, record all conversation, did they smile, did they thank you. Try to sneak in a 2nd theatre. WOW. Whoever set up this site had ex-industry experience.

OK you are all thinking I just didn't get paid, right? and they stole my work for free? I found out later that is the usual scam w fake mystery shopping outfits (ie they are legit and lowball their bids cuzz the employees are free! LOL... one review b4 you figure out they nailed ya, and noone sues them over like movie admission and concession stand stuff. They survive years like that...

OH NO. THESE DUDES ONE UPPED THAT ****. They had a mirror HyperWallet site set up, that their link onsite at the mystery site shot you to, to sign up at to get paid. (H was only payment method; they wouldn't mail). oooh sliiiiick doggies. So the usual hyperwallet site stuff, which I forget, but like bank account access visa numbers etc, your usual online password, DOB etc all collected and no doubt insta-sold to a list of shady dudes and etc. Not sure but maybe they even sucked yer bank account dry! (Not up on HyperWallet, I don't use it)

I don't know why (divine guidance? or maybe the phone rang and I forgot I'd gone to the mirror site, and Googled the real Hyperwallet site? anyway those sites dey was not de same. I was just STUNNED. It was such a sweet long game grift. It must work 99 out of 100 times. Anyway I reported their asses but I am damn lucky I didn't get played there...

--------------
quickly, this did not happen to me but there were reports at a poker forum I frequented that a nifty pot odds calculator or something that a few people had downloaded (nb. get PokerStove, iz da best, iz free, iz legit) installed a keystroke logger. not dangerous for mom and pop. very dangerous for poker players - they keep large sums of money at poker sites!!! so it grabbed off your poker site signon username and password, next time you came back, account emptied of all funds and inter-transferred at the poker site to a username that by that time had transferred all the harvested funds off-site and closed out the account, of course. 1 guy on the forum, the largest victim, had lost $70,000 US. He was a well-known MTT player at Party. *moral of story* do not keep large balances sitting around at any of your Web haunts.

[SnerpGoodWord]

lucky,
that's one of the more incredible examples of a long con I've ever heard of. Holy smokes! The difference between those guys and the typical Nigerian 411 idiot is like night and day.

It's probably a moral failing on my part that I find well executed crime so artistic.

[SnerpGoodWord]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

One of the best ways to know it is a scam is that the person doesn't fully explain it to you while they are talking to you, or in their commercial, or in their internet sales page.

This is an excellent general rule of thumb.

[elucidate]

I just left a dojo where the sensei told us that what he was teaching us was "special" knowledge and we weren't allowed to tell anyone about or show the techniques to, especially not other martial artists, lest they steal the moves for themselves. We also were forbidden from x-training for the same reasons.

The teacher also insisted that we attend at least two workshops before grading camp, which is held every six months, to be eligible for grading (fees are paid seperately of course to monthly fees)

He kept instilling in us that we are part of an "elite" dojo...and certainly, upon my investigations it seems he was right...no other dojo makes their students pay for workshops, where you recieve a full days worth of dowloaded info most of which is destined to not be absorbed anyway since it is an overload, to be graded and uses emotional and psychologically manipulative sales tactics to do it. By creating the sense that if the students don't attend the workshops the teacher will be "very disappointed" it is using guilt as a control mechanism to bring in extra revenue for the sensei...who was an aussie called Brett who called himself Tadashi (which is Japanese for Honest man)

MA cults are not that uncommon. They are known in the MA world as McDojo's