Scam Busters Just As Bad As Scam Victims?

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More Scam Victims Who Don't Believe
They've Been Scammed

More Scam Victims Who Don't Believe
They've Been Scammed 04/28/2004 11:40 AM
Last year, we wrote about a man in Florida who gave all of his money to Nigerian scammers and still refused to believe he had been conned. It seems like this is fairly common. Over in Switzerland, police tried to explain to someone why the $115,000 he had sent to Nigeria was never going to be seen again, and he refused to believe him. Despite plenty of evidence being presented to him, six months later he was found sending another $38,000 to Nigerian scammers. There's a point at which you wonder if some of these people almost deserve to lose their money.

Some NorVergence Victims Get Out Of Scam
Leases

Some NorVergence Victims Get Out Of Scam
Leases 12/27/2004 04:42 AM
Back in September we wrote about the NorVergence scam. Basically, the company was selling some telco equipment that was available on eBay for about $300, renaming it "the Matrix," sending fast talking sales people in to small, non-tech savvy businesses, and promising that the box could provide "unlimited broadband, landline and cell phone service with no per-minute charges." The details, of course, proved this wasn't quite true. Also, instead of just selling the boxes, they would lease them for upwards of $300/month for five year leases. Then, to make the scam even better, they sold off those leases to a variety of financial institutions, cashing out right away. The company then proceeded to shut down, making the boxes completely useless -- but the banks who had bought the leases didn't care at all and still expected their money. Thus, they started sending threatening legal letters to those people who weren't paying -- even though none of the "buyers" were actually receiving service. NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has now convinced the banks to forgive the leases for NY companies that had been scammed, though there are still plenty of others. Of course, the real issue is that both the financial institutions and the end-customers were scammed -- and the NorVergence executives went off to start another company accused of bilking investors out of millions before shutting down.

Internet pyramid scam victims may be
repaid

Internet pyramid scam victims may be
repaid 05/31/2004 06:41 PM
stuff.co.nz May 31 2004 11:15PM GMT

Cheap flights scam lures online victims

Cheap flights scam lures online victims 04/08/2005 04:55 AM
ZDNet Australia Apr 8 2005 8:29AM GMT

New Internet scam lures victims with
cheap airline fares

New Internet scam lures victims with
cheap airline fares 04/08/2005 09:59 AM
Bakutoday.net - Fri Apr 8, 09:27 am GMT

Google IPO Scam Victims Fooled By Fancy
Wall Street Terms

Google IPO Scam Victims Fooled By Fancy
Wall Street Terms 05/10/2004 02:32 PM
Back in March we wrote about a scam from someone who convin ced a lot of people who should know better he could sell them pre-IPO Google shares. Among the still unnamed victims were "the chairman of a global telecommunications company, a New York investment banker, a corporate attorney and a senior executive at a brokerage firm." These folks forked over half a million dollars without any due diligence to the guy who claimed to know the founders of Google from attending Stanford (which he didn't) and via working at Kleiner Perkins (again not true). We also had a post noting that a simple search query on the guy's name, though not on Google, would have turned up his questionable history. It appears that the NY Times has just discovered the story, but did a little extra sleuthing to point out that, beyond their scam-blinding greed to get in on the Google IPO, what really fooled these investment bankers and big time executives was the sophisticated Wall Street lingo used by the scammer. It turns out that if you just say "participation agreement," "stock purchase agreement" and "promissory note," combined with "Google IPO" wealthy stock brokers and executives will simply open their wallets for you. Also worth noting is that the scammer doesn't appear to have stored away most of his ill-gotten gains, but rather spent a large portion of it partying at expensive clubs and restaurants.

Scam Within A Scam Warning

Scam Within A Scam Warning 12/22/2003 07:43 PM
There have been a ton of warnings about so-called "phishing" spam scams - where a very realistic email from a well-known financial firm asks you to confirm the details of your account. Of course, the email isn't real and the scammers just want your account details. They go through all sorts of tricks to hide the fact that the email isn't real, but the latest such phishing scam uses a bit of social engineering. It warns people about such scams, and then says they need to fill out new information to avoid being taken by such a scam. It seems the scammers are trying to get increasingly clever, and it's an interesting social engineering trick to try to get people to let down their guard by first warning them about a scam - and then scamming them anyway.

Scam I am

Scam I am 04/06/2005 10:04 AM
Management consulting is a giant fraud! OK, we knew that. But what Martin Kihn reveals in his entertaining new book is just what miserable lives these know-nothing "experts" lead.

Anatomy of a 419 scam

Anatomy of a 419 scam 07/09/2004 08:31 AM
Exclusive One victim's first-hand account of advance fee fraud

How Will They Scam Thee?

How Will They Scam Thee? 01/27/2004 02:56 PM
The FTC counts the ways consumers are hoodwinked in a new report.

Following The Bouncing 419 Scam

Following The Bouncing 419 Scam 07/09/2004 01:13 PM
Because no one can believe just how often people are fooled by obvious 419 scams, the folks over at TheRegister have put together a story looking at the details of how one works, including the entire series of emailed correspondences. They also checked out the fake bank that the sucker sent his money too, and even spoke to someone claiming to work at the bank, who quickly got upset and hung up on them as he discovered where the phone call was headed. However, as they point out, it was the guy's own greed that got him into the situation: "He allowed his desire for riches to suck him into a scheme that - even if true - he must have known to be illegal. He has no recourse to law and the 419ers are laughing all the way to their bogus London bank."

yet another new phising scam

yet another new phising scam 01/22/2004 12:45 PM
Gadi Evron (Jan 22 2004)

Scam the scamers

Scam the scamers 12/02/2003 01:38 AM
Inspirert av Marcus sin post fra sin spam folder, søkte jeg litt på nettet og fant en hysterisk morsom site: Quatloos! som er en site for diverse e-mail scams. Spesiellt artig var denne samtalen mellom DR. ELVIS ANYIM, the Procurment...

New advance fee scam

New advance fee scam 01/05/2005 08:31 AM
Personal Computer World Jan 5 2005 12:49PM GMT

Romancing The E-Scam

Romancing The E-Scam 12/02/2003 12:13 AM
It's fairly impressive what scammers can trick people out of. A man in Minnesota has been arrested for tricking two women out of over $300,000. He met them both in "romantic" online chat rooms, and convinced them to give him money to invest in various real estate deals that apparently didn't exist. One woman was scammed out of $36,000, but the other forked over $280,000 before she realized that the real estate deals didn't exist. So, here's the question: you meet someone in an online "romance" chat room and they start asking you for money. At what point do you stop and do a little due diligence before just sending them checks? I would think that most people wouldn't even bother to speak to the guy again, but if you can get past that, you'd at least try to find out a little more about what you were investing in. Some people apparently have too much money on their hands and don't seem to care what happens to it.

Latest Scam: Pay Us For Using @

Latest Scam: Pay Us For Using @ 08/17/2004 03:23 PM
TheRegister has picked up one of the more amusing scam emails apparently making the rounds. It's not entirely clear how much they're actually asking for (the quoted email shows a few different amounts), but those behind the scam are suggesting that they've copyright ed the "@" symbol and users need to pay (somewhere around $10 to $20) for an unlimited one-year license. The thing is... some people might actually fall for something like this.

Warning over net name scam

Warning over net name scam 04/28/2004 04:10 PM
BBC Apr 28 2004 7:56PM GMT

Firms warned over net name scam

Firms warned over net name scam 04/28/2004 10:15 AM
Small businesses are being warned by the Office of Fair Trading about a scam in which firms are asked to pay to register domain names.

Scam Combines Patriot Act FUD With IE
Bug

Scam Combines Patriot Act FUD With IE
Bug 01/24/2004 06:10 PM

Internet scam uncovered

Internet scam uncovered 05/03/2004 10:12 PM
Sunday Times South Africa May 4 2004 2:57AM GMT

Publishing-scam vocabulary

Publishing-scam vocabulary 09/21/2004 06:23 AM
Cory Doctorow: Teresa Nielsen Hayden's latest blog-essay on publishing scams explores the vocabulary choices that tip off the likelihood of a sleazy publishing scam:

This is a segment of a larger piece, the working title of which has been "Ambient Misinformation about Publishing and Writing, and the Cultivation of the Reader Mind: A Rant I Didn't Get to Deliver at Noreascon." It has occurred to me that I could write about this one for a very long time without exhausting the subject.

Certain words and phrases are like little genetic markers for scammers. Here's a non-exhaustive list, non-exhaustively explained:

1. "Giving new writers a chance." Also: "Helping new writers."

While agents and publishers frequently do just this thing, they don't talk about it in those terms. For them, it's always a specific new book, a specific new author. Making judgements about which book and which writer they're going to work with is the heart of their job. When you hear someone talking in an indiscriminately general fashion about giving a chance to new writers, there's something wrong.

Same goes for "helping new writers." There might be legitimate projects aimed at helping new writers as a class, but the business they're in isn't agenting or publishing.

Link

Scam Or Not: Free iPods?

Scam Or Not: Free iPods? 08/18/2004 06:32 AM
Most people admit that the idea behind a site promising free iPods if you sign up for trial offerings from various marketers (and convince others to as well) sounds like a scam. However, those who have done it insist it's no scam at all -- but a legitimate marketing practice that gets people to try various products or services in exchange for an iPod. That said, whether it's a full-out scam or simply a marketing ploy, it's still sketchy. Anything that requires you to get others to participate before you get your "prize" is going to lead to spam from people trying to get you to sign up so they can get their prize. Furthermore, you're giving up your info to a marketing company who clearly has incentive to resell it. Their privacy policy (which does not appear to show up in Firefox) admits that they're going to give your info to "marketing partners." So, while it may not be a full on scam, it is just like plenty of other marketing programs, where the end result is plenty of spam.

The internet lottery scam

The internet lottery scam 08/27/2004 01:35 PM
Expatica Netherlands Aug 27 2004 5:17PM GMT

C.P. man loses $3,000 Internet scam

C.P. man loses $3,000 Internet scam 07/25/2004 06:00 AM
Thetimesonline.com - Sun Jul 25, 06:39 am GMT

Neo-Con Intel Scam, Cont'd

Neo-Con Intel Scam, Cont'd 06/14/2004 12:57 PM
TomPaine.com Jun 14 2004 5:24PM GMT

Paypal e-mail scam going around

Paypal e-mail scam going around 12/29/2003 02:24 AM
Appears there is another Paypal e-mail scam going around. Always and I mean always load your browser yourself not thru...

EBI beats Internet scam

EBI beats Internet scam 09/02/2004 12:40 AM
AME Info Sep 2 2004 4:34AM GMT

Quite The Telecom Equipment Scam

Quite The Telecom Equipment Scam 09/03/2004 07:53 PM
Broadband Reports point us to a Forbes story concerning the huge telecom equipment scam operation called Norvergence. The company was apparently selling $2,000 router/firewall boxes (that were available for $300 on eBay) by calling it "The Matrix: a merged access transport intelligent exchange." They then targeted small, non-tech-savvy businesses with fast talking salespeople promising "unlimited broadband, landline and cell phone service with no per-minute charges." Even better, they weren't actually selling them, but "leasing" them at $300/month for a minimum five year lease. Then, to make matters even more ridiculous Norvergence sold those leases to leasing and banking companies. Norvergence got all the cash ($143 million in 2003) and ran, while everyone else got screwed. Meanwhile, the founders of Norvergence have already bankrupted another telecom startup, leaving creditors in the hole by nearly $70 million, and are already hard at work on yet another telecom startup. Why not? It seems to pay so well. Is there any possible reason these guys haven't been arrested yet?

IRS warns of e-mail scam

IRS warns of e-mail scam 04/30/2004 09:57 PM

Other News: Deaf Scam

Other News: Deaf Scam 04/09/2004 04:01 PM
We're *really* starting to dislike Nigeria....

UTPD: ATM SCAM ALERT

UTPD: ATM SCAM ALERT 02/19/2004 06:15 PM
photos of an ATM scam

utexas.edu/admin/utpd/atm.html
track this site | 5 links

Web of guilt in Google scam

Web of guilt in Google scam 05/18/2004 04:43 AM
New York Daily News May 18 2004 8:39AM GMT

U.S. Acts to End Web-Site Tax Scam

U.S. Acts to End Web-Site Tax Scam 04/14/2004 10:37 PM
Washington Post Apr 15 2004 2:28AM GMT

Internet Scam Slammed

Internet Scam Slammed 09/14/2004 01:47 AM
Stock Patrol Sep 14 2004 6:30AM GMT

Other News: Campaign Scam

Other News: Campaign Scam 08/03/2004 11:15 AM
This fraudulent "presidential campaign" solicitation gets rerouted to India, along with your personal information.

Platypus Templates scam

Platypus Templates scam 04/15/2004 03:35 PM
Have you noticed mysterious charges on your bank statement or credit card statement from platypustemplates.com, phone number 501-635-1699? It's a scam; here are the details. (236 words)

Other News: "Do Not Call" Scam

Other News: "Do Not Call" Scam 02/13/2004 11:54 AM
The FTC points out a fake "Do Not Call" website.

Backwards scam spam

Backwards scam spam 09/07/2004 07:41 PM
From: kenbergstore01@fastermail.com Subject: Sales Enquiry.............. Date: September 7, 2004 1:48:45 PM PDT To: [hidden] perl.org Hello sales, I want to order for some items from your store to my store and the shipment will be international to africa(nigeria) mail me back for the type of payment you accept and the list of items that i want.your responce is needed urgently. REGARDS, KEN. -- _______________________________________________ Get your free email from http://fastermail.com Powered by Outblaze How can anyone possible fall for...

Other News: Mob Phone Scam

Other News: Mob Phone Scam 02/12/2004 11:28 AM
An organized crime scam sucked $200 million out of victims' accounts via innocuous little charges on phone bills.
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Scam Busters Just As Bad As Scam Victims?

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