My S-I-L almost victim of SCAM

Just got a call from my dau. in Charlotte, NC and she was upset. Seems like her hus. has been talking to someone on line who was trying to get money out of him. They wanted him to cash a cashiers check for them in the amt. of $2,895.00 immediately upon receiving it by FedX, give them a call and he would be given instructions where to send the remainder of the money after he kept out "his" $500. Apparently the ck. is on the way and should be delivered tomorrow. She got on line with the person who claimed to live in UK, (funny that the time was the same as EST USA). Now how can that be when England is way ahead of us timewise. Anyway, my dau. told them she knew it was a scam since it was all over the newspapers in the USA, that she was alerting Yahoo and also the local FBI fraud unit. Amazing how fast the person on the other end of the line broke the connection.

Also my hus. received an e-mail from someone named NANA who wanted our bank account #, name it waws in and bank. He just deleted the e-mail. I personally would have written a nasty note back.

So, if you get an e-mail from someone named MONICA LEWIS, supposedly from UK, widow, artist, 2 children, and a lot of other BS, laugh and send a nasty note back. DO NOT BE STUPID ENOUGH TO CASH THE CHECK. YOU WILL BE STUCK FOR THAT AMT. OF MONEY. Do not cash a ck. for anyone, nor send them any of your hard earned money. Report it to the FBI and to the server co. LIZ

Liz,

Thanks for the info..it is also good to report stuff like that...I know i dont even click on emails that i know about...I just delete them. I got a email from someone saying that i bid on something in ebay and that it was outbid and to rebid...and i know i did'nt bid on anything...and funny it was from the UK to...i may have to go and dig through my email garbage and see what it was...

Anyways, thanks for the heads up on it.

Char

Don't give any information to anyone over the internet .... PERIOD
Don't act on any instructions from anyone over the internet .... PERIOD.

The "nasty note" will only fuel their interest. I have a delete button & a blacklist button. I use the blacklist button often.
Nobodies ever going to give you something for nothing, so don't get caught up in it!
Want to buy a cooler full of snow ?
Bernie

My Mac mail program has a "bounce" button in it's menu...I can bounce stuff back to senders like the address is dead. Fatal error message. Lovely.

I would let steve Jobs eat crackers anywhere he wanted.

Have a son who is an investigator w/the Harris County (TX) DA's office and his sole job is to trace and locate and arrest, if necessary, people who pull these scams. Unfortunately, people do fall for these schemes and lose a lot of money. You don't get something for nothing and if it comes out of the blue you can be pretty sure you are about to be taken. You can report these things to the proper authorities and they can investigate. You can be sure that you are not the only one who gets these emails. Personally, I would report these, make copes and then delete and mark as "spam" so that it gets bounced and should never show up on your computer again. Hope you have protection built into your computer to protect you.

Ann

A lot of these Internet SCAMs are run out of warehouses in Russia or the former Soviet Bloc by a strong army of savvy folks. Its big business. Internet fraud and fake credit card manufacturing. The fraud goes on and on. Be vigilant re your ID and card activity.

This message was edited Jan 19, 2007 8:28 AM

DON'T EVEN OPEN THOSE EMAILS, because once you do they have verification that your information is correct. They don't care about nasty notes, so that is a waste of time.

There was a report on TV last night about a Houston area woman that had given almost he life's savings to such a scam - several checks - several months.

Still amazed how many fall for these scams.

There also was a column in the business pages about charity telephone scams. So many are now run my boiler-room telephone pros - they take 80% - charity gets 20%.

I'm glad to see I am not the only one who does the crackers thing luna_baby. Where did we learn that from? Is it one of those out of the mists of time thing?

Don

I have put those pharms and day traders on my blocked senders list. I had hundreds of them. Then suddenly something is wiping off my list daily. Course they may have many accounts.

It truly amazes me how many people fall for internet scams. I mean, are we really that stupid? As previous posts have stated, DO NOT OPEN EMAIL FROM ANYONE YOU DON'T KNOW OR TRUST; DO NOT GIVE OUT IMPORTANT INFO SUCH AS CC, BANK ACCT., SOC. SEC. #'S TO ANYONE ONLINE. If people would follow these simple rules, internet fraud could soon be a thing of the past. I don't feel sorry for people who fall for these scams; it is their own fault. As long as there are gullible people there will be scams and fraud. Don't trust anyone you don't know or anyone who is not associated with a reputible firm. Check their background if unsure.

"Don't even open these e-mails".

That sounds good, but how do you delete them without clicking them to opening stage..if even for a second?

I don't know what e-mail provider you use, Indy, but all I have to do is check the box next to the message and then delete it without ever opening it. I use Hotmail and Yahoo mail. I do not use Outlook because that is the easiest email system to introduce a virus with.

I think people understand how the Internet works, how to protect themselves, that SPAM and SCAMs exists. They read about Phishing, the Nigerian Letter, etc. But when someone sends an email directly to "special little me who is so lucky to have been chosen to GET THIS MONEY" all rationale goes out the window. Then they get 'stupid' and forget logic and the lessons learned. Particularly if they bite the hook. If they dare to open the email AND respond they are toast. The dialogue has started and the proficient SCAM artist is in control. Like the guy in the back of the covered wagon selling 'snake oil'. Don't even stop to say g'day. Keep on walking. And don't send any money to anyone or give them any information PERIOD. Got it!

This goes in part with this....important for me after having match.com access my cc# and charge me for 4 months of dues ($29.99) and here I am happily married!!! I think the numbers were transposed from someone else's card, and why would they complain--they weren't being billed (!!!) and am working on getting a refund but it may just be an expensive lesson for me to review the balances on my one and only cc.....but here is a link to Identity Theft Insurance it is sooo cheap people....good to have:

http://www.zanderins.com/idtheft/idtheft.aspx

Our state made big boo boo and sent out a lot of tax forms with social security numbers printed on them. They are offering credit monitoring for those people.

DOH!!! How irresponsible.

Several years ago they had our social security numbers on our time cards at work...right up there on top. It was not an issue then thatIi know of. Today is a more evil day as far as i am concerned and it has so many more evil possibilities with the inventions of the computer age.

I took out identity theft assistance with my home owners policy....they are to assist if identy theft occurs.