Beware of Today's Targeted Scams

Copyright 2003 by Paulina Roe

There are zillions of scams floating all over - online websites, emails, regular snail-mail, and phone calls. You need to be wary of everything - and that's a tough call.

As a funding agent, I got a call the other day, and this woman was asking of we can do a certain type of loan - I asked her to explain, and she said she needed a huge sum of money to build some sort of housing project - in NIGERIA.

I asked her several more questions, to try to see if she was the scammer or if she was being scammed. She said there was a large amount of money left behind that needed to be laundered and brought here, and it would repay the loan she wanted. I told her about the Nigerian scams and she said, no- she was raised in Nigeria and believes the paperwork. I told her we flat-out will not deal with Nigeria or any such story as that. It is too high a risk factor.

She hung up and then I realized I should have gotten her name and number - to report it. To either stop the scam on her end or keep her from being a victim by being part of it.

The scammers will try to get to you where your passion is - obviously they send out relentless spam, but some will take the time to investigate your site and your business - to see where he can get you to believe this line of his. I just got an email that went to my publisher's box, and it was from someone who apologized profusely for some turkey using his tools to send out spam in his name.

He apologized so much that he threw in a REDUCED PRICE for his product, which I would be free to resell. And guess what? I never got that spam message from his domain, and from what I can see, I never got a prior message from him before! He just tried to get me to empathize with a wronged publisher so he can hawk his goods on me. Guess what? It didn't work.

Now is the time of year for scams concerning taxes and how to beat the tax system. There are so many ways that they tell you not to pay legitimate taxes - and then they somehow redirect your payments to them. Watch out - many of the scams arte summarized at doubleii.com/taxes.html

Oh yes - there are also more job scams popping up - where a job search provider will sit in on a networking meeting and get everyone's contact info - then send out an invitation to some paid presentation - and tell you it's endorsed by the group! This happened at our job seeker group at our church! And Pastor was out sick the day this guy said he spoke with him.

He asked for up front payment for this presentation, and even offered a discount if we referred more people to come. He was going to make a lot of money had anyone fallen for it - thankfully our group leaders caught on and warned everyone.

Another type of job scam involves getting information from you. This may work in one way - where your social security and bank or credit information is asked for - these are never needed in the interview or application process, and your bank and credit information is not needed at any time, unless you direct your payment to be directly deposited - but there are bank forms to fill out for that.