Scammed

What is the definition of a scam....

A confidence trick or confidence game (also known as a bunko, con, flim flam, gaffle, grift, hustle, scam, scheme, swindle or bamboozle) is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. The victim is known as the mark, the trickster is called a confidence man, con man, or con artist, and any accomplices are known as shills.



Hi Gang:

I was just wondering if anyone out there has ever fallen for a "SCAM."

They can happen anywhere from over the telephone, to people coming to your door step and asking for money.

They happen to young and old, men and women.
Alot of them working on our sympathies.

Did you fall hook, line and sinker, or did you smell a rat and get out soon enough?

                                                                    PMM

The very first scam i can remember was the one my parents did.. the "Pyramid"... scammed to all be boozikah doom!
I remember my mom telling me about it once.. and saw a little show on TV about it a few years back.

The very last scam was one my daughter did, the one where you send off 200.00 and then this person is to send a dollar to a certain amount of people on a "list" with your name added, then they do the same, each time adding your name to each ones list.. so that it ends up your name is on the list of every person sending out the dollar.. ( sending 200 people a dollar and then each of the 200 people send it so forth) over time it starts adding up that you are on a list of about 1000 people who are doing it.. you are supposed to start getting dollars in the mail, well she did she got 2 ....
Her and friends each invested 50.00 a piece to start...

I remember one time I knew a lady (who I thought was smarter then I) and she tried to get me into a pyramid thing I then explained to her it was a scam and she got upset as I showed her how it worked.

She later was caught up in the arrests and she missed on jail time, but also lost $5,000 and she also lost her job as a realtor...She also lost quite a few "Friends" that got cheated out of their cash...Sad, very sad.

The scam I found out about was pretty recent.  The ol'e "We need Mystery Shoppers"
I had done that type of work in the past and was interested.

Long story short, I get this Whopper check in the mail. Looks real as hell, and I am supposed to take it to my bank and deposit it, then when it doesnt clear, I am left holding the bag for all those funds. Lets not forget I am supposed to Western Union all remaining funds to some address in another town. (I was supposed to keep $400 for my trouble and Mystery shopping experiences.)

Well , I am just a littel smarter than that. Instead of taking it to my bank I took it to THEIR bank, and the teller looked at me and laughed.  I smiled, and let her keep the check.

So I wasn't totally scammed, but I took a small bite of the bait at first.

Did I have a blast emailing them back and telling them what they could do with their check.  Much to nasty to put here in our lovely forum.

                                                        PMM

Lol.. yes PMM, my daughter signed up for that as well (forgot about this) they were auto debiting 20 bucks a month, plus other types of charges for other programs.. and did send her a check for 2500.00.. same thing she went to the bank and was told the exact same thing, its a scam and explained to her what will happen. Deposit the check and withdraw a certain amount and send it to "mystery shoppers".. something like that..

She went through some type of training online.. with scenarios... and waiting everyday for a call to go do the mystery shopping..

It was too good to be true..

I have not got scammed yet......knock on d. But i friend of my did a couple years ago. She tried to talk me into to but i was leary from the get go and told her "you go right ahead, if its legit i will jump in".

Some guy stopped her while she was in the mall parking lot one day and said he had big flat screen tv's in a warehouse that were "hot" and he was selling dirt cheap. I tried to tell her i would not trust some random guy trying to sell anything. For all she knew he could of had much worse plans for her other than selling her a tv.

She was given the location and the time to meet this guy. I begged her to take her husband with her to be safe. She managed to talk her mother and sister into coughing up $400 each, including herself.

With $1200 in her purse, she and her husband go to the location the next day to meet him. He pulls up moments later in his car and grabs the cash and says he needs to drive around the back of the warehouse to grab the tv's and to wait there.

Well as im sure by now you can pretty much guess what happened......he never came back!!!  >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(

Lips

happened to me too Pam, but mine was worse than that...I ended up owing my bank $2450.  I deposited the check into my account, I think it was for over $3000, and I took the money and gambled with it...I should have known better.  I just wanted to go to the casino...so I took it.  I didn't fall too hard, just when my bank came after me.  Then I took a step back on my gambling.

Oh Nal:
  It is just we wish something like this could really be true.  I was so ready to do the job for these people, and collect my fee, and honestly send the rest on to the person I was told to.

Of course it is a farce.  I was disappointed,

Was your bank really hard on you?  What did they do?

                                                          PMM

easy one i had a collection agency who is actually a collection agency for a credit card we had had 9 deaths in 3 years maxed out cardss paying for funeral costs anyway they were willing to work wlith me at 150. a month out of my checking account on the 15 of each mont so starting on the 13 they wouuld begin i lost tons of mney in fees and as well they got thier money bank said beings i gave them my account number could not be reimbursed so after that i talked to a lawyer and he said never let a colletion agaency strong arm you a to get my money back it would have to be a civil action they just tried it again on my new account and i didntt give them the number they have my socialsecurity never ever give out account number to colleciton agencys even thoug it is against the law they get away with it.

as far as the bank was concerned i am an idiot and of course we are with a new bank and they have no understanding at all about being an invalid at 49 and that i do everything on the internet.  So as soon as my husband and i can do it we will change banks cuz i said isnt that what our fraud insurance is for they gave me back 320.00 amd i ate the rest of it

Be so careful. If it seems to good to be true- most likely it is! I was a secret shopper/auditor for about 2 yrs. I did a lot of work for several companies. But I also went to the MSPA web site, and got certified, looked for jobs there, on their job board, and found a lot of work-at-home ops on www.ratracerebellion.com (those guys are great- and most the companies, there's no fees) Evey now and again, I'll go on to see if there's anything new posted. Although I don't really mystery shop or audit anymore, every now and again, I'll pick up a phone shop to make a couple quick bucks.
Never pay for a job opportunity!!
Never reply to a work-at-home op you get via email if you haven't requested info from them before.
Never pay for information or a 'list' of mystery shopping jobs. The MSPA (WWW.MSPA.ORG) Lists reputable companies to do business with. Although there ARE other auditing/mystery shopping companies out there that I have worked for- not listed w/the MSPA, until you get the feel of whats real, and what's a scam, I highly suggest starting at the MSPA website- for your own protection. Also, getting certified there, you'll get a certification #, which will help you get chosen over others who have not been certified. Some companies just let you automatically pick and self-assign yourself a job. Others choose you.
These are just some tips to help you avoid being scammed in the future. Hope they were helpful

GREAT INFO HUN!!!!  Thanks 

no...actually, the bank manager was really a sweetheart.  it was very stupid of me...it was at a bad time, when i was going thru my cancer, not working, so the money came in handy..i was very excited even my dad said cash it, because he knew i didnt have any money, so i said what the hell, so i did.  paid some bills, went to the casino...it was first time i was happy in a while.  then the bank called me almost immediately, so i went down there..i just knew.  we talked, and he knew i didn't have any money to pay it back.  so we closed my account.  i owed 4,125 when it was all settled.
He didn't take me to court or anything, just told me when I started working to pay it back.  So it had been sometime that i was not working because I was just too sick, so it got turned over to a collection agent.  He never harassed me once.  Citizens Bank.  I went back to work finally and paid back every penny of it, but still had a hard time getting a new bank account because of it.  Finally about 3 years later I got an account with a credit union, and finally got my credit back.  It was a long learning curve.
I counted my blessings that they really didn't harass me, since I was already so miserable.  Lesson learned.  Was happy to find some decent people left in the world.

Signature Loans.. How about them FEESSS?
They also do.. PayDay Loans?

Many years ago, i did a Signature loan for 500.00, and what was so bad about myself doing it, i only did it just to see if i could...

Well..long story short, my mother passed away.. and went through alot of financial difficulties, her funeral ran over 21,000.. we shared the expenses but still it is alot of money trying to up it at a bad time for everyone. Through all this and being so messed up over my mom leaving us i defaulted on the loan, i ignored it.. (big mistake), got a letter in the mail saying i now owe 2600.00, and if i didn't respond by certain date it would be garnished with such and such per paycheck to be took. (yup they were going to court) I ended up paying that amount to avoid it being reported to TRW.. Did they ever come make out like a Fat-Rat.. although this was my own fault, but still it sure was rediculous and regardless of the situation, they took complete advantage of my ignorance.

I've heard of these pay day loans.  They advertise them on the TV here and they also advertise what their percentage interest rate is.  It's a staggering 2900%

...and Nal.  What a touching story and well done to you for getting back your credit rating and paying everything off.  Sounds like you need to give yourself a big pat on the back.

blue

thanks blue...i never see it like that, just feel stupid for buying into it, and
should have known better.  you know the saying...when it looks to good to be
true...it usually is.  they didn't make that up for nothing.