Thread: I've Been Scammed, Ripped Off And Want To Warn!

Sad,

Sorry to hear of your loss, but you should have run it past all of the good people here who have a world of experience in these matters. The cardinal rule is never pay money to receive money, never, and you will be safe. Second rule, never send Western Union or use prepaid card to anyone you don't personally know. Sadly, when you recieve an unsolicited or unexpected check from an unkonwn entity, you can count on it being rubber.

Just to give you an idea how serious this problem is, people are losing millions, so you are not alone. Most of us are trusting individuals, and sadly this a weakness we all share, and the crooks and scammers know this. I received several checks like you describe, and they are all legitimate looking as the computer generated check printing software makes it easy. The scammers use to bait people into sending 10% first, now they send checks our first which shows good faith whereby victims have illusion of trust.

Now be warned, the same scammers will approach you with a recovery scam, so be careful. Most are also mad to be scammed and revenge in recouping money lost is another way people let down their guard, which the scammers also know very well. I cannot tell you how many times the same scammers will play on a persons desperation to recoup their losses only to throw more money at these pretend investigation firms, so watch out.

Good luck and health to all, Mike

Originally Posted by Offshore-Wealth.com

Sad,

Sorry to hear of your loss, but you should have run it past all of the good people here who have a world of experience in these matters. The cardinal rule is never pay money to receive money, never, and you will be safe. Second rule, never send Western Union or use prepaid card to anyone you don't personally know. Sadly, when you recieve an unsolicited or unexpected check from an unkonwn entity, you can count on it being rubber.

Just to give you an idea how serious this problem is, people are losing millions, so you are not alone. Most of us are trusting individuals, and sadly this a weakness we all share, and the crooks and scammers know this. I received several checks like you describe, and they are all legitimate looking as the computer generated check printing software makes it easy. The scammers use to bait people into sending 10% first, now they send checks our first which shows good faith whereby victims have illusion of trust.

Now be warned, the same scammers will approach you with a recovery scam, so be careful. Most are also mad to be scammed and revenge in recouping money lost is another way people let down their guard, which the scammers also know very well. I cannot tell you how many times the same scammers will play on a persons desperation to recoup their losses only to throw more money at these pretend investigation firms, so watch out.

Good luck and health to all, Mike

Exactly, this is why i felt more secure, i'll never even consider opening anything that looks, smells or gives off the aura of a check i get in the mail! LOL......thanks for your insight btw, I am waiting next to hear from them threatening to take me to court for the commission,

Originally Posted by rvalreadydang

Exactly, this is why i felt more secure, i'll never even consider opening anything that looks, smells or gives off the aura of a check i get in the mail! LOL......thanks for your insight btw, I am waiting next to hear from them threatening to take me to court for the commission,

Interesting,

Sadly it is always the trusting soles like yourself who get burned. This new twist on an old scam is far more effective than the prior schemes where you were led to a decision slowly, little by little with fee on top of fee adding up week by week as you are led to think you are close to pay out. As you can see, they depend on human nature to bait, then extract from you until you have a vested interest in seeing it through to the end.

As I see it now, they use the advance check system to show good faith, as in, they are trusting you, so then you should trust them. It works so well that the old schemes are being dropped in favor of new scam since check writing software is so good, it is easy to dupe people with less time and effort of communicating back and forth as in the past. The only way these scams can be stopped is to disclose them in forums like this. I am certain many people who have read this thread are now informed and will not fall for these scams themselves, so thanks for sharing your information, and again, sorry you got taken.

Good luck and health to all, Mike

Have you heard of Circle of Life? Those crooks will get their's next time around and wonder why they're having the s**t life. Crooks are lazy and just weren't taught Gratitude! Watch the SECRET everyday!!! A bit of ME-TIME wont hurt to embrass our Real Dreams again! And NO! you're not stupid, you had the guts to take the risk to try and do what you felt was right, and most importantly, with you, we all learnt an important lesson. Life is a never-ending school and we're all attending the same school our dear Sweet. Gdnyt from Auz :-)

PS: Can anyone show me how to sign up to this 4EL.BIZ thing everyone's raving about? I cant find the Queue Thread...I wanted to join in rockfish's Linear (1 straight line)

Originally Posted by ezywealth

Have you heard of Circle of Life? Those crooks will get their's next time around and wonder why they're having the s**t life. Crooks are lazy and just weren't taught Gratitude! Watch the SECRET everyday!!! A bit of ME-TIME wont hurt to embrass our Real Dreams again! And NO! you're not stupid, you had the guts to take the risk to try and do what you felt was right, and most importantly, with you, we all learnt an important lesson. Life is a never-ending school and we're all attending the same school our dear Sweet. Gdnyt from Auz :-)

PS: Can anyone show me how to sign up to this 4EL.BIZ thing everyone's raving about? I cant find the Queue Thread...I wanted to join in rockfish's Linear (1 straight line)

Interesting,

Sorry to hear you were scammed, but could you explain more on how you came to this conclusion. I like to keep my scam folder up to date, and since I had Circle of Life already listed to watch, let us know what they did to you to call them a crooks.

Good luck and health to all, Mike

What goes around comes around. Those who do bad things will eventually get nailed for it. Scammers will screw up eventually.

Originally Posted by rvalreadydang

The only stipulation, i had to pay 10% commission for brokering the grant

This is the first thing that would tip me off to a scam. If someone is offering to send you money, but requiring an up front fee to be paid(not taken out of the payment being offered), you should close the deal straight away and report them to the authorities.

It's just like those "nigerian" 419 scams where they get you to pay money to them before releasing millions to you, but of course, the millions do not exist.

Originally Posted by rebateFX

This is the first thing that would tip me off to a scam. If someone is offering to send you money, but requiring an up front fee to be paid(not taken out of the payment being offered), you should close the deal straight away and report them to the authorities.

It's just like those "nigerian" 419 scams where they get you to pay money to them before releasing millions to you, but of course, the millions do not exist.

Good point,

Recently a new twist on Nigerian scams, they send you a check first, then ask for a fee to be deducted after check is cashed, via Western Union, and as it takes up to 10 days for check to be discovered as a fraud since they are using stolen information for accounts, you are stuck with loss if you fall for this deal. Most people let their guard down when they receive funds first, then are being trusted to send proceeds later, very clever since most are trustworthy people.

Rule number one, NEVER, NEVER use Western Union for anything other than personal friend to friend transfer. Every single one of these scams uses the non reversable no valid identification cash transfer system, so there is your tip off when in doubt, NEVER USE Western Union. This includes the scam with regards to selling your vehicle, or purchasing one, NEVER use Western Union.

Good luck and Health to all, Mike

Oh beleive me, i've learned, and kick myself in the arse everyday, i thought i was smarter than that, LOL......

Was the U.S.P.S. involved in any part of this transaction? If so, contact your local U.S. Postal Inspectors office and file a complaint with them. If is falls within the Postal Regulation Laws, THEY will find the guy and put him and his people into a Federal Prison for a very, very long time!

There was a kid serving time at McNeal Island Prison for stealing a half sheet of stamps. He got 20 years without any chance of parole.

DesertWolf