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Bogus checks, wire transfer fraud and scams
Posted on Sep 29, 2007 by Tom Fragala
Ed Dickson, over at the Fraudwar blog, has an article that I wish citizen could read and every law enforcement officer would be trained on. It’s about this amorphous set of fraud and scams that are similar at one level, although they appear different. Read the whole article but here’s a key part:
I’ve put together a list of the known counterfeit items in circulation, along with the current telephone numbers to verify them. You might receive these items after being lured with a too good to be true come-on that doesn't make very much sense, if you think long and hard about it.
The other common denominator is that there will be a request to send the proceeds, minus your paltry cut (normally via wire transfer) back to the person sending you the instruments. That is (unless) they are buying goods from you. In this case, your property is what they want you to send to them.
Some of these lures include, but aren't limited to (new lures surface frequently), secret shopper, romance, lottery, work-at-home and auction scams.
Ed says he regularly receives email from victims, many of whom lose money, and some of whom are arrested. I myself receive these emails too, including one this week from a woman with four children who might be going to jail. Sad to see. One of the factors that make these scams so confusing, is that some of the “victims” are maybe culpable to a degree, happily participating in a scam as long as they can make a buck.
Comments
the resident on Aug 21, 2008
can a scam artist in a foreign country use just a persons name age adress and phone number and email address to steal identity. that is they do not have credit card numbers, or bank account numbers or banking info of any kind
Tom Fragala on Aug 22, 2008
@the resident on Aug 21, 2008 said:
"can a scam artist in a foreign country use just a persons name age adress and phone number and email address to steal identity. that is they do not have credit card numbers, or bank account numbers or banking info of any kind?"
the general answer is NO. however, it depends what you mean by "steal identity" and it depends on the scam artist's goals. it's possible they might use that information to get additional info from you or with info they already have on you. However, it's unlikely and you are probably safe if all you gave them was name, age, address, phone number, and email.
--tom
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