- News Item
- January 7, 2010
Guys, watch out for this scam, which is also known as Google Money Kit, that became widespread since last November. It is not entirely new, but not many people might be aware of it at this point.
We are not going to repeat what is mentioned on the li...
- News Item
- January 7, 2010
- Fake Check Scam
Charleston, South Carolina:
Looks like some scammers get away with some free Christmas money after all.
Just before Christmas, up to a dozen charities received a check of $25,000 from a "genuine local company"and it happened to be a fake check.
None ...
- News Item
- January 6, 2010
There is an interesting news in Singapore. A maid adds her urine to the drinking water just after starting work for a week. Fortunately, urine does not kill (watch survivor stories), but its disgusting if you are drinking it at home!
What is her reas...
- News Item
- January 4, 2010
If you have ever bought drugs from online pharmacies, watch out for this scam. Apparently, scammers are faking as "FDA" special agents in the US, and forcing victims to pay a fine or they will be sued. Please spread this around.
"The U.S. Food and Dr...
- News Item
- November 11, 2009
Check this news out. It is about one of our friends in anti-scamming campaign, the 419 eaters. Cheers to them.
"In fact, I was scam-baiting, screwing with internet thieves. It's a hobby that involves responding to those pesky emails that fill up your...
- News Item
- October 7, 2009
Beware of Phishing Scams! Now the news reported that thousands of stolen passwords have been released in public. If you are using your email for accessing sensitive information, we recommend that you change it immediately.
"BBC News has seen two list...
Always becareful when signing up for free trials. Scammers may use this to get you into a "paid monthly subscription", and one that is difficult to get out. People who visited one of the many web sites running this scam were promised free trial suppl...
One of the most pervasive scams is a keys-for-cash gambit. Carried out online where almost all rental transactions begin these days, this ploy separates would-be renters from their money before they so much as set foot inside a dwelling. In this sche...
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The cybersecurity arm of the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) warned on Friday that Web scammers were seeking
to take advantage of the deaths of Michael Jackson and Farah Fawcett.US-CERT
said it is "aware of p...
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings fell victim to a sophisticated debt
collection scam, to the tune of more than $400,000. But its quick
reporting of the crime has led to the arrest of suspects.
The Nashville Post
(sub. req.) repo...
- News Item
- June 7, 2009
- Fake Check Scam
Three Loud Cheers for UPS! Scammers out there, watch out! I think we have found the cure. Fedex, UPS, and other deliver services will soon be sending you to the police. Even in Nigeria.
"An alert United Parcel Service driver made a very special del...
Although it was not not established at this point that Air France crash is primarily caused by faulty speed sensor, this has been included as a possibility. A research into the past history related to the faulty sensors revealed shocking truth... are...
Haha, it is "pot calling the kettle black". It takes alot to clean away the shit that stains the world's memory for more than 20 years. When is the Nigerian 419 Scam 25-Year Silver Annivesary going to be held? Will there be a national holidays in Nig...
A 50-year old woman tricked a 78-year old man into lending her money. And she lost the money in gambling. There is a reason why some good people stopped lending money to those who are really in need - because there are always scams like this! Check o...
A
Southern California man is suing dozens of Las Vegas strip clubs, taxi
companies and limousine providers, accusing them of running illegal
kickback schemes that defraud tourists of millions of doll...
There appears to be an increase in emails with just a subject and a link in the message body. If you see such mail, keep your itchy fingers (and mouse pointer) off that link and delete the mail immediately. Do not click on the links. Some examples of...
Watch out for this scam, esp. during bad times. Empty Promise + Contract = Money Lost!"PEOPLE in Essex who sell their cars privately have been warned about the dangers of 'vehicle matching' scams.
Fraudsters approach people selling vehicles and ...
Federal regulators recently accused Raleigh investment manager
William Wise of participating in an $80 million Ponzi scheme in which
clients were promised staggering returns but never had their money
invested, for instance.
...
- News Item
- May 27, 2009
- Fake Check Scam
Think that you are smart? Think that you would never be scammed? According to Consumer Federation of America, about 33% of Americans are exposed to fake check scams, out of which1.3million were tricked and lost between $3,000 to $4,000. Fake check sc...
An entire Connecticut town has found itself the target of phone scammers.
The calls started coming in Sunday night.
Police in Guilford, Connecticut believe
by the time they were done every land line telephone in the town of
22,00...
This is a weird scam. Whatever the case, when anybody says they are from Nigeria - forget it, they are scammers. Unless the Nigerian Government takes a giant step to stop this crime back home, we don't give a darn about calling Nigerians = Scammer in...
Two years ago, Larry Revel thought he was going to lose his home, so when a flyer came in the mail promising help, he jumped at the offer."They would get me in a credit repair program and that they would help me get my house back and that I would hav...
The Federal Trade Commission launched a new Web site called Money Matters that they hope will help the public avoid bogus companies."For
the most part, fraud preys on consumers not knowing what's going on and
not understanding what's happe...
Belmont, Mass. - A Belmont resident is reportedly out nearly $90,000 after taking part in an investment scam for more than four years.The Oxford Avenue resident said he and a friend from Acton were
originally contacted by a man claiming to repre...
As the economy goes down, scams usually go up and one Midlands woman's mother lost $15,000 thanks to a scam.Trudy Shealy is steamed, knowing someone has swindled her 79-year-old mother out of some big bucks."They called her saying they had $250,000 a...
The west Pasco man was scammed out of $2,300 by two men who answered
a classified ad for some power tools that the 52-year-old had posted on
Craigslist. Flippo followed the common-sense rules typically
recommended when conducting trans...
This is one of the biggest loss to lottery scams that we have seen. How could anyone continue to pay and pay so much money without even realising something is wrong. Greedy Pigs Get Slaughtered!-----A bogus lottery has sucked an estimated $500,000 fr...
Last year, a 77-year old lady lost $14,000 to an "architect" whom she met at Yahoo! Personals. She communicated with him solely on email, and fell in love with this scammer who claimed to work in New York. In Oct 08, the scammer mailed her saying tha...
Police said one of the men told the victim that his (the man's) family had been
involved in a hit-and-run crash and he needed money for medical
expenses. He claimed he had been given jewelry to offset the medical
expenses and he needed...
Last Thursday, the 99-year-old woman received a call from a person claiming to be a grandson in need of money to bail himself out of jail in Vancouver, Canada, said Agent Dan Ryan of the Palo Alto Police Department. She agreed to wire the man $4,800 ...
She is nuts!"Anna Marie Ray of Colonie (kah-luh-NEE') was sentenced Monday to 5 to 10 years behind bars for bilking $209,000 from an 87-year-old man, a friend who cleaned her apartment and her adult son, who is mentally disabled.Prosecutors say the s...
For a second time in two years Nancy Alvarez, 21, has been charged with
selling vacation packages and discount tickets to Disney World and then
never delivering the goods.
According to investigators Alvarez, who goes by a number of ...
By Elisabeth Piatt, CulpeperYou can spot this by looking at your phone
bill; it will appear as a charge under “other provider.” There is a
page number and the amount they are stealing from you every month. The phone company that bills y...
COLUMBUS, Ohio —Some telemarketers
are trying to scam you out of money by calling your home, saying your
car warranty is about to expire and if you don’t sign up the offer
expires.
The Better Business Bureau says these ...
Flamers beware: Representative Linda Sanchez (D) has re-introduced a
bill to Congress that--if approved--could make internet flaming and
harassment a felony. Called the Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention
Act, Sanchez created and name...
Watch out for charges on your credit cards for things that you did not buy. Recently, we received a report from a reader regarding similar scam. He received some goods at his home, and 3 charges on his credit card for things he did not buy. We are co...
Source: Clayton Utz - auDA, the Australian domain name administrator, has warned that .au domain name holders are being targeted with unsolicited emails from companies that appear to be based in China and Hong Kong.For info....
There is a strong reason that we continue to ask everybody to help disseminate and spread about such scams so as to prevent them from happening. Every now and then, we find news where people who are desperate for money, are easily tricked by scams th...
By Caroline Binham
May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Seven people were arrested across
London and south-east England on suspicion of operating a share
scam that defrauded victims out of as...
We are not quite sure the relation between Halifax and SFG. Please see report below. "On trial is Tan Yong Sua, 47, who had opened the
bank account in the name of Halifax Baldwin International - a company
he set up in May 2007. The Singapor...
22-year-old Kari Ferrell lied to her new friends that she was terminally ill, pregnant. She also said that her ATM cards cannot be used except for a few machines, so she would issue checks in return for cash. According to authorities, she cheated up ...
By Chris Paschenko
The Daily News, LEAGUE CITY — A League City couple and men
from Dallas and Boston say they are among more than two dozen people
they know of who fell victim to an alleged scam involving a business
opportunity ...
4 scammers setup hidden cameras near ATM to collect account information of at least 20 bank customers, and transferred the money to their US-based account and Romania. The four suspects - Iosif Rauca, Alexander Dragomir, Gabriel Staicu and Vittoro Ta...
Would you believe in these "Pay Money to Collect Money" scam, that is striving in the poor economy? If an old lady, aged 72, did not fall for the scam, we do not see why anybody could. Don't let the "prize money" get into your head and beats the comm...
We are tracking another new breed of scam as a result of the current economic crisis - housing rental scam. Apparently, some crooks break into foreclosure home and started to "rent" out the house to unsuspecting victims. Beware of these conman and ma...
Watch for millions of emails flying around the world claiming to sell the drugs for the Swine Flu!The email will link to fake pharmacy website, that aims to steal your credit card information. Do not buy the drugs online through links from your email...
WARNING: If you see any email about Swine Flu, please delete them. You can always read up the news online. The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team or US-CERT is alerting computers users about a cyber scam. US-CERT says the cyber attacks&...
There might be a swine flu outbreak soon, but the economic crisis is bringing about another new epidemic - scammers. Always check, and double check before you send any money, even to friends, relatives, children. Call them on their personal handphone...
The e-mail states: “You have 1 new ALERT message. Please login to
your First Dakota National Bank Online Login and visit the Message
Center section in order to read the message. To Login, please click the
link below: First Dakota Nat...
Police in Bensalem report the man is wanted for 4 crimes in the
township and 1 in Philadelphia. He claims that he needs help for a
broken down car and gets money from people trying to help him. The suspect is described as: White maleThin...
"The woman reportedly received a letter in the mail from Corporate
Survey Services asking her to take surveys of area restaurants for
their company. The letter mentioned a prior company the victim had
previously done similar work for l...
Who says job scammers are never caught? The scammer (Ricky) is 55 years old..."A man who promised to bring thousands of jobs to Central Florida is in
jail because police say that promise was a lie. Investigators say the
man's entire compan...
This is the photo of scammer caught on video surveillance camera. He has scammed the elderly at UK, London and also at Ontario, Canada. The suspect is described as a white male, 40 to 45
years of age, 5'8" tall, slim to medium build, short brown...
It is about time the "Elderly Strikes Back"! Scammers watch out, don't you think you can cheat them all the time!SALT LAKE COUNTY -- A would-be scammer decided to mess with the wrong elderly woman.
Clara Whitson says she may be 83 years ol...
An Australian in Perth was inspired by the Nigerian's infamous 419 scams, and he managed to collect $132,400 from victims. The West Australian newspaper reported this morning that 30-year-old
Tuoyo Clement Nikaghanri had been sentenced to six ye...
We found this scam news posted last month, but we find it useful for our news archive. If anybody thinks its easy to get away with a scam on ebay, watch out. "Man gets 14 months for eBay rip-offsA MAN who made £8000 by selling non-existent holiday...
Did you receive another check lately? Don't get too excited and start spending the money. Read the bold sentences in the news below."The BBB said some metro residents have gotten letters from Netchoice Consumer Research Group
telling them that ...
Some scammers are using the name of "McDonalds" to steal credit card information. This could happen anywhere. If you get similar emails from a well-known company asking for your credit card or personal details, beware of scam!"McDonald’s warns of...
Becareful about phishing websites and the use of your credit cards online. There appears to be a market place for stolen credit card numbers, hijacked email accounts, and bank account credentials. "Stolen credit card numbers now go for as little as 6...
This is a good warning to those who think they are too rich to be scammed in a simple golfing trip. "According to Yeongdeungpo Police Station, the suspects lured a
56-year-old businessman identified as Lee into taking a golf trip to
Shandon...
Watch out for this scam:Scam artists have been prowling cell phones to dupe Citizens Bank
customers into disclosing personal and financial information, the bank
confirmed Friday.
A number of area residents received text messages...
These scammers who target the elderly are bastards. They have secured a place in hell!Generally, the scam works like this: the grandparent receives a
distressed phone call from who they believe is their grandchild. The
supposed grandchild t...
Madoff may have earned alot of money using the Ponzi scheme, but he ended up in jail and he is hardly a role model. Anyone trying to follow his footsteps should know that they cannot run away. "The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is probing an al...
Top federal and state officials on Monday announced a broad
crackdown on mortgage modification scams, accusing "criminal actors" of
preying on desperate borrowers caught up in the nation's housing crisis.
Government
officials ...
Police have revealed that an elderly man from south west Scotland has lost his home to a foreign lottery scam. In fact, there were 3 person - one did not lose any money while the other two were scammed and lost money. Scammers are simply low-life bas...
We used to hear Donald Trump saying this in the Apprentice: "XXXXXXX is a Multi-Billion Dollar Industry"Has anyone ever said that "Scamming is a Multi-Billion Dollar Industry"? Nay, HOTSCAMS.COM is the first!Taiwan alone is has clocked USD 4.52 Billi...
Finally, the (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigeria's anti-corruption police are doing something about the notorious scammers at home. Nurudeen is an undergraduate love scammer. "A Nigerian undergraduate has been sentenced to 19 ye...
These two years (2008 and 2009) will be the year to remember when Billionaires were struck down by the Recession as well as the Scam of the Century - The Bernard Madoff Billion Dollar Scam. In this recession, 1,125 billionaires were reduced to 793. I...
Fake checks scams never seem to die, but this one seemed to have a funny twist where the buyer sends a fake check with a larger sum and asked for a REAL check to cover the difference. My goodness, if I am the seller I will simply ask the Buyer to qui...
This is a very interesting lottery scam where the scammer says she has won a lottery but needs $40,000 to claim the prize. Geez, since when do we need to pay money to collect lottery winnings. If there is any fees/tax required, the lottery agency sim...
- News Item
- February 2, 2009
Check out this page at CNBC.com covering all the reports of Bernie Madoff and the $50 Billion HeistIf it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. Those words take on dramatic resonance since the public unraveling of investment manager Bernard L. Ma...
- News Item
- January 12, 2009
If you received an email with the subject: "Obama Acceptance Speech" or "Amazing Speech by Obama.", be careful. "The email claims to contain a link to a "reliable media source" but the linked website actually contains a Trojan virus that can compromi...
- News Item
- January 12, 2009
Watch out for this new scam. Scammers are hacking Facebook (social networking website) and sending distress signals to the hacked victim's friends and asking them for money. "WA journalist Caroline Winter said she only found out a hacker had
acc...
- News Item
- December 29, 2008
Scammers are out to make money, and they don't care how their victims are affected by the scam. Money isn't the most important thing in life. But for many people, losing money in one such as Madoff Scam can mean life or death. "A fund manager who los...
- News Item
- December 23, 2008
Becareful, you might get counterfeit chips in Casinos.The Argosy Casino in Kansas City reports a $100,000 loss following a counterfeit chip scam.The
Missouri Highway Patrol confirmed that a man scammed the Argosy Casino
off Interstate 635 i...
- News Item
- December 23, 2008
Who says lottery scam only occurs online? A 68-year old woman was scammed by 2 scammers by the name of "Blanca" and "Raphael" at an East-Naples Walmart. Blanca said that she is homeless and needed a ride to a local shelter, and Raphael also appears t...
- News Item
- December 19, 2008
This scam involved a telephone call to a woman at Silver Street United Methodist Church, located in New Albany. A man claiming to be part of an Ohio-based Methodist church said a person from church was in need of money, a bus ticket and car repairs a...
- News Item
- December 17, 2008
A group of self-proclaimed film producers have been sued in Los Angeles
Superior Court for raising $300,000 for a non-existent movie. The picture was called Mike and Dolores, a.k.a. Baby O, and investors were told that Eddie Murphy and William H...
- News Item
- December 16, 2008
Two elderly women received a call from their "grandson" asking for financial help, and both lost a total of $17,000 in the scam. Please spread this message to your elderly folks and warn them. Be safe than sorry. One of the scammers said he was from ...
- News Item
- December 13, 2008
A
woman scams another out of close to $1,000. Here's how police say she
did it. The victim, who police say is an elderly woman, was shopping at
the Hamburg Meyers when a woman walked up to her and showed her a bag
full of cash, or...
- News Item
- December 13, 2008
What happens when financial crisis meets holiday season? You will need to spend more during the holiday season but you are short of money. A popular scam for this holiday will be bogus loans and credit card offers. "People who are in dire financial s...
- News Item
- December 7, 2008
- Fake Check Scam
Ms. Foster receieved a fake check for a preliminary pay of $4,890, and she has to pay $2,985 in "government tax" in order to received the "remaining prize of $250,000. In a real lottery, the tax is deducted from your winnings. And they don't send you...
- News Item
- December 7, 2008
Scammers sit on either side of the table.On one side, the scammers prey on those who are needy and greedy - need job, need money, need a new life, etc, etc.On the other side, the scammers prey on those who are generous and kind - to give to the needy...
- News Item
- December 1, 2008
Watch out for scams for the holiday season!Monday will be one of the biggest online shopping days of the year, and also one of the most treacherous.
On Cyber Monday, the first Monday after
Thanksgiving, consumers are expected to spend $821 ...
- News Item
- December 1, 2008
What is so bad about Free Lunch!? Very often we are invited to seminars that come with free meals (tea or lunch). This is not "always" a bad thing, as companies such as Autodesk and Intel has also organised seminars to spread public awareness about t...
- News Item
- November 14, 2008
Watch out for this repeated scammer... he never seemed to learn!"An anonymous tip led police Thursday morning to a convicted con man who may have scammed as many as 30 people out of high-end cars advertised on Craigslist and other Web sites.Fadel Eri...
- News Item
- November 14, 2008
Colombians have lost hundreds of millions of dollars in pyramid
schemes that are collapsing around the country, sparking deadly riots
and threatening to hurt an economy already slowed by global financial
turmoil.Retailers are bracing f...
- News Item
- October 30, 2008
Not long ago, Alfred Frizziola, 66, of Lacey, opened his mail and
found a check for $4,875. He'd won a sweepstakes he hadn't even entered. He never cashed the check."I
knew something was fishy right away," said the retired New York City...
- News Item
- October 29, 2008
Quick, send the cash in 30 mins or someone (you love) will be in big trouble! Don't fall for this scam!"...the recipient is warned a "loved one" will be killed unless he pays up.IC3, a government task force that looks at cybercrime, says the made-ove...
- News Item
- October 29, 2008
Here's how it works... the caller will identify themself as "Sgt. Malone". They will tell you there was a car accident and for more information you should call *72 and the rest of a phone number.If you follow these directions you are essentially allo...
- News Item
- October 27, 2008
There is no free lunch. Scammers are targeting elderly folks again, baiting them with free lunch, and forcing them to sign-up for misleading investment products. What a shame. "A recent year-long examination of free lunch seminars conducted by
s...
- News Item
- October 27, 2008
Nah, not for 419 scams originating from you know where. Spam, phishing, and credit card thieves are busted!"The FBI announced it has busted up an online bazaar
for cyber thieves, working with international authorities to nab at
least 56 peo...
- News Item
- October 21, 2008
419 Scammers missed the sushi! They are now targeting the Japanese! What's more, we were talking about 419 Scam + Violence in Jamaica, and and now its 419 Scam + Kidnapping in Japan!...an increasing number of them are being duped with some pretty old...
- News Item
- October 17, 2008
"...an advert was placed on the Gumtree website advertising a car for sale privately at a very low price.
On contacting the seller, the victim would be told a discounted price would be available for cash, and then set up a meeting....
- News Item
- October 17, 2008
A man claiming to be Louesa Scott’s grandson
called her last month saying he was in Phoenix, had been in a car
accident and needed money in a hurry.
Wanting to help, Scott, 90, immediately withdrew $5,000 from her bank and sent it t...
- News Item
- October 15, 2008
- Fake Check Scam
When she saw the envelope, Angela Jonathan of Lewiston immediately suspected that someone was up to no good. Still, her heart beat a little faster when she read the letter inside that informed her she had won $250,000 in a Canadian lottery. All she...
- News Item
- October 15, 2008
A long time ago, we were dragged into a time sharing seminar because they promised 7 free rolls of Kodak films. Digital cameras were new and expensive then, and 7 free rolls of film seemed good enough as a payback for an hour spent listening to a fre...
- News Item
- October 13, 2008
Who says 419 scammers are only found in Nigeria? In Jamaica, 419 scammers there make thousands each week from scams and use the money to buy powerful weapons for violence. The operation is centred around Montego Bay, the country's second city on the ...
- News Item
- October 11, 2008
We found this news at Foxnews. There are no further details of the scam. A Miami woman has been accused of swindling families out of $25,000 worth of Disney vacations. Nancy Alvarez was released after her arrest on grand theft charges this week. Her ...
- News Item
- October 10, 2008
We posted a scam earlier, where scammers pretend to be someone's grandchildren and try to cheat money from the grandparents. In Singapore, scammers go an extra step to ask for ransom money in exchange for the "life" of kids. A housewife (aged 51) rec...
- News Item
- October 10, 2008
Haha, we were just talking about Anne Hathaway's excuse to get a new boyfriend, and what a coincidence.She said: "This summer, I broke up with my boyfriend and two weeks
later he was sent to prison for fraud! I mean, we've all been there,
r...
- News Item
- October 9, 2008
Phew! Now she has the perfect excuse to dump, and get that new boyfriend she has been eyeing for 4 years. Italian businessman Raffaello Follieri, 30, who dated The Devil
Wears Prada star (Anne Hathaway) for four years, is headed to prison after ...
- News Item
- October 7, 2008
A Cameroon conman(African) scammed £1800 from Gillian and never deliver the pet as promised. Puppy scam is rife on the internet, and its far more safer to buy a pet from the local pet store where you can see, touch and know exactly who you are buyin...
- News Item
- October 7, 2008
Wow! I didn't know this works!"Citibank machines in 7-Eleven convenience stores across America were the target of the biggest and most effective remote PIN code theft scam in US banking history between last autumn and this spring when at least $2 mil...
- News Item
- October 6, 2008
It is wise to warn your old folks about lottery scams. Never take it for granted. And it is never easy to recover the money lost in such a scam, as scammers know how to cover their tracks and remove forensic evidence.Pennsylvania State police say a 7...
- News Item
- October 4, 2008
Did you buy any Iraqi Dinars recently from a company called www.safedinar.com? They have been selling without a license and possibly promising high returns. When times are bad, watch out for high-yield investment scams, such as YearProfit. "With the ...
- News Item
- October 3, 2008
Old folks, watch-out for scammers who pretends to be your grandchild!Generally, the scam works like this - the grandparent receives a
distressed phone call from who they believe is their grandchild. The
supposed grandchild typically explain...
- News Item
- September 27, 2008
Beware of love scams! Nice, sexy pictures ya? "She" could be a MAN!Never believe in the pictures that they sent you. There are billions of pictures on the internet, and they are used by the scammers to cheat your money. "A Brisbane man has been strip...
- News Item
- September 17, 2008
When was the last time someone said its stupid to fall for an Advance Fee Scam? "The calls went on for months as the scam artist preyed on the woman’s
trust. They eventually got her to wire money offshore in the hopes of
winning a prize b...
- News Item
- September 17, 2008
"Old folks are the targets of all sorts of scam. The story goes where some men drove to a house owned by an old lady, offering to repair the cracks on her driveway. When she asked how much it would cost, they simply replied "I wouldn't know until I d...
- News Item
- September 13, 2008
An eBay scammer has been caught for scamming $47,000, by taking the money and not delivering the goods. Such scams have been common since the beginning - selling something they don't have and refusing to return the money. Isn't this stupid? Well, it ...
- News Item
- September 12, 2008
Do you want to know what are the hottest scams running in the UK?The campaign revealed that the top five mass-market scam mailings in
the UK are; deceptive sweepstakes, misleading prize draws, fake
clairvoyants or psychics, bogus foreign lo...
- News Item
- September 11, 2008
An Israeli scammer was caught by the police for cheating US$2million from Americans. Police say a
well organized ring placed phone calls to predominantly elderly
American citizens and falsely informed them that they had won a large cash pri...
- News Item
- September 9, 2008
THREE million Brits each year fall for rip-offs like bogus sweepstakes asking for money to release non-existent “winnings”. But the watchdog estimates only five per cent of victims report their loss due to embarrassment at being stung. Assuming t...
- News Item
- September 9, 2008
Beware when your bank or credit company calls to ask for your personal information. It could be a scam. The best way is to contact the bank or credit company directly (using the original numbers or mail) to verify, rather than replying directly to th...
- News Item
- September 9, 2008
Every now and then, someone is losing their money to scams.It is time to spread the word, let them know about hotscams.comPolice
stated that the man sent about $12,000 to those countries and that he
has yet to receive payment for his allege...
- News Item
- September 7, 2008
HotScams.com is back in action and strongly condemns scammers who targeted the senior folks!He has preyed on
Vivian for months, dangling the promise of a huge lottery win. In
recent years, he and others have stolen perhaps $125,000 from her...
Scores of Australians have been caught in an alleged global scam believed to have conned people worldwide into buying non-existent tickets to the Beijing Olympics, reports said Monday.The Sydney Morning Herald said one Brisbane man had spent 46,000 d...
This scam disappears years ago but is back. They will promise you loan despite your credit history, as long as you start sending them money first. Just like any other scam... you don't get what you want... and whatever money you sent over... you can ...
There is a report of a sweepstake fraud. This old lady sent money to "buy" the sweepstakes. And when the news came that she had "won" the lottery, she smell the rat. Soon, she found that she was right and she had lost a total of more than $2.600 in t...
- News Item
- February 16, 2008
This is nice..."The campaign saw 25,000 mobile phone users aged between 18 and 24 receive a message telling them they might have won £1,000 in cash.
But a second message arrived soon after informing them that the message was a fake and w...
- News Item
- February 11, 2008
The news at Jacksonville reported several cases of puppy scams. As expected, most of the scammers involved in the scams are overseas, which makes tracking difficult. "Sisneros contacted the seller who claimed he was a missionary in Africa
trying...
- News Item
- January 26, 2008
A scam that is striving in India where poor people are picked from the streets with a job offer, unknowing that they have been targeted by a kidney racket. ''I was picked up at the railway station and
offered a job for Rs 250 daily wage. Then I ...
- News Item
- January 19, 2008
If you are crazy about cereal and health, this article about breakfast cereal is for you."..... experts from 5 universities reviewed the leading kid's cereals,
including these reduced sugar versions, only to discover that the
calorie amount...
- News Item
- January 12, 2008
We had always thought that using one-off password for banking is safe, but it appears that there is a "SIM Swop Scam" which allow scammers to hijack your cellphone number and receive the passwords via SMS. How this works is still unclear, but we beli...
- News Item
- January 12, 2008
What you see is not always what you get when you date online. In fact, she just dated a Nigerian who cheated her retirement savings."We were supposed to be married this Christmas. He asked if I could
assist him with his project and I didn't hesi...
- News Item
- December 31, 2007
We thought these scams were gone, but this is not true..."Now there's a new twist in the scams that collectively have bilked thousands of people of millions of dollars. Someone claiming to be a high-ranking U.S. Marine Corps officer seeks to move $25...
- News Item
- December 15, 2007
Another seasonal scam warning. Don't contribute money to scammer's Christmas party!Carol Odell of the Bureau in Colorado Springs says thieves start by targeting gift cards displayed on store counters. "They steal the number off the back. They wai...
- News Item
- December 14, 2007
The Christmas is coming and expect more scams. The scammers need to make more money for their celebrations! Watch Out!!"Although holiday-themed spam is less widespread this year than
expected, e-mails containing ads for gifts, stocks and Viagra ...
- News Item
- December 1, 2007
- Fake Check Scam
Never trust a check in your letter... until you see the real cash."The letterhead says Citi Financial," Mary Lou Vega said. "It says "final prize notification' ... It has everything that a check should have, the security background and micro-printing...
- News Item
- December 1, 2007
This is not a fake check scam:"U.S. hay prices are the highest since record keeping began in 1949, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, opening the door for scammers to try to make a quick buck.
Les Wentworth is a third-gen...
- News Item
- November 28, 2007
A woman in her 60s was duped of her life savings of RM109,000 in a scratch-and-win scam.
The woman from Kluang was promised a car and paid the money in four instalments. Instead, she got about 13 electrical items.
- News Item
- November 21, 2007
We didn't know that phone surveys are that "lethal"! "According to the study, 37 per cent of
Atlantic Canadians said they had received a call from someone asking
them to participate in a survey, only to find out that the intent of
the ...
- News Item
- November 11, 2007
Maybe there are too many of them, and its difficult to track and catch the scammers since they are all over the place."The latest twist involves an e-mail, supposedly from a teachers’
credit union, warning me that the Internet is full of phish...
- News Item
- November 6, 2007
It does not matter how you receive this "great" news, via email or phone calls. If a man has not heard about such as scam before, he will be overwhelmed by the "great" news. Ofcourse, all of these lottery and prize are not real, and the scammers woul...
- News Item
- November 1, 2007
This articles talks about a scam that fools you into keying in the Captcha figures. "In the
new scam, an icon of an alluring woman suddenly appears on a Windows
computer infected by a virus. After clicking on the icon, the user sees
a ...
- News Item
- November 1, 2007
This is what a retiree (Killian) did after losing some money to scammers. As you might know, once you bite a bait earlier, the scammers will keep coming back asking for more. What Killian did was much less "harmless" than the scam baiters at 419eater...
- News Item
- November 1, 2007
Not all competition prize are fakes, but where there are real competition prize, there will also be scams to exploit the greed. This is well said: "Members of the public must
realize that prize-winner announcements that demand the immediate
...
- News Item
- October 30, 2007
This scam can be found through online survey and this is how it works:"Along with the description came a check for nearly $5,000, they were
told they were secret shopping a money order service and to deposit the
check in their account.“$8...
- News Item
- October 30, 2007
A staggering figure of 30million people were scammed in 2005. On the other hand, imagine the amount of money transferred to the scammers during the year alone. Assuming that the average loss is $100 each, that would total up to $3billion lost to scam...
- News Item
- October 29, 2007
"More than $432 million was sucked from the federal treasury last
year through tax scams, program cheats and theft, loss and damage to
government property. Public accounts records for the last
fiscal year show taxpayers were on the ho...
- News Item
- October 29, 2007
Botswana (a country in Southern Africa) news report about job scams. The scammers would go through seemingly elaborate "screening process" where the candidate is "selected" and then directed to a training center. However, the scammers aren't prepared...
- News Item
- October 25, 2007
- Fake Check Scam
Other than the rising fake check scams in the US, they are also warning about identity theft: “To commit identity theft, what do people need? They (thieves) need your full name, your date of birth and your Social Security number,” Boucher said....
- News Item
- October 25, 2007
A Canadian news has reported a mutation of the 419 scam. Scammers are now targeting people who are cash-strapped and needs to borrow money urgently. The scammers will act as loan providers and ask the victims to deposit 10-20% of the money that they ...
- News Item
- October 23, 2007
How would you like to invest some money to develop mines? Don't worry, these scams are targeted at high rollers. However, there are other cheap investment scams targeted at the working class. "Alberto DoCouto, who moved to the U.S. in 2002 after bein...
- News Item
- October 23, 2007
If you think the millions of dollars in lottery and 419 scams is a big deal, wait till you read this news about scammers who try to cheat Bank of England using counterfeit money. "...the audacious plot involved £1,000 notes, which had not been legal...
- News Item
- October 8, 2007
- Fake Check Scam
A collaboration between US Postal Inspector and police from other countries resulted in the arrest of 77 scammers involved in fake check scams. "While 60 people were arrested in the Netherlands, 16 in Nigeria and one in Canada, victims of these scam...
- News Item
- September 25, 2007
A scammer approached you with an offer to share "a lot of money" found in a lost wallet, provided that you give her some "good faith" money in return.Does this make sense? It is just like a 419 scam where "I have plenty of money to share with you" bu...
- News Item
- September 23, 2007
Singapore reported US$1million lost in lottery scams this year.The biggest amount of fees paid in a single transaction was US$235k!"Often victims receive messages on their mobile phones, notifying them
to call an overseas number to claim prizes....
- News Item
- September 20, 2007
We received a tip-off regarding a "wealth creation" network that is expanding into Australia. Apparently, the company offers expensive membership (US$8,600) in return for "access to online networks, mentoring and coaching seminars"."Members can on-se...
- News Item
- September 20, 2007
Fr Mendonca, a priest in Mangalore(India), was nearly scammed when a fake priest (Fr. Steeve Gollan) called to request help for an "adopted" boy who had lost his belongings when traveling to India. Apparently, the scam is about transferring of "funds...
- News Item
- September 13, 2007
A Nigerian scammer was caught by the police for scamming an 84-year old man of more than $30,000. " Chaput said the scam began when the senior replied to an unsolicited e-mail that promised a share of a $1.5 million inheritance that, unknown to him, ...
- News Item
- September 9, 2007
Don't get too excited if anyone invites you to attend a Financial Seminar for some educational talks. The professionals are not doing it for free, as the seminars are actually sales promotion in disguise. It is great to learn about investment opportu...
- News Item
- September 8, 2007
Like we always say, the scammers do not expect every 1000 mails sent out are successful. They just need a few victims to bite the bait and pay the price with their hard-earned cash. "A Yeovil woman has lost thousands of pounds in savings after fallin...
- News Item
- September 8, 2007
Penny stocks are cheap and volatile. Perhaps they are great for intra-day or swing trading. However, they are also known to be used for scams. "According to the government, 47-year-old Michael Saquella and
63-year-old Lawrence Kaplan took the co...
- News Item
- September 4, 2007
- Fake Check Scam
Earlier, we received forwarded mails from our visitors regarding inter-state purchase of hay. The scammers sent the fake check and money order via UPS to the hay sellers, with excess amount either for refund purpose or payment to the "delivery" guy. ...
- News Item
- September 4, 2007
Worcester Telegram has a news article with the title "Scam Artists Still Striving". "Everyone knows the saying: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”But not enough people follow it, authorities say. ""Online lottery scams out of Can...
- News Item
- September 1, 2007
The NZ news report a rise in scam. Although it mentioned briefly about money mules, there were no specific examples in the news. However, the news talks about scams where buyers paid more than what the seller wanted, and asking for a refund thereafte...
- News Item
- August 30, 2007
In the town of Greece NY, a 49-year old man was charged for scamming at
least 50 people in a donation scam. It was reported that Joseph
Tavolino used children to help him go around and solicit scam donations
for "MS Walk...
- News Item
- August 28, 2007
"SACRAMENTO -- A Redding man and his daughter accused of hoodwinking 500 investors of more than $25 million (in Viatical Scams) since 2001 pleaded not guilty Monday here in U.S. District Court...""...The Redding pair are among eight people indicted W...
- News Item
- August 25, 2007
He deserves it.... we want more of such news!"Federal authorities announced that Audrey Aloysius was sentenced to 70
months in prison for defrauding over 20 victims of millions of dollars
through a bogus investment scheme involving purporte...
- News Item
- August 25, 2007
"A local man is out $10,000 after falling prey to a con man who promised him a cut of his dead uncle's will, provided the victim agreed to "loan" him the cash he needed to donate to local churches to fulfill the will's terms...But all did not go as p...
- News Item
- August 25, 2007
Whenever there is big trouble, it's business time for scammers."According to Falke, the company she contacted, Foreclosure Assistance
Solutions (FAS), simply took her money and did nothing for her. And by
delaying a workout with her lender,...
- News Item
- August 22, 2007
More shocking numbers for those who thinks that internet scams are history. According to a
Microsoft-commissioned study conducted by Harris Interactive in May 2007 based on 2,482 adults surveyed:1) 60% of internet users are unaware of internet ...
- News Item
- August 22, 2007
We know politicians have a high pay and influence, but to impersonate a government official requires quite a lot of guts. A man by the
name of Huang in China pretended that he is a senior official of the
Chinese government. He even bought a...
- News Item
- August 21, 2007
Still thinking that internet love affair is safe? Read this news:A 56-year old Gregor flew all the way to West Africa (possibly somewhere in Mali) to meet his lover "Natacha". Upon arrival, he was robbed and held hostage by the scammers, who demanded...
- News Item
- August 20, 2007
In another news from nwi.com, a firefighter was planning to catch the 419 scammers should they decide to "deliver" the money. We were surprised read that the police and lawyers would not handle the case. I think he means that the authorities would no...
- News Item
- August 20, 2007
The news from nwi.com briefly reported a case where a lady in South Haven managed to evade a scam by not cashing the fake check and sending her personal information over to the scammers. In another unfortunate case, a Northwest Indiana woman lost her...
- News Item
- August 18, 2007
How much can we expect to lose from identity theft? Not much, the records are probably more than US$10million only, in a single case. "A Russian con artist posing as presidential pal Charles J. Wyly Jr.
ordered a new checkbook from the Texas bil...
- News Item
- August 18, 2007
Consumer Affairs posted a news about an Arkansas woman being fined for work-at-home scams. Pay $99 and earn $10 for every ads mailed out... wow, we can make thousands a day easily by mass mailing. This is another too-good-to-be-true scam. "Customers ...
- News Item
- August 16, 2007
Dutch police arrested 6 men involved in a business contract scam that promises US$90million. The Australian victim had lost US$1.5million to the scammers before finding out that it is a scam when he flew to Amsterdam. The Dutch police has also releas...
- News Item
- August 16, 2007
This is a fake check scam and the details of the scam is summarized by the following para from the news:"In the scam, Sharifaie-Arabi allegedly sent
his victims a counterfeit check he said contained extra money that they
could keep if they ...
- News Item
- August 16, 2007
We missed out the news of 4 "black money" scammers caught by the police at Tennessee in mid-July. This is a great news that deserves a place in our archive."U.S. Secret Service agent Randy Hall said victims have been loosing
hundreds of thousand...
- News Item
- August 14, 2007
Such a news is quite rare esp. when victims of Nigerian scams are able to recover their money. However, the compensation is likely limited to those cases where the scammers are using US accounts. The amount of US$300,000 frozen due to scam activities...
- News Item
- August 13, 2007
We hate checks and fake check scams are everywhere now! Jason Froehlig was sent a fake check to pay for the truck engine that he was selling online. Guess what, the buyer sent him a check of $3,500, which is for the following:$1,000 for the engine$2,...
- News Item
- August 13, 2007
The severity of the scam at Los Alamos(New Mexico) can be summarized by the following statement. That does not include those who did not report about the scam."Residents call or enter police headquarters almost daily to report they've been scammed, W...
- News Item
- August 12, 2007
A Nigerian scammer by the name of Don Raymond Faluyi tried to scam a lady from Singapore with a fake lottery prize of 1million GBP. She paid the scammer a total of S$150k (close to US$100k, in 20 occasions) to an address in Britain. This was done bef...
- News Item
- August 10, 2007
Stop complaining about "ladies" in all those love scams, there is a male Casanova who stole credit cards, checks and cars from a dozen women he met on internet dating sites. Luckily, Smith has been caught but he might not be the last one....
There were several news sites reporting millions of dollars lost in 419 and lottery scams. Now we have a news from a consumer report saying that billions were lost to viruses, spyware and phishing scam. In fact, they estimated at US$7 billion in the ...
Ashok Malhotra, a millionaire and alleged kingpin of the "multi-crore land scam" was turned into police custody. We do not have any details about the "slum-land scam" yet, but we found this:"Malhotra is accused of having entered into a criminal consp...
The Gypsy ScamWhatever you call these, Psychic, Gypsy, or someone with "extraordinary" powers. They will ask for your money to remove curses, improve your luck, find a lover, or simply fortune telling. Some of these "services" are obviously scams and...
Following an earlier news about a hotmail account hacked by scammers, Mahendra Ved encountered a similar scam when his gmail account was hacked. The scammers were sending out distress email to his friends and relatives (including his daughter) reques...
There were several terror threats recently and in the latest case in Canada, authorities are offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the hoax caller.In comparison to scams involving only money, terror hoaxes must not be condoned and must...
We found a news that is saying exactly what we have been promoting here. Screw those scammers who scammed elderly folks all their life savings. We know you might be aware of a scam when you see one. But if everyone can help to "share" their valuable ...
Two Armenians were accused of stealing ATM card information by replacing the actual card swipe keypad with a similar device that collects the information and pin numbers of ATM cards. This is a real case which is similar to the swiping demo in our ar...
Currently the hot scams in China is a 419-type scam using the name of 2008 Beijing Olympics as disguise. The fees are relative low, but nonetheless still a 419 scam.1) Scammer called Li saying that he has won 98,000 Yuan (approx. US$12,600).2)...
We could not find the announcement at BBB, but there is no harm taking
a look at the top 10 scams blockbuster awarded by the Bureau at this site.
We have also added a new page above called "Anti-Scam" Guide. It is meant to server as a refer...
The gang of 4 attempted to disguise stolen cars as new imports and was caught. Only 25 cars were recovered worth an estimated 1million GBP, while the rest had been exported to countries like India, Singapore, and UAE. The 8 buyers in UK who unknowing...
Kids in Hoax CallsSome kids in Colne (UK) finds it fun to make hoax calls to the local authorities... including the police. They are all under 10 years old, and they had made 50 hoax calls to the police. That is definitely a show of great potential :...
Selected scams in the newsEx-CFO Charged in Options Backdating ScamThe former chief financial officer of network security products maker SafeNet Inc.
was indicted on securities fraud charges in connection with the alleged
backdating of mill...
This guy uses one car to scam many people. When the buyers try to pick up the vehicle after payment was made, John Stryker would call the police to chase them away. The payment(s) for the car are then used to pay for his home rental. It's funny how J...
A former fashion entrepreneur who ran a Michigan boutique and
once designed fur capes for celebrities was sentenced in
federal court Friday to 17 1/2 years in prison for
defrauding two banks of $26 million.Ilene Ruth Moses, 70, of Las ...
After leaving office for just 2 months, former French President Jacques Chirac was questioned by a judge who was investigating a party funding scam during the time when Chirac was a mayor of Paris. Read more...A separate but similar case involves the...
Some significant report of scams in the news:"The first is a letter claiming to be from the FBI, bearing the seal of the
organisation and a picture of director Robert S. Mueller III. The email claims
that the recipient has won money in a lo...
419 scammers normally send unsolicited scam emails from free email accounts such as hotmail, yahoo, myway, etc. However, we came across a special case where a Nigerian scammer sends out mails from an email account belonging to a victim, to several fr...
Wow! Is this a joke? We are surprised to see a blog by some 419 scammers, and it seemed that they are upgrading their scam activity from email-based to website-based. www.sawcomaa.wordpress.comYou may not see the scam site after some time (it still i...
Do you remember the movie "Three Kings" starring George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg? Three Kings is about 4 U.S. soldiers attempting to steal Kuwaiti gold bullion from Saddam Hussein's bunkers. Now we have "similar" scams reportedly from rogue GIs in Iraq...
Forex Scams"A forex scam is any trading scheme used to defraud individual traders
by convincing them that they can expect to unreasonably high profit by
trading in the foreign exchange market, which would be a zero-sum game
were it not...
Webwire released a new article describing the Ultimate Wealth Package. The reason why it is widely advertised and marketed by many sites is because of the high, 75% commission rate for affiliates.
"One of the most popular products on click...
FTC has a list of "Dot Cons" - and we like this new term."The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) offers a
list of the more frequently used “Dot Cons” on their web site. These
are scams that businesses and consumers alike should be wary of t...
We are still receiving mails on egreeting cards. Some of these mails attempt to scam victims by saying that "schoolmates" or "friends" have sent them a greeting card. This is similar to those genuine egreeting cards that we have received in the past,...
We just published a note regarding the recent widespread "E-greeting card" scam. If you didn't see it, the mails could have been effectively sieved off by your mail filters (good job!). Otherwise, note that these are scams.Warning: Do not click on an...
Ross (pictured above) pleaded guilty to arranging to
pour $4.9 million of his own and his partners' money into lucrative
stock sales to which they weren't legally entitled. He did it by giving
the money to depositors of the old New Hav...
Following our earlier publish of the Holiday scam video at YouTube, we received a news that EC is going to put an end to such scams:"The European Commission has announced plans to tighten rules on
timeshare selling and to extend them to cover hi...
Investigation on High-Paying, Part-Time Job - 7 Jun 07- Seguin, Texas, USThe detectives are checking on an ad in the newspaper that turns out to be a "Nigerian Scam". Promises of high-paying, part-time job that earns up to US$2,700 a month. This is a...
Several Hot Scam News update for 2nd June 07:Ted Hubert warns about advanced fee scams:"... you should be very careful when someone from
the United Kingdom offers you large amounts of money, if you become a
team member. Specifically one ema...
US House of Representative is issuing laws to combat the criminal use of Internet spyware, identity theft and scams aimed at stealing personal information from computer users. "Citing estimates that up to 90% of computers in the US are infected
...
Hot News! Finally Microsoft (one of the "giants") is taking the lead to sue scammers who use their free email systems to send out mass unsolicited emails to scam others. As we all know, most of the time scammers use free email addresses from yahoo, h...
HotScams.com applauds the effort by TX Crime Commission to combat scams. They will be organizing talks to educate the public about common scams that may come by the internet, mail, phone calls or even in person. The event called Scam Jam, to be held ...
Be warned:"Travelers are too often tricked into paying exorbitant prices for
"discounted" travel packages. In some cases, travelers end up paying
for trips that are never even booked by the sales agent, the BBB said."There is a reason why s...
The latest news report of police warning the local ppl at Wellington (Ontario, Canada) of lottery scams on the internet.Apparently, the victim (who was a lady), wired her money over to an address in England to pay for "advanced fees". Well, she did r...
Hot News! 35 scammers from Africa, Indonesia and Malaysia were arrested for money scams and possessing fake dollars.Quote:"Some of the victims were sold fake vaccines for animals, while others were told they had won lottery prizes and had to pay fees...
Selection of scam reports around the world:Queensland's plan to end Nigerian scamsZDNet.com.au, AustraliaA national event aimed at stamping out so-called Nigerian scams will be held in Queensland, Detective Inspector Brian Hay, who heads up the Quee...
Due to busy schedule, the following is the summary of some latest news:Police warn Big Isle residents to be wary of scams
Honolulu Advertiser - Honolulu,HI,USA
The Hawaii Police Department is again reminding the public about numerous ...
Not to forget that many scams occur in the neighborhood (and not just emails). This news article reports scammers who targeted elderly retirees with ample financial assets.
Hot Scam News Headline:"The 134 Queenslanders defrauded out of $4.5 million dollars by
Nigerian money scams over the past eight years were hapless victims
of professional con artists and not "stupid or greedy", police said
today.
...
Read this report from Charles Bermant regarding the recent trend in email scams. According to him, the scammers are now targeting individuals (e.g. masseuse) using the "fake check scam" rather than in the usual broadcasting approach. Another 2 scams ...
Better Business Bureau issued a warning about scams related to the natural disaster at Kansas (US), e.g. offers of repair services, donations, etc. This is a good advice from them: Never give cash to an individual and don't give any bank or credit ca...
There is free flow of external articles from authors who are not affiliated to hotscams.com. If you have any issue with these articles, just drop us a note and we will review them. Also note that we are not responsible for the content of these articl...
Just released some more reports. Due to the loading, we have decided to release some (not all) of the recent ones and those in Apr 07. There is still a slight backlog in scam reports from the earlier dates including last year. We believe the scammers...
We are getting some more mails that our list of scams has proved to be useful. So we intend to publish some more scam reports over this weekend. btw, thanks to the support of our partners, our site has reached a pagerank of 4. Thanks to all who suppo...
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