Unfortunately, as we all know, the internet is not free from scammers who have successfully pulled off many scams ever since the rise of the internet. It would be interesting to read about some of this craziness so please share any interesting scams that you’ve heard of. Hopefully, you’ve never been a victim of an internet scam, but if you have, please share your experiences here. Also list some precautions that everyone should be taking online in order to stay protected from scammers.
I recently watched an episode of American Greed (from 24:00 min onwards) about a sham internet company called YES Entertainment ran by Jim Eberhart and his partner Eugene Carriere in the late 90’s. It was during the dotcom revolution that a lot of internet start-up companies such as yahoo, ebay etc had made a lot of people very rich! Fortunes were being made everyday by the investors. So these scammers took advantage of the dotcom boom and, years before the launch of youtube, they actually proposed an online video network! They even managed to get a celebrity, Howard Cunningham, to endorse their new venture! So elaborate was their scam that they actually managed to raise $14 million in investor funds! Then they packed their bags, fled the country and stayed on the run for a number of years. Eugene Carriere was arrested and deported from Thailand in 2005. He was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment and ordered to pay $12,838,045 in restitution. Jim Eberhart was only arrested and deported from Malaysia last year. FBI — Man Who Operated Allegedly Fraudulent Firm That Promised Profits from Internet Ads Arrives in U.S. After Being a Fugitive for 12 Years
Recent one that I heard of was involving Revenue Canada!!!!
Some ppl kept getting e-mails from "Revenue Canada", saying that they either still had to pay more taxes or that they had to get a refund...can't remember exactly which it was...
Finally the real Revenue Canada had to put out a news bulletin saying that they were not sending these e-mails..and they NEVER send ANY communication by e-mail, and to please ignore these and do not click on any links.
^am not sure...they didn't mention it....it is actually telling ppl that they will get a refund and asking for account numbers...maybe some ppl fell for it...
One of the recent ones that I actually fell for was an email we got from supposedly the IT department in college. We can still access the intranet using our undergrad IDs even though we’re no longer registered as undergrads. I guess they don’t feel the need to terminate these accounts once we graduate. I still use that email account every once in a while. So in that email we got, it gave us a link and asked us to submit our email ID and password if we still wanted to use that account otherwise it would be deleted. So I submitted my account details and the very next minute I realised this wasn’t right. So I rang the IT department and they confirmed that they had sent no such emails. They then reset my account details so it was safe but jeez you’d wonder why the heck would anyone want to get into an undergrad account?! These scammers need to get a life!
^The same happens here when these online hackers steal the details , they act like they are the real people from Student Finance England, they ask you to submit the details and they take all the money from your account.
“how is everything Aaliyah? What’s the purpose of about to the gym? I am sorry that it’s onerous for you to drop a couple of sizes How does one suppose Jessica Simpson got slim again? [insert link] Let me know what you think”
WTH? Jessica Simpson should take lessons from me on how to lose weight
We all know those scams right that go along the line of, “Mr. Yoda Yoda Yoda in Nigeria has left you $1 million in inheritance. Please e-mail us your account number and others details at the earliest so that we can transmit the money to you.”
And there is another one: Visit this website and earn $456.55 in an hour. Bla Bla Bla…
Also, there is a somewhat thriving business of snake oil salesmen online. You know, the people who promise things like “Grow 3 inches taller at the age of 24” or “Magically remove ALL wrinkles” etc. …
:eek: I thought those those spam mails are usually generic but they knew your name? I think I would probably find a mail that’s specifically addressed to me too creepy.
That is called phishing.In phishing you receive all silly emails and yes you do receive them with your name.Whatever name you have in your email to display,you 'll receive the email with that name. No one has hacked your account, relax,lol.
Another one that comes to mind is the “Greeting Cards Scam”. The bogus greeting cards try to trick you into downloading viruses. There have recently been several reports of these scams pretending to be from the legitimate - and quite harmless - Bluemountain Greeting Cards site.
So how can we tell whether or not the e-card is legit?
If you have Anti virus installed on your PC, it 'll block the link and alert you else if you keep on receiving the same e-card email from them everyday then you do know never to click it again. Most of the time such emails stay in the Junk folder.
Did you take any action then? Changed the password , emailed them in reply to check them out or checked if it is possible to send them an email?
