Hard Economic Times Make People an Easy Mark for Scammers

There is no denying these are hard times for the economy. The jobless rate is high, and people are taking two and sometimes three part time jobs just to make ends meet. Gasoline and food prices are soaring, and almost all real estate companies advertise a free list of foreclosures to lure in customers.

There is one breed that thrives in this environment; the Scam Artist. They can take many forms, but the greatest likelihood of running across a scammer is on the Internet. As people look for jobs or get rich schemes, they are easy prey for scammers that look like legitimate business opportunities.

Before reading further, brand this thought into your brain: if it looks too good to be true, it is too good to be true. There is no magical program out there that will pay you hundreds of dollars a day to sit in your pajamas and type on the computer. There is no marketing scheme out there that will allow you to have web sites and rake in scads of money just by making a simple click. The people who are offering you these are getting rich by you sending in your registration money, often less than $40.00. However, they will offer you the opportunity to make more money by buying the "Pro Version" of their product for only $29.99 more. This is called "up selling" and it is what makes the scammer richer and you poorer. No doubt there are some sites that will make money for you, but not in the amounts they advertise.

You may think you have it beat by searching for scam reviews on the Internet. Don't think that the scammers aren't on to that as well. They have seen those sites and have infiltrated them with their own good reviews. In some cases, they employ an obvious scam, set up a site deriding the scam, and in that site will pitch a bigger scam making you feel that you are getting the best of them. This is what they want you to think as they vacuum the money out of your wallet. On line reviews are good, but make sure the on line reviews are from a site you can trust. So far, I haven't found one I can completely trust.

Another type of scam comes from job searching. Not searching for a get rich scheme on the Internet, but an actual job search using Internet resources. Many people will use an online service such as CareerBuilder.com or Monster.com, and these are legitimate sites. The problem is that scammers will pay to peruse the resumes of the clients on these services posing a legitimate business, and then swoop in on an unsuspecting job seeker with the offer of employment. I have twice seen this happen personally, and it is a tragedy. These offers usually come from out of the United States and will have an email title such as, "Vacancy for (your name) $700/week." The word "Vacancy" should turn up a red flag, since this is the European term for a job opening. The person accepts the job and is given access to the "back office" which is a computer setup for receiving messages and PDF files for training. All of this is designed to make the new employee feel like they are actually working for a business. The new employee is then trained (by reading a couple of pages of a manual that is written like the employee is going to actually go to a building, thus making the business seem even more legitimate) and is given their first assignment. The assignment is to go to their bank and find out if there is a limit on withdrawn funds. The second assignment is to find out how many Western Union branches there are in the area.

If this is giving you a warning flag then you are thinking correctly. This "company" is going to ask you for your account number, or for you to open a new account at the bank in our name for them to use so they can transact business with you and pay you your "salary." Once all of this is done, they transfer $10,000.00 into your account with instructions for you to take 90% of that money and transfer it to several of their clients; all out of the country. You have to do this from different Western Union stations because of their limits on sending money (to combat just this sort of thing). All goes well and you send the $9,000.00 and keep $1,000.00 for yourself, patting yourself on the back for making a thousand dollars for what amounts to an hour's worth of work.

You do this for several days, and make yourself about six or seven thousand dollars. You snicker at the suckers that commute to work every day making in a week what you make in a day for only an hour of your time. You pay off your bills, but dinner out a few times, and start impulse buying things you want. Life is good, and you see yourself living the high lifestyle for the foreseeable future.

Suddenly, you get a call from the bank saying that the funds were transferred into your account illegally from another account, and you need to pay this money back. This means you owe the bank about $70,000.00. The scammer no longer accepts your emails, and the local police can do nothing because all of the criminal activity is out of the country and the scammers have already changed the name of their "company" to something else.

I saw an acquaintance of mine go deep into debt to the bank this way. I also saw another acquaintance lose his home.

The only way to combat this is not to start, but if you have started then there are some steps that you can take. First of all, save copies everything you have written or sent while doing this. Second, file a police report immediately, giving the police copies of everything you've done. While it is true the police probably cannot catch the scammers, you need this report to separate you from the scammers for your protection. You are a victim, not a perpetrator, and you need this protection. Finally, go to the bank and tell them what has happened. Bring the police report and copies of all records so they can see what has happened. They may be able to settle the matter with you in a way that will allow you pay them back in small increments or they may be able to forgive part or all of the debt (depending on the size of the debt - the earlier you catch this the better the chances of forgiveness). Ask the bank about closing your account and starting another one.

Remember, there are ways to get rich quickly, but they happen all too infrequently. Think these things out before you act.