There are many scams out there. I don’t know if any of you watch the 16 and Pregnant or Teen Mom episodes, but a girl on the show fell for a Western Union scam. She ended up losing $3,000 by cashing the check she was given and giving the guy back the change. Did anyone else hit their head on the wall when she was doing this? Yes I know this episode is from around a year ago, but I still think of how much she was an idiot for that.
The many many types of scams:
- Nigeria. Someone from another country needs YOUR help and only you can help. They need help transferring millions and millions of dollars. Easy huh?
- What you should do: Ignore this, don’t even open it.
- Check cashing. They will buy something from you on Craiglist or something and give you a check. This check will be for an amount MUCH higher then the item that you bought and then they will ask you to cash the check and give them back the change. By time you give them the money, the bank will most likely notice a couple of days later that the check was fradulent and you will most likely have to pay.
- What you should do: Don’t FALL FOR THIS! So many people fall for this every time. Why would anyone write you a check for more than the item is worth?
- 900 numbers. You’ll usually sit on the line and rack up tons of charges by waiting.
- What you should do: Don’t call 900 numbers. I’m not positive, but don’t they all rack up charges?
- Lottery winning. Congrats! You won millions of dollars and you didn’t even have to enter anything and you don’t even know how you won this.
- What you should do: Don’t open this either!
- You have a lost friend who desperately needs your help. They will pretend to be a friend of yours and say they are stuck in another country and that they really need your help. The only way you can help is if you fork over your credit card and some money (well a lot of money).
- What you should do: If you truly think that this might be a friend of yours, then try calling your friend first and see how they are doing.
Fess up, have you ever fallen for a work at home, online, or phone scam?
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Emily says
These scams are awful, I've never fallen for one but my grandma's friends have gotten some sketchy calls from people pretending to be their grandchildren needing money – how sad!xx Emily @ laughliveandshop.blogspot.com
working.for.money says
I have a coworker that fell for one of these earlier this year. They said they read the email (friend that got mugged version) at 2 am and got caught in bad judgement because of the early hour and paypal'd $100 to the "friend". They where shocked the following day when the friend said they had no idea what they were talking about. My coworker now says they don't check email early in the morning anymore.
Rhitter94 says
NOPE! And am proud to be one of the savy ones!
Shervin's World says
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Liquid Independence says
Some of these scams are terrible. I never take checks from strangers. All my Craigslist dealings are with cash. If it's a large amount then I'll use interac email transfer.
shoppingtosaving says
I totally remember that episode of teen mom. It was Farrah, and I was totally banging my head against the wall when she did that. Idiotic!I haven't fallen for a scam but sometimes my friends' emails get hacked and I get emails saying they have been mugged in London and need money asap. It's kind of annoying!
Meg {henninglove} says
ooh scams and they are more prone this time of year too! so watch out people and if you think it is too good to be true then it probably is and ask other people if they think it is a scam because you do anything, get others opinion to make sure you don't just give your money away. thank you for bringing our attention to this michelle it is so important to be alert about these scams
McVal says
Oh my… I paid $75 for a report that would tell me what businesses in the area were hiring for working at home. Found my company that I worked for on it. Um…. no they don't because that's why I was looking…Basically it was a list of all businesses in your area. period. Criminy…I do have friend in Nigeria now tho. He's a prince!
Bethany says
Wonderful info! Thanks so much!!Following!
Newlyweds on a Budge says
just yesterday, i emailed someone about an apartment. and i get this letter back telling em to fill out the renter form (w my SSN) and they would get back to me. and the letter had all kinds of misspellings and they were not in the US, they were from London. SHADY SHADY SHADY
Ashley says
Those are so scary!
Jamie says
Ughhhh. When I was watching that episode, I was thinking NO! DON'T!!! It's the worst when it's old people being prayed on.
Tanner says
I haven't. I am the type of person that if I don't know your email/name/number, I wont open your communication. Period. If you know me, you'd know that. A bit extreme, but I don't want to bother with the chances.
The Hills says
I used to get the emails from Africa. It doesn't take much effort for them – they get thousands of email addresses, send the same email to them all, and if they just get 1 to respond then they've made a profit. I watched a Dateline NBC "to catch a" episode on it once – they actually tracked down the person behind the scam in Africa. It's unfortunate, but we have to be so skeptical and careful nowadays. Discernment is a skill to pray for.
April says
Thanks for the list! I will definitely forward this to a few people.
femmefrugality says
I haven't. I feel really bad especially for the elderly people who do. Only take cash from craiglist people. Ever. Period. Not only can the check be fraudulent, but sometimes, I'm not sure how, by cashing a check in your bank account they can gain access to your account information.
CherylM says
I worked as a risk officer in a large bank. We would see these scams – and many more – every day. So sad that people actually participate in them.I do think that prince in Nigeria might be my friend too – he e-mails me ALL the time!!!
Stephanie says
Ugh, Teen Mom. One of the girls (Kailyn?) is from the area where I live. She (with camera crew in tow) would not too infrequently show up at the courthouse where I work. I accidentally made a brief, blurry-faced appearance on Teen Mom 2 awhile back when I tried to run past cameras that I thought weren't filming at the time. :-PAnyway, I used to get a lot of phishing emails from people claiming to be PayPal. Not only did I not respond, I'd report the emails to PayPal. Ha… and once someone hacked my PayPal account, but neglected to change the email address on it, so they bought something and I got the email confirmation and knew right away what happened. You'd think they'd know better!
wooden coat hangers says
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