It is surprising to hear people asking about what to do about similar letters they received, whether should they give it a try, or asking (again) if the offer is a scam.
For many, it is obvious that these offers are scams. Perhaps it is because one or more of the following comes to mind:
- Source of the mail (free or fake email address)
- The content (poor english, ridiculous stories and offers)
- The redirections (one mail to another, and maybe another)
- The credibility of the sender (who the hell are these guys? someone in the top 500 of Forbes?)
- What do they want from you ultimately (Advanced only)
For para 5, we often see it an opportunity leading to
- Identity theft (using your personal information to gain unauthorized access, pretending to be you maybe for new]]> scams?)
- Advanced fees (lottery and inheritance 419 scams)
- Pay and Pay till ya dry (e.g. love scam)
- Paying and getting returns not as promised (e.g. black money scam, hire car scam, business scam)
- Paying for bogus services (e.g. domain name scam, job scam, modelling scam)
- Paying the wrong party, whom you thought is the right party (e.g. phishing, fake waiter scams, fake cashier scams, etc)
- And more…
We don’t expect everybody to be born equal.
- Some people learn and never make mistakes.
- Some people prefers to give it a try and learn the hard way.
- Some people never learn.
The reason why scams never die is because all three categories of people coexist. So if you are asking to try out the offers from those interesting letters you received, you have been warned and proceed at your own risk.
]]>
