The Scam Alert Blog

No one is immune from falling victim to scammers.

Nothing makes this more evident than what happened recently when a citizen of France fell victim to hackers who gained access to his personal account and successfully removed funds from it. Who was the victim? Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France.

The biggest help to any scammer is a potential victim that thinks that they are immune to an attack by a scammer. No one is immune. It can seriously happen to everyone and the best protection is keeping personal information truly personal. It doesn’t take much for someone to be able to get their foot in the door of someone’s personal accounts.

Always beware of potential scams.

Here is a look at a college student that sent out emails requesting money to help him pay for college. What are your opinions, does this fall under the heading of scammer or industrious and resourceful student? Sometimes it is a fine line.

It is particularly disturbing when scammers try to mask themselves as established charities because they not only damage the targets of the scam, but possibly the reputation of the charity they are pretending to be. The Nelson Mandela Foundation has announced that they have discovered there are people using the foundation as a cover for their scams. This is shameful and people should always verify with the actual charity that the people they are dealing with are representing that charity before they hand over any funds.

There is a popular scam going on right now targeting Time Warner Cable customers. The scam is presented as an email and asks customers to verify their personal information or their service will be suspended. Common sense should kick in, but many victims of this scam have simply replied to the email with their sensitive information and have ended up having their various financial information compromised. Always approach such emails suspiciously.

Email scammers are relentless, this much is true. It looks like in just the last month there have been emails targeting Beatles fans that have led those unfortunate enough to click on the links included in them to sites containing malicious programs. Scammers will use anything to get a foothold into someone’s interests. They figure that once someone’s interests are exploited that they’ll be willing to divulge information of a financial or sensitive nature. Don’t let scammers get the best of you.

After Napster and Kazaa and all the other illegal music downloading methods and sites were exposed a few years ago, the music industry started cracking down on illegal downloaders. There is still plenty of illegal downloading going on, but many people now legitimately try to download music legally, paying for it so as not to be prosecuted.

Just because you’re paying for music doesn’t mean it is legal. It turns out scammers are now trying to bilk money from people trying to download music legally. Knowing that people feel more secure when paying for a song, scammers are setting up pay per song sites and illegally selling the music. Research and buy your music from reputable sites so that the scammers don’t profit off of you or anyone else.

You can bet scammers every where are trying to come up with new ways to trick you out of what is being called your “government rebate” check. The government is sending out $300 to $600 per person and there is a good chance that at some point you will be contacted shortly by a disreputable person in need of money or trying to sell you something. Stay alert and be skeptical of anyone during this time or any time when it is known that you are receiving funds (inheritance, tax return, etc.). Stay vigilant and don’t let the scammers win.

Most people are familiar with the lottery scam. The way it usually works is that you get notified of a mysterious lotter win, usually from outside the country. You are then asked to pay a processing fee so that the prize money can be either converted to a different currency or transfered from a foreign bank. Of course your money going out is real, but the money promised in the lottery is not. Here is a personal experience story regarding someone who has fallen victim to this scam.

Take a look at this article detailing how scammers are posing as members of the military selling their belongings. Scammers try anything to gain the trust of their potential victims. Most people in the public feel that most members of the military are honest and trustworthy, therefore they tend to let their guard down when it comes to dealing with them. Scammers know this and try to take advantage of it. Don’t fall victim to this type of scam.

Online and offline scams are in the news all the time, but what are the top 4 scams used during 2007. The FBI knows, now you know too. If you are vigilant and use common sense you should be able to avoid most scams, always stay on guard.