Make Money Fast And Other Scams/Frauds

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Make Money Fast And Other Scams And Frauds

The "Send me your bank account, and other pieces of ID" Scam.

This one has been around, in one form or another, for MANY years. Even back to the days of the BBS. The amount, bank name, client and other parts change, but the idea is the same. Someone wants you to send your bank account, phone numbers, email address, FAX numbers and anything else and then you'll get a share of some LARGE amount of money. But, if you do your homework, you'll see where it falls apart. I received this one just a bit ago, and I'll use it to pick it apart.

After looking it over, you can see it "looks" kind of official, but that's only the surface layer. There are a few things that take this, and turn it to a scam.

1. Let's look at the return email address. The person states they're from another Taiwan, but gives a US domain name for the return address (cfqbbank@ecplaza.net). Not one from his/her own country, and not one of the free ones like Hotmail. While an argument might be started that the person is trying to keep this little transaction secret, it starts to smell. The Chinese Government is well known for intercepting internet traffic.
2. You're given the sender's name, title and place of work, theoretically. "Mr. Chan Fung, Bank Manager of Chinatrust Commercial Bank, Nan Kan branch, Taiwan, R.O.C." You can try to track this down, but as it's supposed to be Chinese, and unless you have access to an Operating System that runs natively in Chinese, and can read/write Chinese, then you may not be able to find anything out about this.
3. You're given a person's name. In this case, it's "Mr. Smith Lawrence". Now, no self-respecting Brit that has 30 million dollars (And, it's an interesting side note that it's Dollars, and not British Pounds.) would be caught without doing the name proper. It should be, "Mr. Smith-Lawrence". I know, that's nit-picking, but it's another piece to the puzzle. I'm not saying that there isn't anyone with the name "Mr. Smith Lawrence", just that I haven't met one without the hyphen.
4. You're asked to supply your full name, address, a bank account number, personal email address, personal phone number, FAX numbers, etc. With all this information, a person can drain the account dry, commit ID theft, sell the information to whomever and make your life a living hell with telemarketeers and even Law Enforcement. ID theft is becoming one of the easiest things to do, and scammers know that. There are even cases where people that have been blind for life, never had a driver's license and never owned a car have thousands of dollars in parking fines, speeding tickets and such. How, ID theft.
5. The person comes out and says you'll get 10% and he'll keep 90% of the 30 million. He also states, "I shall require your assistance to invest my share in your country". This little part brings me back to part one. We already know he has the ability to get an email address in the U.S., as China has all kinds of red tape to go through. Even large companies have their email screened, and any un-authorized email/internet activity is noted. Most of this happens behind the scenes, and most aren't aware of it.

So, where does that leave us?

1. We can do some research on "Chinatrust Commercial Bank", "Chinese Solid Minerals Corporation", "ecplaza.net" and "Mr. Smith Lawrence", but that seems like a fruitless endeavor. If you're like me, just go to the U.S.P.S. website and report this. There hasn't been any Postal services used yet, from your point of view, but the Inspectors could start looking out for some.
2. Also, don't think that you were the only person to get this email. You're off a mailing list, and if he sent it out to 1,000 people, and if just 1% replies, then that 10% ($3,000,000) becomes $300,000, while he keeps $27,000,000. (Mind you, this is assuming that this whole thing was real (don't think it is), or that he would give 10 people $3,000,000 and he gets ZERO.)

The Classic Make Money Fast (MMF) Scam

This one takes many forms. I won't go into detail on them all, but tell you the classic approach. The classic approach is a chain letter. You're to send each person at the bottom of the letter a dollar. With that dollar you have included another copy of the chain letter with the top name replaced by the one below it. You move everyone up one place and put your name and address at the bottom. In theory, with only that one copy going around, you could make millions, BUT there is a catch. Most people won't reply to them, and there are thousands of these out there, and most are different. So, out of those thousands, you're only a VERY small portion, and any return you might get is even smaller. Let's look at this. Let's say a person started a MMF chain. They put their name at the FIFTH spot, and others above. Why? You remove the top name when you send it. So, he's now at the fourth spot. This letter has been sent to 1,000 people. So, the normal return on a chain letter is less then 1%. So, 10 people reply, and sends $5 to the names, and sends the letter to 1,000 more people. If it was only the same 1,000 people, and the same 1% replied, then after 5 cycles the person that started it would finally be off the list. But, that person has made $50.00. Now, that sounds OK for almost no work. But, the thing is is that no one really gets anything. Maybe a dollar or two in a couple of years, if lucky. Here's where things get more blurry.

Say that person that started it is trying to get a list of suckers. He's at the bottom, so assured of being "in the loop" for quite a while. Now, let's say this person had a job of compiling a sucker list and needed to collect addresses of people to put on that list. He's in the loop for a while, and each time a new sucker joins, he gets notification, along with a dollar bill. (Did I forget to mention this is with cash, and not checks or money orders?) So, the suckers actually pay him so he can put their names and addresses on a mailing list of suckers. If Will Rodgers is right, a new one is born every minute.

The U.S.P.S. Postal Inspectors take a dim view on this, and you SHOULD report these people. There's no reason, in these days and times, that anyone should be subjected to, or taken advantage of, by these scams. These chains arrive by both U.S.P.S and Email.

The Eric Project

Here's a REAL laugh. I'm not sure if this guy's REALLY real, or just really stupid. Here's the text, below. The URL given now belongs to some other person who likes urban graffiti. Nice, but weird. The EMail is probably dead, too. Guess he didn't get rich. Last time I checked, he was still off of the net. ;-)

You know?!? I think this was the FIRST case of Cyber Begging ever on the net (Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 03:43:56 -0700). I'm not even sure if the Postal Inspectors would go after this, as it's stated you won't gain anything, and you'll lose whatever you send.

Eric Project Text

Where to Report Make Money Fast And Other Scams And Frauds

	Federal Trade Commission: Consumer Protection
	U. S. Postal Inspection Service: Information about Consumer Fraud
	Protecting yourself from Consumer Fraud: Tips from Florida Attorney General Office
	U.S.P.S. Postal Inspector's note on MMF/Chain Letter type Scams
	Find U.S.P.S. Postmasters in YOUR area.
	Federal Trade Commission's Home Page (Too many resources to list.)
	National Fraud Information Center (NFIC)
	The Better Business Bureau Central Server for the U.S. and Canada
	Better Business Bureau Online Complaint System
	CyberFraud: From the S.E.C.
	Cyberfraud: Seen a Fraud ...?
	NOTE: Above link ONLY for reporting Securities and Exchange fraud. Not MMF scams. MMF scams are to be reported to the Postal Inspectors of the U.S.P.S.
	Directory of State Securities Regulators

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