Scammers On-Line

[Lisa23]

Just a note to beware of those pesky scammers on line. I received an e-mail from one yesterday, from someone in Nigeria- it was a classic. If it were true, I would have made over $2 million. Sheesh. Scary, how brazen these shysters are!


Lisa
If you want to see the letter click here.

[USCGamecocks]

They are out there. I've had my run-in's with them. Just be careful. You want to think that everyone is genuine but... indeed not the case.

[Lisa23]

Yes, I agree. Since I received that email, I've been watching more closely for signs of scams. E-bay has gotten really bad! Nothing is a deal anymore. They jack up the shipping if the item is a good deal.

[Megan]

You really do have to watch the shipping prices on eBay. However, you also have to think about what you're buying. I got accused of scamming someone on shipping the other day. I asked $12 for priority shipping when I posted the auction (the item sold for about $50). The person was pissed. The actual cost of shipping? Over $13. It wasn't anything big either, but it was just heavy enough to be a little bit pricey.

[hermione]

These scammers have been around for about a decade now, I think. I've been getting these Nigerian scam emails since I got my first hotmail account in 2000. Aside from these Nigerian scams, another major annoyance is hoax letters such as fake virus warnings, wishes from sick children, urban legends, etc.

I always Google the subject or keywords of these types of emails I get with "hoax" in the search term and have yet to actually find one that isn't a hoax or urban legend.

A good site to verify the validity of an forward (even from friends and families) is snopes.com or hoax-slayer.com. Virus warning hoaxes can also be verified at anti-virus software sites such as Symantec or McAfee.

Needless to say, don't ever click on a link in a suspicious email, and please verify that a forward is not a hoax or urban legend before passing it on to your entire address book.

[purplefdu]

Ebay has become ridiculous. I was looking at buying the supplement we give to the dogs a couple weeks ago. Its a one pound vacuum sealed bag. Shipping from one place was $15 with no discount on multiples. Meanwhile I know 2-3 will fit in a flate rate box at a bit over 8dollars. Needless to say I didn't buy from them and reported them for inflated shipping fees.

I got a bunch of the fake lotto e-mails a couple months ago. I don't normally get spam on my account, so it makes me wonder what I signed up for or joined that outsourced my info so quickly.