Internet Scams

I think we all know how annoying SPAM is. Those unwanted messages that clog your inbox with offers to purchase drugs without a prescription, cheap software or products that promise to enlarge, ahem, certain regions of your anatomy. As annoying as it is, SPAM does not pose as great a threat as the scam messages that are becoming far too common lately.

I receive my fair share of scam messages and since they are pretty easily identified, I actually find some of the rather amusing. But at the same time, I realize there are always people who are coming into the Internet for the first time and may be completely unaware of these scams, and the thought of these people receiving scam messages and being taken advantage of is not the least bit amusing at all.

That is the reason I decided to add a section like this to the site. Hopefully, it will serve to educate and enlighten those who are not yet aware of these threats.

There are basically two types of scams I am aware of that may arrive in your e-mail inbox. The first is pretty straight forward and usually takes the form of a message from someone on a foreign country (often and African country) who is begging for help due to some unfortunate circumstance. Oftentimes their claim revolves around a wealthy relative who has died and left a large some of money and the scammer is seeking help to escape the country with the money and attempts to enlist your help.

419 Scams

These scams are known collectively as "419 scams," since that is the article of the Nigerian penal code for these types of scams. For some reason I have never heard adequately explained, Nigeria is the center of the universe where these scams are concerned. As a general rule, anything you receive in your inbox from someone claiming to be in Nigeria should be considered a scam. It's too bad that an entire country has to be painted with so broad a brush, but that is the reality of the situation.

I have also seen scams like this originating in other countries as well, so do not assume that something is genuine just because it is not from Nigeria. It is safe to assume, however, that just about any e-mail that arrives in your inbox regarding someone who "needs help" or want to help you by offering you money is a scam.

Check out this page for some actual scam messages I have received. I will continue to post these messages to provide examples of the latest scams making the rounds. Also, some of them are so poorly written or so ridiculous that they may provide some amusement.

Phishing Scams

The second form of scam is particularly insidious in my opinion, because I believe it is even easier to fall for. They generally arrive in the form of an official-looking e-mail message from what appears to be a legitimate financial institution. The message will often state that there is some type of problem with your account and that you need to log into their web site to "confirm" your account, or something similar. They will often include a threat that your account will be terminated within a short period of time if you do not take immediate action.

These scams are known as "phishing" scams because the scammers are, in a sense, fishing for victims by casting out many e-mail messages hoping to "hook" a few of them. The scammers don't discriminate when it comes to sending out their scam messages, so you are likely to receive phishing scam e-mail messages that claim to be from certain companies or institutions that you have no relationship with. Chances are quite good that the scammers will end up contacting people who do have relationships with whatever particular organization they are impersonating since they probably send out many thousands of e-mail messages with each phishing scam.

These messages often appear quite authentic with exact duplicates of the layout, color scheme and logo of the financial institution they are claiming to represent. The links they so conveniently provide for you within the mail message do not lead to the actual web site of the financial institution in question. Instead, they lead to a web site that has been set up by the scammers to look exactly like the web site of that financial institution, and instead of logging you into your account when you follow the link and put in your user ID and password, the scammers capture your login information for their own use.

Here's the rule of thumb where there phishing scams are concerned: Legitimate companies and organizations are well aware of these scams and will not send out e-mail messages with links included that lead you to web sites that require a login ID and password. If you have any doubt about the authenticity of an e-mail you receive regarding any accounts you may have, simply call the company or organization on the phone and ask them if the message you have received is a legitimate message.

These phishing scams are often amazingly clever. In addition to using the exact same layouts, color schemes and logos that are used by legitimate companies, they often register domain names that look much like the domains of the companies they are impersonating. For example, I recently received a phishing scam e-mail message that claimed to be from PayPal and contained a link to their phony PayPal imposter web site. The domain name they registered was "paypal.com.login-user3553.info" and at first glance, might appear to be a link to the genuine PayPal site. Someone who is new to the Internet or just not familiar with the details of domain names might be easily fooled by this.

Check out this page to see a number of actual phishing scam messages I have received. I will continue to update the list with the latest phishing scams I receive.

Penny Stock Scams

Stock scams, in one form or another, have been around for years. These days these scams are being heavily promoted via e-mail SPAM campaigns. There are probably a number of variations, but the ones I have been receiving all involve penny stocks -- that is stocks that are very cheap -- usually less than five dollars and often less than a single dollar.

If you do a little research on penny stocks, most experts advise you to stay clear of them and they are right. You will hear penny stock promoters talk about the stock that went from 15 cents to 20 dollars in six months, and that may be true (I've seen it happen) but the chances that you will select one of the tiny minority of penny stocks (out of thousands) that will soar to wealth-producing heights is very small at best.

Think about it: Nobody is going to send you an e-mail message with a hot stock tip unless they are going to benefit from it. And how will they benefit? Well, chances are these promoters (or the people they are working for) already own the stock and it will benefit them handsomely to see the value of that stock rise. This is known as a "pump-and-dump".

A pump-and-dump is a scam where a major promotion is launched through the efforts of someone who owns a large portion of a penny stock. Most often it seems as if these behind-the-scenes stock holders hire some low-life promotional outfit that spews out millions of e-mail messages to let everyone know what a great bargain this stock is and that it is about to take off for the moon.

When enough people are convinced, and start buying up shares of the stock, the price does indeed start to rise. And as it rises, further and further, more and more investors start buying, each one holding on for what they think will be a rocket ride to the moon! Eventually, it reaches is peak and then begins to fall and many inexperienced investors continue to hold onto it, telling themselves it is just a temporary dip and that the price will resume its rise once again.

By this time, the scamsters that started the whole thing have sold off all of their shares a bit at at time until they have sold it all. They do it a little at a time since massive selling tends to knock the price down rather quickly and they have to be careful so they don't end up holding the bag like all the poor folks that bought into the stock after the promotion campaign began.

Make no mistake, these penny stock promoters are total scum. They are, essentially, the prostitutes of the stock market world and will say anything to convince people to buy whatever stock they are being paid by the low-life pump-and-dumpers to promote that day.

Stay clear of these penny stock scams. When you receive these e-mail messages telling you what a wonderful opportunity awaits you by buying a certain penny stock, just delete the message and be done with it. If you want to invest, do your homework and invest in "real" companies. The vast majority of penny stocks are themselves scams and are used by crooked business owners to generate cash.

Are there legitimate, honest companies with cheap stock? Yes, I am sure there are. Not every penny stock is a scam, but as I said, I believe most of them are, and it is not worth your time and energy attempting to figure out which ones are scams and which ones are legitimate companies.

My Reason For Doing This

Not long ago I received the following comment posted to my other blog (that is being phased out in favor of this site) that also deals with scams:

"Thanks for posting this.. I was stupid enough to believe one of them at first but after searching and discovering your site I found out I was very wrong.."

"Thanks Again"

That pretty much says it all.