The Top Five E-Mail Scams

I love the one that I use to get 1-2 a day: The live in China, Japen, Iraq, etc., and have over 2-3 million dollars, but need someone in the U.S. to accept this money, then send them "only" 40% back & I can keep the rest for my help in getting their money out of their county, all they need is "checking/savings acct. number. I did respond to some of them, but letting them know that they were not emailing someone that was dumb, stupid, etc., and that I had also just sent a copy of their email to F.B.I. website for fraud. This ussually stops them, but some actually email me back stating that this was all legal-lol. I have spam blocker & accept emails from only people that I have listed, AOL, has done a good job on mine. Be smart people, nothing is for free !!! CB

i have a 10,000 check on the way i get to keep 20percent and western union the rest lmao the last one had no return address on it or anything just a check wrapped in a piece of paper they need to put bill boards up for poeple that dont understand this scam and broke poeple i admit there has been times in my life i would of been tempted thank god i didnt have time to get to a computer lol be careful everyone these guys can be pretty damn slick

I advertised a auto I wanted to sell on a free auto site. This was a older car that I finally just wanted to get rid of and even though it was worth at least $1,000. I advertised it for just $500. I was skeptical when I received a reply from someone who lived more then a 1,000 miles away. At first I thought they just overlooked where I lived and so I e-mailed this person reminding him (supposedly a him) of this. He e-mailed me back saying he was working on a project and needed a auto exactly the year, make and model of my listed auto. He said he would send me a cashiers check for the $500 and have it towed across country. 90% of my brain said no way. But I admit there was that thought well if it's a really important project and this person and company needed a car exactly like the one I was selling which by the way there are not many of. Well maybe it's on the up and up. I hadn't given him any personal info., so where is the risk (I thought). So I said sure you send the check and after my bank credits my account I'll allow the car to be picked up. I asked in a e-mail how do we transfer the Title. This is when the red flag went up. He said give me all the info on it and your banking info so I can just wire the money to your account. I said no way. I then begin receiving other similar e-mails all wanting to just send me the money, purchase the auto unseen or test driven and they lived all over the U.S.A. and all would have it towed to where they lived and one was supposedly in Canada over 1,800 miles away. I can't imagine ANYONE giving out personal info on something as ridiculous as this. But if this obvious scam didn't work then there would be none trying and I know of at least four who do or one with several e-mail addresses pretending to be who they are not. But I doubt it's just one person because you wouldn't send several similar requests for that is a giant tip off it's a scam. After reading other scams on here I realize this one too must work. Scary world we now live in!

I've got people in Africa, fron The Ivory Coast to Nigeria offering to share inherited funds with me.
All they want is for me to provide them with my personal information and come up with 50K up front.
I tell them to send me a gorgeous young African Empress to share the rest of her life with me between the age of 20 to 30, 5:7, 135. I never get a response.

I have a friend who was being scammed by an online person who convinced her that she was going to be given $8 million because her charitable foundation was "godly." She only had to send them $7000 to pay for the transfer of funds. They played on her weak spot....was she "godly" enough to be worthy of this money that their dying, recently converted Christian, was giving to her? It caused a huge rift in our frienship, because I didnt have "enough faith." These predators know exactly who to go after...
Trust in God, but for heaven sakes, tie your camel!

Ebay and Aol have emailed me lots of times telling me they do NOT ask for any updates or personal information so if i get an email saying they need it updated then i know it is a scam.. The scam that is going on right now is someone telling me i have inherited 8 million dollars but to get it they want me to send them money They must really think i am stupid i gave them no information and no money but told them i forwarded all their emails to the FBI. And now i dont get any emails from them.

I have received numerous scam e-mails from the U.K. (Premier National Lotto, Freelotto, HSBC London, etc.) claiming that I won a big sum of money through a random e-mail sweepstakes. They wanted me to send close to $3K in order to receive the winnings. They sent fake passports of the supposed "Payout Officials" that I pay to fly here to "personally" pay me. YEAH RIGHT!! Total B.S. I also received through the regular mail a letter, (certificate of winnings) accompanied with a real check for almost $3K. The scam there is that they want you to cash this check, (and some banks are actually cashing and/or crediting the accounts), then send it to their "associate" to pay to get the winnings. Pardon my french, but BULLSHIT! That is what all of these scams are. They must really think that the American people are really that stupid. I have sent nasty replies back to these crooks as well as reported them. I reported one to Freelotto since they were using their name to reel us "suckers" in. Goes to show who the real assholes are...and it is not the U.S.A. !! These people truly do lack decency and morals...to play on the hopes of desperate people in dire straights, living amongst poverty level. What jerks! These people have very little assets/money if they even have any at all! Why rob them of that?! Sorry, I am not too rich myself, so...this, to me, is personal! They are trying to steal my kids clothes and food. I wish that there was some way to put those crooks behind bars!

In response to P.C.'s comment...
RIGHT ON! GOOD THINKING! I will try that myself. These scams are really getting on my nerves.

If anyone of you out there receive a Cashier's check or any check for a few grand, DO NOT CASH OR DEPOSIT IT - THE CHECK WILL BOUNCE! There was one person who went to a check cashing place and is now fighting to stay out of jail. So, no matter how tempting it is...BEWARE, DON'T GIVE IN. Make a copy for your records and turn it in to the proper authorities.

In response to Mr. John Huckleberry,
I copied that email address down and sent them a message letting them know what I think of them. It probably was not a smart move on my part, but...I don't fill in my aol info. so, he can't affect me, I don't suppose. Anywho, here is what I said to these crooks:

Do you have children? A Family? Friends? How would you feel if you were scammed out of what little money you had? The people that you are scamming probably have children as well. How can you sleep at night knowing that you could've just stolen - YES, STOLEN - some poor child's dinner for a week or taken away the chance of a needy child having a nice birthday party that his/her parents saved up for some time to have for this child? How would you like it if that child was yours, or even you! Put yourself in our shoes. This isn't right and if you have any decency or morals, please stop! We work hard, extremely hard, for the meager paychecks that we earn. If you're going to try to con our earnings away, well then shame on you and I hope you like hell, because that's where you'll go come judgement day. I'm not a religious nut, but I do have faith. Stop doing this to people. Rich or poor...IT'S NOT RIGHT!

ALWAYS REMEMBER THIS: WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND TEN TIMES WORSE. It's called Charma, and your bad charma will be redistributed back to you worse than what you gave out.

Have a nice day and sleep well!

I highly doubt it, but maybe their conscience will kick in and give them some sort of remorse.

I to am so tired of these scam emails telling me that i won anything from Microsoft lottery to American clearing house prize. I have learned to delete, delete, delete, delete. I use to read them, but now it is getting old and worn out. Someone really needs to stop this from reaching everybodys emails account. Hopefully aol will so something about it very soon, and we will get our peace of mind back.

You know that you can open up a spammer's (any business/person's) email then, right click on their email address at the top and choose/click "block email." Otherwise just go into "spam controls" at bottom of the mailbox and enter the email addresses you want blocked. Works so well, you will miss not getting much mail each day. Normally I never open email from folks I don't know...only to block them. Good luck everyone!

You forgot about lead brokers. These people sell the same leads to many people and claim only 4 other people received the leads. Being a mortgage broker I have recived leads 1-2 yrs old. We did close 1 or 2 of the leads. It is a game of the law of adverages.
Thanks, Bruce

You can forward spam directly to the fcc here: SPAM@UCE.GOV
Here's a link to info on the subject:http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/spam/consumer.htm
Convenience is negated by safety and security.
Resist temptation for free gifts on the computer, they are never free!

Remember when 3 years ago several senior execs of AOL where fired for selling aol member lists reap what they sewed, aol will not because they still profit.

I was a victim of a scam from ebay. A buyer sent a cashier check. The credit Union put the money kept the chek for one day and put it in my account. I was to give the balance of the money to a shipper. I did had cleared. I found out that later they had put it in my account because I was a good customer not because it had cleared.
Then the credit union wants to act like it is my fault I was a victim. I am asking why did you put money in my account that wasn't there. What do you think.

I have researched this scam problem and know AOL and eBay are trying to correct these problems, however, these type scams have been going on for years, and the fraud is now worse since the inception of email.

If you happen to receive the scams for lotterys, NOTICE OF CONSOLATION PRIZE WINNING!!! or inheritance, etc, please send them to the following email address. What you are supposed to do with the email is send it along, with the Headers, to the Secret Service for their database at: 419.fcd@usss.treas.gov or
fraud.alert@met.police.uk.

These type of emails are called the 419 Scam with several variations. Also be alerted to those scams which offer jobs. Here is an example of one I received (We are glad to offer you for a job position at our company NOBLE TEXTILES LTD. This is in view of our not having an office presently in the USA. You don't need to have an Office and this certainly would not disturb or affect any form of work you do at the moment.(PRESENT JOB) We presently run a textile and fabrics industry in the UK and we need someone to work for the company as a representative/book keeper in the states. (FINANCIAL CONTROLLER).)

Perhaps if we are astute and forward these to the Secret Service, they will be able to stop these criminals from frauding us. Thanks...

When you sign up for something on the web-- you invariably wind up on a sucker list. My wife has been delivered 3 of these "Pay your tax" checks...and everytime, I ask her the same question: "Did you ENTER that? And if so, WHEN?"

I always take these scams to the post office, and I report them to the Fed. While you'll never get them prosecuted (Too much hassle to track these idiots), you have the pleasure of knowing that SOMEONE is complaining. Sooner or later, someone will slip up. And the scammer will wind up behind bars.

AOL has no intrest in shutting down internetscammers! The twice that I have been ripped of by an internet scam I was directed to or heard of the site in a positive story or link on AOL's opening page. I no longer feel safe with AOL's content. The only reason they are still my provider is that I have a contractual agreement to fulfill. As soon as it is completed I'm gone for sure.

AOL offers a way to eliminate spam from your mailbox. It's called a Custom Sender List. It takes a while to put all the addresses on the list that you will accept E-Mail from, but it's worth it. Click on "Settings", then "Spam Controls." Select "Sender Filter" then "Use Custom Sender List." You do have to remember to add addresses of new websites you do business with or when friends change their addresses. I get no spam.