Scammers Taking Advantage of Rising Gas Prices
There's nothing like a crisis to get the scammers out in full force. Sure, taking advantage of weary drivers isn't nearly as nauseating as cashing in on death and human tragedy, but there is still plenty of shame to be had in taking advantage of those whose wallets are strained.As gas prices speed towards $5 a gallon, scammers, phishers, and thieves have flocked to the Web with various ploys to make a quick buck off of careless and desperate motorists. E-mail inboxes have been flooded with offers for $2.49 a gallon gas cards, free fuel, and even kits to run your car on water. The trick to avoid being taken in by scams like these is to simply understand that if it involves your gas tank and sounds too good to be true, it's probably a scam.
Cards that offer pre-paid, locked in gas prices seem like a good deal, but many companies offering such cards (like MyGallons.com) don't actually have any deals in place with gas companies. Kits that claim to extend your gas milage with water are pure fantasy. The mason jar-like contraptions claim to pull hydrogen from water and feed it into your air intake. While engineers say the concept might actually work (if properly isolated in a laboratory), you would would only see very modest increases in fuel efficiency.
Avoiding being taken in by these scams is as easy as accepting that high gases prices are a painful fact of modern life. Europeans have been paying these prices for years. Besides, there is plenty to like about high gas prices. [Source: PC World]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mrdood @ Jul 31st 2008 2:35PM
While I believe there are a lot of scammers ploying with cheap gas offers, why did this writer include the water-for-gas being a scam? Did they try it for themselves? Now there are claims for replacing fuel with only a water fed system, that is far fetched for the average backyard hobbiest. BUT, then Japan claimed recently to have made one??? ALSO, the writer says Hydrogen created in mason jars, so, what difference does the container make?. Not many claim pure Hydrogen, but actually 2 parts H to one part O (HHO created from H2O). Its articles like these that stereotype legitimate people that are only showing that there can be an increase in fuel efficiency by 10% to 20% by aiding the fuel burn, not replacing it. I'm trying it out for myself, and there is whole community that shares its information to others, mostly for free. They are not scammers, everything is very up front with their information. Sorry if a few have once again made a bad mark for all. Writers should be able to clarify that there are differences, not fold everyone together in one scammer group.