Cyber Criminals Make Move to Social Networking Sites

If it seems to good to be true, it probably is.

The delete button is our friend.

wow this fake letter i have gotten so many if it was real I be rich today it all bull delete. and forget this bull lot of people belive this and have been taken

I am an event planner and I received what looked like a very legitimate inquiry from a potential client for a wedding .
The first e-mail was very typical, asking about our pricing, can we suggest locations since they were from out of the country.
We design events and weddings for client all over, so it seemed legitimate.
Then they say they want to send a Certified check and can we cash and forward to other selected vendors.

Thankfully I had read a trade publication that had the same thing happen to a popular wedding planner in New orlenas, and the red flags went off!!
The certified checks are fakes, and your bank can take up to a month to let you know of any proplems, and in the mean time you have sent the so called select vendors transfers for fake services.
It is a well oiled scam. but one of the slick variety that is killing party planners and design houses that cant afford to take a hit in this slow economy!
Cyber thieves are everywhere!
Then just last week, my husband went to make a payment on our Bof A account and saw 15 charges in a 2 day period that we were out of town for fast food and smoke shops, and we saw that our personal credit account had been hit!
Bank froze the card when it saw the strange activity, but didnt call us to ask or tell us the situation. Thats just bad.

I guess we have to watch our backs and our transactions at every step.

NEVER NEVER deposit the check. If you are going to do that...go to a federal reserve bank and they would cash it if it's real...if you were to deposit to your account...and it is a bad check..the original party gets the check back with your stamps on the back..account number, etc...countries outside the US don't fall into the automatic debit with a check that we do...so if anyone were to deposit and not send money at all..they still get your info. Just delete and ignore.

Some of these scammers pretend to want to be friends (or sometimes more b/f-g/f to you) and you talk for a month or so then they get into some jam that they are not able to return "home" to the states for some reason or another unless you are able to help them out with some money. I've had one pretend to be some pro basketball player and his "coach" was sending check for his moving to the states and he needed me to send him the cash after I put it in my bank. I got the check and deposited it but I was smart enough to NOT send this guy the money for 2 weeks. By then the check was actually found to be a fraud but thank goodness the money was still in my account and it did no harm to me financially. He kept calling me and telling me to send him his money and I gave him the police department & my bank phone number and told him to take it up with them and leave me alone..lol He was not very happy and I was actually scared he might do something to harm me (because they have ties everywhere I have heard) . Another worked for World Health Organization and actually had a cam corder and 2 digital cameras sent to my house..was supposed to be a shipment of clothes & shoes for the poor in Africa. When they arrived I promptly called the company that they were bought from and was validating the buyer and found out it was originated from Italy (not even Africa where he was..lol) and they called the owner of the credit card and realized it was not done with the owners permission. Oh yea he had told me to not open these boxes but to just affix the shipping label he was going to send me..lol Being smarter than that I did open and returned to the items to the company. One wanted me to "watch" his kid for him for a few weeks until he could get here...but he needed $500 and he would give it back to me when the boy got here..lol That didn't make sense to me at all. The one that supposedly worked for WHO actually called me on a local number here..I still don't understand how he did that...that's why I thought he was actually real for a short time.

I actually NEVER sent these loosers a dime by the way!!! My advise to everyone: IF ANYONE ASKS YOU FOR MONEY ONLINE..FORGET IT!!! AND NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR MAILING ADDRESS TO THESE FOOLS. I am just lucky I know this now that nothing happened to me by giving out this info to 2 of them. And how these people get people to buy into their lies is beyond me..lol So I hope everyone gets smart and quit giving to these loosers. Good Luck!!

I was taking pain pills once for a broken ankle and wrist and stupidly filled one of those out from Ebay scammers. Needless to say they tapped into my Ebay account and were trying to sell a motorcycle. I called my husband and asked him if he had a motorcycle for sell, kiddingly b/c MY husband would NEVER sell a new motorcycle , he might just ride off into the sunset never to be seen again ! So don't check your mail when your mellow ( :

I like wasting there time. Ive gotten some money bogus checks and money orders from them. and the funny thing is they always have someone overnight it which is odd. So in a way they loose out on money. One guy actually emailed me saying he was going to contact the FBI, and I replied sure go ahead Im sure they would love to see the fake check you sent me and that was that he never emailed me again

another beware - : one of my friends was selling a car in connecticut (posted on the internet). a man came from new jersey to purchase the car with a bank certified check. the problem: the bank check, which was real, was made out by the bank for $4.50. the check was changed (and changed so well) that it looked like a check for $4500.00! it obviously bounced in the bank, and the car is somewhere in new jersey now.

i been getting theses scams and spams on my aol mail. i use to get all my personal mail sent to my aol mail into about 3 years ago when spaming hit really bad. i use an aim mail accont now and i have not receive any scam's or spam's on that accont in 5 years.

and ebay is a good place for scamers and spamers and "mean" people , the only thing i can tell people is just to watch your back when buying something. ask them questions, read as many feed backs as you can, see if that person really knows about that product, an ex, if you looking to by a radio. look for info on that radio on a diffent website and see if the info the seller is stateing. and remember the oldest rule. if it seems to good to be true then just walk away.

A variety of scams are going on here in the U.S. One involving Western Uninons or Money Gram, Emails, and people are receiving checks in the mail. A few of these have been covered on the local news channels in my state of residence. Bottom line: If you do not know these people; do not get involved. Several people have been convicted of money laundering and several other felonies resulting from cashing checks or wiring money to Nigeria or the Uk.

People need to be careful for mailed scams as well. Someone got for a social security scam. I was sent a form when I got married that was supposedly from the social security office to change my maiden name to married and it was right after I was married so I thought it was official. It only cost me 11.00 so far and I wonder how they even got my social security number to begin with. I can imagine how many newly weds have sent in money for that. I only found out it was fake when I never recieved the new card and went in to the office to ask why and they told me it was a scam and that most people will just let it go since it is only 11.00,so pretty much they get away with it.

Thees scamners is a dreadfull occurence of the worste kind an can only say ever one shuld be most careful about an because I am your friend I take this ooportunity to let you all know about my very special survice which is very cheap only 300 for each per person an i will garantee never yu will be bothered again. My special agent in your country will guarantee all matters for you an will deposit a very large sum on monies in your account in a bank but wil need account number first so that I can have my child get medical help in your country because she is daughter of the late king of my country who is now no longer wit us because he cant be here anymore but left a lot of mony for me something like millions in a shoe box to make sure everything goes well so will now need your cheking account number or credit card please.

GETTING THE PICTURE NOW ohh and by the way not a real letter (just in case)

Go to the FBI web site and there is a location where you can report this type of crap to them. Now, I doubt that they will be "jumping right on it" but I'm sure that there is someone who will put the bogus information into a data bank and, I guess and thus assume, if they get enough "hits" then they will at least have some leads to work from, etc. After I send the information to the Bureau I just move on as I really don't want to aggravate the sender just in case the Bureau is really going after them and I would be silly enough to tell the idiots that I just reported them. Eventually these idiots will be caught. Personally, I'm in favor of a team that goes to these locations and beats the living crap out of whomever is responsible, no matter where they are located, however I'll just defer to the Bureau to do their "thing".

Go to 419eater.com..a great site by people that victimize the scam artists that perpetrate email frauds.
Some of it is pretty hilarious..and if you have the time you can scam a scammer yourself..

IT'S SOOO EASY TO IDENTIFY THOSE SCAMS!!!
SOMETIMES I REPLY TO THE SCAMER BY ADDING THE OTHER EMAIL ADDRESS IN THE "SEND TO" SPACE, 99% of the TIME IS AN UNDELIVERABLE ADDRESS (a faked one)..
MY MESSAGE AS FOLLOWS:
you must be an IMBECILE STUPID MORON to think you can still find victims to bilk money from.. don't forget to send it to your mama..check what happen w/ your other email address..

I typed and voiced back and forth with a woman from australia fora a month or so. One day she was in a bad mood and when asked why, she replied that her ex husband had beat her up. She needed roughly 80 bucks to get a plane ticket to fly to her family. I sent the 80 bucks and she probably bought heroin with it. We are all one big happy family on this planet.

Not everyone who gets taken by these scams is an idiot who deserves it. What if it was your 80 year old dear ol' mom that you bought a computor for and forgot to warn about these things before you got her hooked on the "interweb"? [ a term used by a TRUE idiot!]

I kept getting the e-mail scam from Nigeria. I finally got tired of it and sent an e-mail back telling them to quite screwin around and just send me the damn money, or leave me alone. I never heard from them again! hah

Because I do business in Nigeria I was getting these emails constantly. Heck I think I was the first one to get a letter form them which I forwarded to their consulate and they told me that it was a scam.
But because I know a few things about Nigeria sometimes I write them back and tell them that my friend-give them a legitimate Nigerian name- will be contacting them soon and he is the chief of the police. Because they are so corrupt over there I tell them that he will need his cut immediatelly. If this is some kind of hoax I have directed him to arrest you and do whatever he wants with you. I always get an immediate response from there to please not to tell him and it is a mistake on their part! When I insist they begin to beg for mercy and they dont want their family hurt so on. It is a mean thing to do on my part but they are trying to scam innocent people. Maybe this way some of them will stop.

I had someone pose as a family member of high school friends and then as one of the high school friends themselves, though Myspace, and began IMing me. When I contacted the actual person through her Myspace page, she had no clue who they were. They weren't asking for money. They wanted to meet up and 'catch up'. I'm so glad I busted him before we made plans for 'all' of us to meet. I was IMing two or three people and I'm sure it was really just him posing as the rest. I could have been put in a very dangerous position.