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Friday, March 18, 2016

Spotting an Online SCAM!

There are many ways innocent people are taken advantage of.  One of them is online financial scams.  If you are selling something on ebay, Amazon, Craigslist or any other website or you are hired online or otherwise as an independent contractor to perform a job BEWARE!  If the people send you more money than was agreed upon STOP, do not deposit the money, it is a SCAM.  The check will bounce!  They will pressure you to send a money gram for a portion of the check that they gave you to a 3rd party!  This is how they move money to people and it can't be traced back to them!  Many unsuspecting good Samaritans or naive people will fall prey to this trap and the check only bounces AFTER they already sent the money gram and they can be out thousands of dollars!!!


Sometimes the scammers will say that they are calling from the IRS, water or power company and scare you that you will go to jail or your utilities will be cut off if you do not pay immediately.  Do NOT be fooled.  Ask for a call back number to verify.  Make sure you have their mailing address and once you dig a little you will realize that they are trying to pull one over you!

TRUST your intuition!  If something doesn't feel right, doesn't make sense, is too good to be true, is fishy, suspicious or just bizarre, protect yourself and don't give your personal information such as account numbers, credit cards, etc.

Be careful and proceed with caution when dealing with online business transactions.   Don't be a victim of online fraud! Warn your family & friends so it doesn't happen to them either please repost!  Knowledge is power.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  Don't wait til it's too late!

In the event that you do become a victim of fraudulent money transfers, notify your financial institution immediately so that you do not incur additional charges when the check bounces.  Notify the website where you found these people so they can be banned and file a report here http://www.stopfraud.gov/  The police have no jurisdiction over cross country and international scams but make a report anyway!