If I Only Had a Brain
Scammers, scammers, scammers! We've all been exposed to them, received the ignorant Emails, and in my case, have even received counterfeit money orders. What irritates me more than the scammer themselves, is there lack of common sense, horrible grammar and spelling, the flakiness of their claims and the ignorant threats. Scamming is a job, just like any other. I would think being a scammer would require having a niche for it. If you stink at scamming, it's time to get a real job - I highly recommend the type where they use their hands and don't need a brain.
A Few of the Scammers I've Come Across the Past 5 Years:
Real Estate Scammer
When I was pregnant, Jaime and I were looking for a nicer place to move, in the same area we were already located. We started looking into rental homes and found an amazing one. I was already suspicious when it was priced around 50% less than the competition in that same neighborhood. They claimed they needed to rent quickly because they were military and going out of the country - sounds good so far. We wrote inquiring more about the property and drove to take a sneak peak. It was 5 minutes down the street. There were no signs and it looked like a family was already living in it, comfortably. I did a little more research online and found out it was a previous rental from years before and was priced WAY higher in the original listing. All of the photos and information were stolen for the new scammer listing. I received an Email asking for the deposit and they would mail me a key?! Moron.
EBay Scammer
I was selling a dress on EBay years ago, when I had someone ask if they could pay with a money order. Even though I had shipping estimated, they insisted on sending the money order for more than asked to cover any unexpected extra shipping. They said they would wait for the money order to clear and I could wire the money back after that. Slight yawn already. Western Union Scam? How original. Just in case, I said yes. I received a money order a week later for $1500 over the price - Argh! Double yawn! I deposited it, again, just in case, and found out it was counterfeit. Who knew!? {ugh!} The scammer actually had the nerve to threaten me when I didn't wire the difference and sent stupid Emails with subjects like "FBI at Your Door!" Triple yawn. I reported it, found out there was nothing that could be done, then told them off pretty good.
Email Scammer
This is one that is going on right now. They threaten that people who don't send their password, user name, date of birth, etc...within 7 days, will have their Cox Email shut down. I think what is most hilarious about this set of dum dums is that they send from Gmail, Hotmail, etc...no Cox addresses...duh! The first Email subject was "Warnning!" Did you notice the spelling? I didn't know warning was spelled with two n's. I have been secretly enjoying sending rude Emails back to these people.
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
This doesn't even include the number of scammers I've encountered with my business, blog, applications for working in the past, other Email accounts -and yes- many more. So, what kind of scams have you run across?
