superkraut
2006-01-08, 03:18:42
Hiya Leute,
ich wohne ja nun seit ca 2 jahren hier im schönen Scottland und auch hier ist das Thema "" Scams "" ganz aktuell, anbei mal die top 10 liste.
1. Telephone Lottery Scams: These include the ‘Canadian Lottery Scam’ and the ‘El Gordo Spanish Lottery Scam’. People respond to an unsolicited mailing or phone call telling them they are being entered into a prize draw. Their names are then added to a target or 'sucker' list which is made available to numerous direct-marketing and telemarketing operators.
Victims then receive an unsolicited phone call from Canada congratulating them on winning the 'big prize' in a National Lottery such as the Canadian, Australian or Spanish. The victim is told that before they can claim the prize, they must send money to pay for taxes and processing fees.
The Spanish national lottery – El Gordo – is one of the richest and best-known international lotteries. However, criminal gangs of various nationalities are now using the renown and prestige of El Gordo to de-fraud thousands from people worldwide. They do this using mobile phones, provisional and false addresses (including the real addresses of official Spanish organisations), as well as names that bring to mind prestigious institutions (e.g. European Lottery Commission).
2. Prize draws, Sweepstakes and foreign lottery mailings: Many typical scams take the form of prize draws, lotteries or ‘government payouts’ designed to trick the unwary. Schemes are usually based outside the UK although they may use UK PO boxes.
Most appear to be a notification or the prize in an overseas draw or lottery, in return for an 'administration' or 'registration' fee. Some require a purchase of some kind or suggest that there are government funds available to be claimed by individuals. More often than not, there is no prize or reward on offer. Anything that is 'won' is usually sub-standard, overpriced or misleadingly described.
One type of mailing purports to notify the recipient that they have been the lucky 'winner' of one of five prizes: usually a car, a cash sum, a TV, HiFi or other luxury electrical item, an expensively described piece of jewellery or a dream holiday.
To claim the prize the 'winner' only has to send an administration fee. The prize is invariably either a piece of cheap, shoddy jewellery, which is worth a fraction of the administration fee or vouchers for a holiday. However, the 'free' holiday is loaded with supplements and restrictions. It will not include flights, transfers or food.
There are also a number of organisations that offer to purchase foreign lottery tickets on a consumer's behalf or offer entry into lottery syndicates. Entrants are invited to buy a number of lines in a variety of reputable national lotteries, including the German State Lottery, the El Gordo Spanish Lottery and the Canadian 6/49 Lottery.
Lines can cost between £29 and £149 and are said to increase the purchaser's chance of winning. Deceptive organisations offer increased chances of winning or sharing in a large win due to the 'mathematical system' or because they have access to 'experts' with a track record of 'scientifically' picking winning numbers.
They exaggerate the chances of winning and will offer consumers an exclusive membership to syndicates. However, the chances of winning any lottery are low, and there are no systems that can increase chances of winning.
3. Premium rate telephone number scams: Swindlers can use 090 numbers to carry out many scams. They include phony prize and holiday offers. They often begin when the swindler sends you notification by post, claiming that you have won something. You might be promised a product or service, but what you actually receive is often quite disappointing.
If you are told to call because you are the winner of a sweepstake you will receive nothing at all, except an astronomical phone bill –sometimes £15 for a single call. You might call the number and be required to listen to a long recorded sales message. Remember, the longer you stay on the phone, the higher the charge for the call. You might even be directed to a second premium rate number for additional information or to order your product or service.
4. Investment Related Scams:
5. Nigerian advance fee frauds: Nigerian (419) schemes offering to share a huge sum of money which will be placed in your bank account. Details of the account into which it should be paid must be given together with a fee for 'administration' of up to £10,000 paid up front.
It works when a victim receives a letter, fax or email which purports to come from someone with access to a huge sum of money, usually US$20 – 30 million and almost always obtained corruptly.
Typically, the writer claims to be a senior government official, an accountant with a state owned corporation, or perhaps a relative of a deposed (and deceased) politician. But the writer has a problem. For a variety of reasons, he needs to transfer his loot to a bank in your country. Let him use your bank account as a temporary home for his ill gotten gains and you can keep a big slice for yourself – usually 25 or 30 per cent. If you reply and give your banking and personal details, you will be showered with fake bank statements and similar documents, all intended to prove that the money exists and is heading your way. It doesn't, and it isn't.
If you are lucky, the perpetrators will use the information you have given them to empty your bank account. If you are less lucky, they will convince you that they need cash up front. Maybe this is to bribe a bank official to put the transfer through, or it could be for airline tickets so they can come to meet you for the big share-out. Either way, they will take you for your savings, your kids' savings, and maybe your home as well.
6. Pyramid Schemes: While a pyramid scheme may come in many different forms, it will always have the following characteristics: it will promise a financial return based on the number of people you are able to recruit to enter the scheme whatever money you make will depend primarily on the continued introduction of new members to the scheme and not the sale of a particular product or service.
The reason for this is simple: consumers are too often misled by claims about the likely financial returns. Because it is only possible to earn money by recruiting other into the scheme, those near the bottom of the pyramid always find that it is not possible to make the advertised return on their investment.
There are simply not enough people to support a pyramid scheme indefinitely. As a result, it is usually only those people who set up the scheme who are able to make any money.
Pyramid schemes are frauds that are based on recruiting an ever-increasing number of investors. The initial promoters (those at the peak of the pyramid) recruit investors who are expected to bring in more investors, who may or may not sell products or distributorships. Recruiting newcomers is more important than selling products.
No new money is created in pyramid schemes. Investors who get in early take their profits from investors who join later. At some point, no new investors can be found and as a result the last investors, who are at the bottom of the pyramid, lose their money.
7. Matrix Schemes Websites offering the latest expensive hi-tech gadgets as a 'free gift' in return for buying a low-value product are the subject of an OFT warning to consumers.
The 'matrix' schemes, which are being promoted by a growing number of websites, promise people the chance of getting a valuable 'free gift', such as a mobile phone, ipod, or palm pilot, by spending £20 on a low-value product such as a mobile phone signal booster, or a CD ROM containing ring-tones and games.
Consumers who buy the product become members of a waiting list to receive their chosen 'free gift'. The matrix works by sending the person at the top of the list their 'free gift' only after a prescribed number of new recruits has signed up – the prescribed number varies according to the choice of 'free gift' but can be as great as 100.
Once the 'free gift' has been sent, the remaining members each move up one place on the waiting list. The person who has moved to the top then has to wait until the prescribed number of new recruits has signed up again in order to receive their 'free gift'.
Although it is not compulsory for members to sign up new recruits, they are encouraged to do so in order to move themselves up the waiting list faster. This has led to some members placing misleading adverts on internet auction sites offering the 'opportunity to buy a mobile phone for £20', in order to seek new recruits.
8. Credit scams UK consumers seeking credit are being stung for thousands of pounds by a new advance fee scam originating in Canada.
Advertisements have appeared in local newspapers offering fast loans regardless of credit history. The adverts, which have a freephone number to call, are usually placed in the classified sections of free or local newspapers. Consumers who respond to these adverts are told that their loan has been agreed but before they can have the money they will need to pay a fee to cover insurance of the loan.
The consumers are asked to pay this advance fee by money order via Western Union or Money Gram. Once this advance fee is paid the consumer never hears from the company again and the loan is never received. The OFT is aware of victims who have lost up to £4,000.
9. Get rich property schemes A number of seminars currently in operation offer the chance to learn "how to become a property millionaire". Typically, investors attend a free presentation and are told they can learn how to deal in property starting with little or no capital.
Those who sign up typically pay thousands of pounds for the course. Schemes vary, but may involve the opportunity to buy blocks of properties as buy-to-let investments, or buying development properties at a discount, which have yet to be built. The companies may also offer no deposit finance deals to get the investor started. While a few people may have made a million, the vast majority are losing thousands of pounds.
Another variation is the buy-to-let property scheme, where companies offer to source, renovate and manage properties, claiming healthy returns will be made from rental income. In reality, the properties are often derelict and worth a fraction of the money paid for them, and the promised tenants are non-existent. Few investors see the returns they are led to expect.
10. Work at Home and Business Opportunity Scams Offers to give you the freedom to work from home but need you to send money up front to invest in materials.
These types of job adverts appear to offer paid work for 'stuffing envelopes', but are often a front for phoney get rich-quick schemes. You reply to the advert and usually receive a request for money, after which you're sent a 'plan'. It informs you to place a similar advertisement, photocopy the 'plan' and mail it out to other unsuspecting victims. The only person who makes any money is the promoter who placed the original advert and he or she then moves on.
Also some home working scams work by asking victims to make goods or craft items. Of course, these promoters will reject everything you send them by telling you that your finished products do not meet their 'high standards'. You are left to sell the items on your own, if you can.
Spotting fraudulent business opportunities is no easy task, but there are certain clues: Promotions for fraudulent business opportunities often appear in the classified pages of daily and weekly newspapers and magazines, and online.
The ads use similar bait: Good pay (say, £50,000) in a short period (weeks or months) for little effort. They trumpet an ideal work situation - the ability to set your own hours, be your own boss, and work from home.
What the ads don't say is that the people behind these so-called business opportunities aren't really interested in helping you run a successful business: They're interested only in getting your money.
To get you to buy in, they may mislead you about the business opportunity's earnings potential and promote a "phantom" opportunity that has little chance of succeeding - for example, a business with little or no market. They may doom your chances of success by providing cheap, low-quality or out-dated merchandise; poor quality equipment and out of the way locations.
Source GMTV hompage.
Also schön aufpassen
cheers
superkraut
ich wohne ja nun seit ca 2 jahren hier im schönen Scottland und auch hier ist das Thema "" Scams "" ganz aktuell, anbei mal die top 10 liste.
1. Telephone Lottery Scams: These include the ‘Canadian Lottery Scam’ and the ‘El Gordo Spanish Lottery Scam’. People respond to an unsolicited mailing or phone call telling them they are being entered into a prize draw. Their names are then added to a target or 'sucker' list which is made available to numerous direct-marketing and telemarketing operators.
Victims then receive an unsolicited phone call from Canada congratulating them on winning the 'big prize' in a National Lottery such as the Canadian, Australian or Spanish. The victim is told that before they can claim the prize, they must send money to pay for taxes and processing fees.
The Spanish national lottery – El Gordo – is one of the richest and best-known international lotteries. However, criminal gangs of various nationalities are now using the renown and prestige of El Gordo to de-fraud thousands from people worldwide. They do this using mobile phones, provisional and false addresses (including the real addresses of official Spanish organisations), as well as names that bring to mind prestigious institutions (e.g. European Lottery Commission).
2. Prize draws, Sweepstakes and foreign lottery mailings: Many typical scams take the form of prize draws, lotteries or ‘government payouts’ designed to trick the unwary. Schemes are usually based outside the UK although they may use UK PO boxes.
Most appear to be a notification or the prize in an overseas draw or lottery, in return for an 'administration' or 'registration' fee. Some require a purchase of some kind or suggest that there are government funds available to be claimed by individuals. More often than not, there is no prize or reward on offer. Anything that is 'won' is usually sub-standard, overpriced or misleadingly described.
One type of mailing purports to notify the recipient that they have been the lucky 'winner' of one of five prizes: usually a car, a cash sum, a TV, HiFi or other luxury electrical item, an expensively described piece of jewellery or a dream holiday.
To claim the prize the 'winner' only has to send an administration fee. The prize is invariably either a piece of cheap, shoddy jewellery, which is worth a fraction of the administration fee or vouchers for a holiday. However, the 'free' holiday is loaded with supplements and restrictions. It will not include flights, transfers or food.
There are also a number of organisations that offer to purchase foreign lottery tickets on a consumer's behalf or offer entry into lottery syndicates. Entrants are invited to buy a number of lines in a variety of reputable national lotteries, including the German State Lottery, the El Gordo Spanish Lottery and the Canadian 6/49 Lottery.
Lines can cost between £29 and £149 and are said to increase the purchaser's chance of winning. Deceptive organisations offer increased chances of winning or sharing in a large win due to the 'mathematical system' or because they have access to 'experts' with a track record of 'scientifically' picking winning numbers.
They exaggerate the chances of winning and will offer consumers an exclusive membership to syndicates. However, the chances of winning any lottery are low, and there are no systems that can increase chances of winning.
3. Premium rate telephone number scams: Swindlers can use 090 numbers to carry out many scams. They include phony prize and holiday offers. They often begin when the swindler sends you notification by post, claiming that you have won something. You might be promised a product or service, but what you actually receive is often quite disappointing.
If you are told to call because you are the winner of a sweepstake you will receive nothing at all, except an astronomical phone bill –sometimes £15 for a single call. You might call the number and be required to listen to a long recorded sales message. Remember, the longer you stay on the phone, the higher the charge for the call. You might even be directed to a second premium rate number for additional information or to order your product or service.
4. Investment Related Scams:
5. Nigerian advance fee frauds: Nigerian (419) schemes offering to share a huge sum of money which will be placed in your bank account. Details of the account into which it should be paid must be given together with a fee for 'administration' of up to £10,000 paid up front.
It works when a victim receives a letter, fax or email which purports to come from someone with access to a huge sum of money, usually US$20 – 30 million and almost always obtained corruptly.
Typically, the writer claims to be a senior government official, an accountant with a state owned corporation, or perhaps a relative of a deposed (and deceased) politician. But the writer has a problem. For a variety of reasons, he needs to transfer his loot to a bank in your country. Let him use your bank account as a temporary home for his ill gotten gains and you can keep a big slice for yourself – usually 25 or 30 per cent. If you reply and give your banking and personal details, you will be showered with fake bank statements and similar documents, all intended to prove that the money exists and is heading your way. It doesn't, and it isn't.
If you are lucky, the perpetrators will use the information you have given them to empty your bank account. If you are less lucky, they will convince you that they need cash up front. Maybe this is to bribe a bank official to put the transfer through, or it could be for airline tickets so they can come to meet you for the big share-out. Either way, they will take you for your savings, your kids' savings, and maybe your home as well.
6. Pyramid Schemes: While a pyramid scheme may come in many different forms, it will always have the following characteristics: it will promise a financial return based on the number of people you are able to recruit to enter the scheme whatever money you make will depend primarily on the continued introduction of new members to the scheme and not the sale of a particular product or service.
The reason for this is simple: consumers are too often misled by claims about the likely financial returns. Because it is only possible to earn money by recruiting other into the scheme, those near the bottom of the pyramid always find that it is not possible to make the advertised return on their investment.
There are simply not enough people to support a pyramid scheme indefinitely. As a result, it is usually only those people who set up the scheme who are able to make any money.
Pyramid schemes are frauds that are based on recruiting an ever-increasing number of investors. The initial promoters (those at the peak of the pyramid) recruit investors who are expected to bring in more investors, who may or may not sell products or distributorships. Recruiting newcomers is more important than selling products.
No new money is created in pyramid schemes. Investors who get in early take their profits from investors who join later. At some point, no new investors can be found and as a result the last investors, who are at the bottom of the pyramid, lose their money.
7. Matrix Schemes Websites offering the latest expensive hi-tech gadgets as a 'free gift' in return for buying a low-value product are the subject of an OFT warning to consumers.
The 'matrix' schemes, which are being promoted by a growing number of websites, promise people the chance of getting a valuable 'free gift', such as a mobile phone, ipod, or palm pilot, by spending £20 on a low-value product such as a mobile phone signal booster, or a CD ROM containing ring-tones and games.
Consumers who buy the product become members of a waiting list to receive their chosen 'free gift'. The matrix works by sending the person at the top of the list their 'free gift' only after a prescribed number of new recruits has signed up – the prescribed number varies according to the choice of 'free gift' but can be as great as 100.
Once the 'free gift' has been sent, the remaining members each move up one place on the waiting list. The person who has moved to the top then has to wait until the prescribed number of new recruits has signed up again in order to receive their 'free gift'.
Although it is not compulsory for members to sign up new recruits, they are encouraged to do so in order to move themselves up the waiting list faster. This has led to some members placing misleading adverts on internet auction sites offering the 'opportunity to buy a mobile phone for £20', in order to seek new recruits.
8. Credit scams UK consumers seeking credit are being stung for thousands of pounds by a new advance fee scam originating in Canada.
Advertisements have appeared in local newspapers offering fast loans regardless of credit history. The adverts, which have a freephone number to call, are usually placed in the classified sections of free or local newspapers. Consumers who respond to these adverts are told that their loan has been agreed but before they can have the money they will need to pay a fee to cover insurance of the loan.
The consumers are asked to pay this advance fee by money order via Western Union or Money Gram. Once this advance fee is paid the consumer never hears from the company again and the loan is never received. The OFT is aware of victims who have lost up to £4,000.
9. Get rich property schemes A number of seminars currently in operation offer the chance to learn "how to become a property millionaire". Typically, investors attend a free presentation and are told they can learn how to deal in property starting with little or no capital.
Those who sign up typically pay thousands of pounds for the course. Schemes vary, but may involve the opportunity to buy blocks of properties as buy-to-let investments, or buying development properties at a discount, which have yet to be built. The companies may also offer no deposit finance deals to get the investor started. While a few people may have made a million, the vast majority are losing thousands of pounds.
Another variation is the buy-to-let property scheme, where companies offer to source, renovate and manage properties, claiming healthy returns will be made from rental income. In reality, the properties are often derelict and worth a fraction of the money paid for them, and the promised tenants are non-existent. Few investors see the returns they are led to expect.
10. Work at Home and Business Opportunity Scams Offers to give you the freedom to work from home but need you to send money up front to invest in materials.
These types of job adverts appear to offer paid work for 'stuffing envelopes', but are often a front for phoney get rich-quick schemes. You reply to the advert and usually receive a request for money, after which you're sent a 'plan'. It informs you to place a similar advertisement, photocopy the 'plan' and mail it out to other unsuspecting victims. The only person who makes any money is the promoter who placed the original advert and he or she then moves on.
Also some home working scams work by asking victims to make goods or craft items. Of course, these promoters will reject everything you send them by telling you that your finished products do not meet their 'high standards'. You are left to sell the items on your own, if you can.
Spotting fraudulent business opportunities is no easy task, but there are certain clues: Promotions for fraudulent business opportunities often appear in the classified pages of daily and weekly newspapers and magazines, and online.
The ads use similar bait: Good pay (say, £50,000) in a short period (weeks or months) for little effort. They trumpet an ideal work situation - the ability to set your own hours, be your own boss, and work from home.
What the ads don't say is that the people behind these so-called business opportunities aren't really interested in helping you run a successful business: They're interested only in getting your money.
To get you to buy in, they may mislead you about the business opportunity's earnings potential and promote a "phantom" opportunity that has little chance of succeeding - for example, a business with little or no market. They may doom your chances of success by providing cheap, low-quality or out-dated merchandise; poor quality equipment and out of the way locations.
Source GMTV hompage.
Also schön aufpassen
cheers
superkraut