You safety is our concern. There are various for of scams in which millions of Americans fall each years. We summarize few of them so that you don't become the next victim.
If you have been a victim or received a suspicious email, Discuss it here!
Counterfeit Cashier Check
There is a 98% chance that you will come across this scam if you sell items online. You will receive an email offer to purchase your item and the buyer says he'll send a bank cashier's check. The buyer is from Nigeria,UK,Romania;a foreign country, but has a business associate in the United States who will send you the cashier's check. Then you are told that for some reason the check was already made out to you for an amount larger than your asking price. The buyer asks you to please deposit the check, wait for it to clear, and then send him the difference.Usually through Western Union or Money gram.
The cashier's check arrives by Fed Ex, it looks real, your bank accepts the check, and the bank assures you the funds are in fact available. So you wait the time the bank recommends to verify that the check is clear and then you wire the difference to your buyer.
Few weeks later, you will get a call from the bank stating that the cashier check was fraudulent. You will be 100% responsible for it.
Tips: To avoid being a victim:
-Deal only locally. That is why we made this site at the first place. Do not accept checks from people you don't know.
-If the buyer claims to be in a nearby city, have him make the trip to meet you.Make sure you meet in a public place during daytime.
Internet Dating Scams
After the cashier check scam, this is the fastest growing scam online. Posing as handsome and beautiful Americans or foreigners,scammers set up fake and phony profiles, using pictures from modeling sites from all over the net. They spend hours, days, weeks and sometimes months, chatting up and luring their naïve targets with Internet intimacy.
As far as the victim is concerned, they believe what they are experiencing is the real thing ,that the picture of the person they chat with is real. The person they are chatting with, while revealing their deepest desires, really does care about them. The person they are chatting with loves them.
So once a "relationship" has been established, the demands start.
The scammers will ask money for about anything. In most cases the money is needed to assist a family member who is extremely sick or money is needed to apply for an US visa and so on.
Another variation of the scam is that the scammers will start sending gifts to the victims, gifts that were purchase online using stolen credit cards. Gifts are usually high priced electronics items(Laptops,Computers,Video Games,etc...).Then then they ask the victim to ship some of the items to Nigeria, Romania, or some other countries. The reason most often used is that the items they want are not available on their home country or they are buying them for family members, business partners,etc...
Again when you decide to look for love online, do not put yourself in a vulnerable position. Try to find local people or people within a reasonable distance(100-300 miles?).If someone asks you for money for any reason, stop talking to him/her and report the to the dating site you are member of. In this site, you will see a report icon on every post, use it if you feel the poster is suspicious and we will take care of it.
To summarize all:
Do not wire money through WESTERN UNION and MONEY GRAM.
Do not accept CHECK,MONEY ORDERS,CASHIER'S CHECK from people you don't know.
Do not send money to people you meet online and do not accept to have any gifts mailed to you from them.
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