Friday, January 25, 2002
Watch out for frauds on the Internet, they may cost you
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
If you have been an Internet user for some time, you will find that among the spam (unsolicited mail) items coming your way will be some palpably crooked offers.
In the past years I've received messages headed "Become Wealthy With Secret
Flaw in Currency Market," claiming to be backed up by articles in the New
York Times, Wall Street Journal, National Business Weekly and such; also "The
Big Guys Don't Want You to Know.." etc etc. The info is available for a
charge of $25 plus $16 fees, reduced from $195, if you act within 10 days. I
ignored the transparent scam, but the messages persisted,eventually piquing my interest.
An Internet search for International Exchange Alliance, the name of the bunco
organization, was unsuccessful until I reached the Warriors of Internet
Marketing, a site that offers advice. There were 20 messages inquiring and
exchanging information. Stepping through them, I found one that identified
the IEA as an old 1997 scam, World Currency Exchange, under a new name. Another message
offered a site in England, which will come up if one searches for
gcaselton/spam/mmf.html. This turned out to be a rich lode of listings of
shabby Internet offers, categorized by type. Graeme Caselton, a chili pepper merchant
and fossil hunting enthusiast, has tons more of spam material accessible
through his home page. Besides offering explicit instructions on how to thwart the spammers, he collects scam information (IEA is covered under its most recent name, Wealth Exchange Int., with a Santa Monica address).
Caselton lists phoney chain letters, in which, typically, the crook has
you and other first- round chumps send $5 to each of five names which he
controls. Administered pyramid schemes and Multi-Level Markreting (MLM) come
under the headings of home based business and envelope-stuffing opportunities
(the adminitrator has the opportunity to stuff the initial fee in his/her
pocket). Make Money Fast (MMF) schemes offer free vacations, foreign currency secrets, cheap cash, mortgages and home equity loans, foreign currency secrets. "Create a
new credit profile" and "Erase Your Debt" offer palpably dishonest actions
for the borderline person, who is also a good candidate for the instant
college baccalaureate degree "earned by life experience" (masters’ degrees and doctorates a few bucks more).
His IEA and WCE stories explain the secret of how "a $25 investment will get you a hundred of legal currency." You will get back 100 Italian liras, Burundian franks or Guinea-Bissau pesos. Simple, but effective, lots of people have fallen for it, going back to the classified ads era in
mail-order magazines decades ago.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has its own Internet Fraud Alert
webpage (www.sec.gov/consumer/cyberfr.html), in which they warn investors
against online investment newsletters and bulletin boards (chatgroups,
newsgroups, usenet), in which promoters pump up values with bogus inside
information and other come-ons. This alert, last updated in 11/15/2001, was
prompted by SEC's indictment of 44 stock promoters, but the warnings are
still valid. Thus, they urge investors to check registered companies (over
500 investors and $10 million plus in net assets) and listed (on Nasdaq or a
major stock exchange) against the SEC's EDGAR database (no charge).
Clicking back to the SEC home page, im quest for more up-to-date information,
there are links to how-to educational material as well as a valuable link
list of mostly government organizations. Testing something called Investor
Protection Trust ("Dedicated to Non-Commercial Investor Education"), a 1993
consumer group, up comes a lead to the impressive GOTOBUTTON BM_1_ www.fraud.com ( 800-876-7060), website of the National Consumer League, where you get warnings of some strange tricks.
NCL warns you of dangerous downloads, which may cost hundreds of dollars. The
crooks ask you to click to get connected, then download a program. You get
connected to a number in Chad or another small country, and end up with a
phone bill of several dollars per minute. It looks innocuous since no credit
card is involved.
Auction sales, Internet services, computer equipment/software and
work-at-home plans are NCL’s major complaints. They suggest that Internet
retail purchases be made via credit cards, since these are recoverable.
Telephone "cramming" (charging on phone bill for services never received) is a
novel trick that phone companies are fighting. "Slamming" involves getting you to switch
your phone account, and has been engaged in by reputable companies.
NCL also warns against "repairing your credit," cheap advance fee loans,
sweepstakes, "you have won a vacation" and work-at-home plans, the more
conventional tricks to elicit fees from you. The famous 419 Nigerian money
offers (named after a section in Nigeria’s criminal code) are ruses to get your bank account and routing numbers, so that the crook can access your deposits. The offer is aimed at the slightly larcenous, and involves requests for help in clearing out some multi-million dollar bank accounts in Nigeria containing bribes. The originators, with official looking letterheads, need a foreign collaborator, because exporting currency is illegal etc. etc. Anyone who gets caught in this one deserves the loss.
Several sites, such as consumer.gov, warn you against identity theft, with
someone using your name, date of birth and SS number to establish a credit
card, bank account, or cellular phone account, or changing the address on an
existing one. These are expensive frauds, with 300,000 complaints each year. Cancel (not
just cut up) unused credit cards, shred bills and cancelled checks, protect
your mother's maiden name. Order, occasionally, credit reports from the three
credit report agencies: Equifax (800-525-6285), Experian (800-301-7195) and
Trans Union (800-680-7289), to see if your credit is in good shape.
If you have been defrauded, www.ifccfbi.gov, the Internet Fraud Complaint Center,
an FBI/National White Collar Crime Center, will accept your story, evaluate it
and send it to a local, state or federal agency. You have to provide your
phone number for the investigator to call. They are a bit busy this year, with tracking reports of terrorists.
If you have been an Internet user for some time, you will find that among the spam (unsolicited mail) items coming your way will be some palpably crooked offers.
In the past years I've received messages headed "Become Wealthy With Secret
Flaw in Currency Market," claiming to be backed up by articles in the New
York Times, Wall Street Journal, National Business Weekly and such; also "The
Big Guys Don't Want You to Know.." etc etc. The info is available for a
charge of $25 plus $16 fees, reduced from $195, if you act within 10 days. I
ignored the transparent scam, but the messages persisted,eventually piquing my interest.
An Internet search for International Exchange Alliance, the name of the bunco
organization, was unsuccessful until I reached the Warriors of Internet
Marketing, a site that offers advice. There were 20 messages inquiring and
exchanging information. Stepping through them, I found one that identified
the IEA as an old 1997 scam, World Currency Exchange, under a new name. Another message
offered a site in England, which will come up if one searches for
gcaselton/spam/mmf.html. This turned out to be a rich lode of listings of
shabby Internet offers, categorized by type. Graeme Caselton, a chili pepper merchant
and fossil hunting enthusiast, has tons more of spam material accessible
through his home page. Besides offering explicit instructions on how to thwart the spammers, he collects scam information (IEA is covered under its most recent name, Wealth Exchange Int., with a Santa Monica address).
Caselton lists phoney chain letters, in which, typically, the crook has
you and other first- round chumps send $5 to each of five names which he
controls. Administered pyramid schemes and Multi-Level Markreting (MLM) come
under the headings of home based business and envelope-stuffing opportunities
(the adminitrator has the opportunity to stuff the initial fee in his/her
pocket). Make Money Fast (MMF) schemes offer free vacations, foreign currency secrets, cheap cash, mortgages and home equity loans, foreign currency secrets. "Create a
new credit profile" and "Erase Your Debt" offer palpably dishonest actions
for the borderline person, who is also a good candidate for the instant
college baccalaureate degree "earned by life experience" (masters’ degrees and doctorates a few bucks more).
His IEA and WCE stories explain the secret of how "a $25 investment will get you a hundred of legal currency." You will get back 100 Italian liras, Burundian franks or Guinea-Bissau pesos. Simple, but effective, lots of people have fallen for it, going back to the classified ads era in
mail-order magazines decades ago.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has its own Internet Fraud Alert
webpage (www.sec.gov/consumer/cyberfr.html), in which they warn investors
against online investment newsletters and bulletin boards (chatgroups,
newsgroups, usenet), in which promoters pump up values with bogus inside
information and other come-ons. This alert, last updated in 11/15/2001, was
prompted by SEC's indictment of 44 stock promoters, but the warnings are
still valid. Thus, they urge investors to check registered companies (over
500 investors and $10 million plus in net assets) and listed (on Nasdaq or a
major stock exchange) against the SEC's EDGAR database (no charge).
Clicking back to the SEC home page, im quest for more up-to-date information,
there are links to how-to educational material as well as a valuable link
list of mostly government organizations. Testing something called Investor
Protection Trust ("Dedicated to Non-Commercial Investor Education"), a 1993
consumer group, up comes a lead to the impressive GOTOBUTTON BM_1_ www.fraud.com ( 800-876-7060), website of the National Consumer League, where you get warnings of some strange tricks.
NCL warns you of dangerous downloads, which may cost hundreds of dollars. The
crooks ask you to click to get connected, then download a program. You get
connected to a number in Chad or another small country, and end up with a
phone bill of several dollars per minute. It looks innocuous since no credit
card is involved.
Auction sales, Internet services, computer equipment/software and
work-at-home plans are NCL’s major complaints. They suggest that Internet
retail purchases be made via credit cards, since these are recoverable.
Telephone "cramming" (charging on phone bill for services never received) is a
novel trick that phone companies are fighting. "Slamming" involves getting you to switch
your phone account, and has been engaged in by reputable companies.
NCL also warns against "repairing your credit," cheap advance fee loans,
sweepstakes, "you have won a vacation" and work-at-home plans, the more
conventional tricks to elicit fees from you. The famous 419 Nigerian money
offers (named after a section in Nigeria’s criminal code) are ruses to get your bank account and routing numbers, so that the crook can access your deposits. The offer is aimed at the slightly larcenous, and involves requests for help in clearing out some multi-million dollar bank accounts in Nigeria containing bribes. The originators, with official looking letterheads, need a foreign collaborator, because exporting currency is illegal etc. etc. Anyone who gets caught in this one deserves the loss.
Several sites, such as consumer.gov, warn you against identity theft, with
someone using your name, date of birth and SS number to establish a credit
card, bank account, or cellular phone account, or changing the address on an
existing one. These are expensive frauds, with 300,000 complaints each year. Cancel (not
just cut up) unused credit cards, shred bills and cancelled checks, protect
your mother's maiden name. Order, occasionally, credit reports from the three
credit report agencies: Equifax (800-525-6285), Experian (800-301-7195) and
Trans Union (800-680-7289), to see if your credit is in good shape.
If you have been defrauded, www.ifccfbi.gov, the Internet Fraud Complaint Center,
an FBI/National White Collar Crime Center, will accept your story, evaluate it
and send it to a local, state or federal agency. You have to provide your
phone number for the investigator to call. They are a bit busy this year, with tracking reports of terrorists.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 2:45 PM 
