With the advent and popularity of the World Wide Web, scammers have a new and ever increasing clientele and platform to ply their wiles and deceit upon.  The use of the postal service is also rampart with the misuse and subterfuge scammers rely on to separate people from their money.  The telephone system is another avenue for their deceit and thievery.  This does not limit scammers from the United States or even North America, but allows scammers from all over the globe to swindle and defraud people.  These scammers prey on the elderly, the undereducated and the gullible who thinks everyone is honest and aboveboard.

The methods used by these scammers either elicit a person to relinquish their identity through their social security  numbers, credit and bank information and passwords or promise rewards by cashing a fraudulent check and keeping a portion for themselves or sending in a relatively small amount of money in order to receive a much larger and imaginary amount of money.  Still others promise a course or program to get rich quick simply by sending in tuition or purchasing the elusive ‘secrets of wealth’.

The important thing to remember, as the economist Milton Friedman is famous for saying, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.”  Never believe something is free or easily gotten without checking it out with the appropriate knowledgeable authorities.  One should never give out personal or financial information to anyone without checking out the legitimacy of the requestor.  This information should only be given out to someone or an organization you contacted and trust.  Beware of look-alike contacts on the telephone or internet that contact you requesting information you had already given to the proper organization.  Remember that there are quite a number of people in the world whose “job” is to steal from you.

Mark

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