Hi and welcome to my web site on some of
the best scams you will find on the Internet.
This web site will cover ebay scams, paypal scams, Nigerian
letter scams, cyber nations and lots of others.
Well, this site has been hit with another scam - the 'Google
adwords blackmail' scam. Google adwords were being displayed before
scammers started doing click fraud on my account and consequently getting the
account suspended - big NO thanks to Google
who offered no help (the scammers told me they wouldn't help) and simply shut
the account down without any discussion.
After this happened I had a good look at Google adwords and I now believe that
adwords is a scam in itself - I will be doing a full review of the system and
putting it up on this site (stay tuned as I have discovered some amazing facts
and statistics).
DONATIONS!
Has the web site helped you at all? Please help this web site by buying the
book or donating. To donate please use the donate buttons on the left of the screen
(scroll down if you can't see them).
Scams are nothing new, they have been perpetrated throughout time and now
with the world getting smaller criminals are reaching out to potential victims
worldwide at the speed of light.
Why do scammers do it?
To get rich; or in some poor countries (Nigeria) in order to make a living.
The 'Nigerian letter scam' is the countries 3rd largest export.
Anyone with a brain could see it's a scam, only dumb people get
caught!
I personally have a Diploma in Software Engineering and a I.T Degree from QUT
(Queensland University of Technology) so I'm no dummy; yet I was caught out by
an ebay scam (I explain more in the 'ebay' section) AND a phishing email
that managed to get my betting account details (and this was done while I was
writing my Cyberscams book!).
Why are the scammers contacting me? Am I that special?
You're special to your family and friends but not to a scammer.
Scammers use any means necessary to contact as many people as possible; on the
Internet this includes having programs that get your email address and then
send you the bait email. They contact over a million people a day in the hope
that 1 or 2 will be sucked in.
If you really were special to them the email wouldn't start 'Dear friend ...',
it would start with your name.
What is the best way to protect myself against scams?Knowledge.
Don't hide under your bed and pull your Internet connection out of the wall,
there is too much fun to be had on the Internet!
Learning about these scams is the best defence; scams don't work unless you
give them your personal details, if you don't give that information out then
they can't sting you.
On the 30th January 2008 ebay posted this on their website -
"No negative or neutral feedback for buyers - coming in May
Sellers will not be able to leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers. Of
course sellers will have the option to not leave any feedback if they feel the
buyer has not warranted positive feedback."
Will a competitor please stand up? quickly!! Has ebay lost
it's mind?!? Life is hard enough on ebay with all the scams that are going
on - and now the seller cannot retaliate at all!
So if the buyer takes your item out of the box, returns the empty box and then
claims a refund from ebay (this has happened to me) the Seller can do
NOTHING! Not even warn other sellers about this fraudster!
The irony of this situation is that sellers pay the fees (and therefore ebay's
wages), not the buyers.
