25 Residents in Brantford, ON Canada (a city of 90,000) collectively lost CAD$80,000 to online scams. Well, it’s certain not in the same league as our British postman here who lost £130,000 to his friend on MySpace.
The most common scams involve vehicle sales online. It’s quite simple. The victim finds a car listed for cheap. Thinking he/she found a good deal agrees to purchase the vehicle and sends the money. He or she never gets the car.
Similar to the vehicle scam, another is the rental apartment scam. The person advertising the unit will usually offer a very low price for the rental. Attracted by the price, a prospective renter gets sucked in. The advertiser doesn’t have any connection to the actual rental unit, therefore, will never agree to show you the apartment. The job is done once a sum of money is transferred to finalize the deal.
And the final one reminded me of the episode on Everybody Loves Raymond, where Robert tries to become a model and gets conned for some-thousand dollars. It’s almost the same idea. A woman was offered $2000 for the job; $1000 up front and another grand after the completion of the photo shoot. She received $3200 money order and was told to keep $1000 and forward the rest to the the person in charge of the photo shoot. Of course the money order was fake. Fortunately, the woman was smart enough to not cash it and call the police.
Recommendation
I would want to see the car for myself before deciding to buy it. The same goes for the apartment. Unless you see the vehicle or the rental unit in person and make sure that everything is in order, don’t make the purchase.
It seems the most popular way of getting money from you is to give you a money order of a large amount and asking for a portion of it back (or send elsewhere). Be very suspicious if someone offers such a deal. The fact that the bank cashed it in to your account doesn’t mean it’s valid. In some cases, the bank will come after you for the fake money order months after you cashed it in and thinking everything’s okay. Unfortunately, you can’t trust the bank to validate the money order for you, so be on the alert.
Data Money Online = Scam
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