How Those Scams Work And How To Protect Yourself

By Odesi Desko

This particular scam has its origins in the 1500s, where thieves took advantage of many victims and left them without any money. Due to how it started, it's known as the Spanish Prisoner. Apparently, the powerful nature of Spain left it with a lot of enemies, leaving suspicions high. Scammers would tell victims that a member of Spanish royalty had been taken prisoner, and bribes would be required to release them. By offering their money to release the reward, not only would they be promised large rewards, but a princess would be offered as well.

As with any con it required some research in order to only contact "soft" yet financially solid targets, as well as a demeanor that's hard to duplicate. This type of conman can sell anything to anyone and get away with not only the money, but with the mark not initially realizing they've been duped.

This type of confidence game continues today, but can take various forms. As always it relies on confidentiality, mystery, and a feeling that a great deal is at stake. They play on the fact that, at heart, people want to save the world and come out financially well-off in the process. As the con continues, more and more money is harvested. Eventually the mark has invested so much they can't pull out without risking losing it all, which they do in the end anyway.

A modern variety of the Spanish Prisoner is the 419 fraud, also known as the advance-fee fraud. The rise of the Internet has made this a very popular and easy scam. Names of potential victims are taken from e-mail headers, which often include the last name. The scammer then alleges to be a relation because of course he has the same last name.

The initial Internet approach may be followed by another contact with an involved, complex fabrication, and a course of action is arranged. This is the reason a telephone look-up service such as info-trace.com/9xx.jsp should be used to confirm the caller's identity. Today there are several frauds with numerous modifications patterned after the Spanish Prisoner.

The advance free fraud is another variation with a lot of offshoots, where the basis is that the mark has to pay the scammer money to theoretically get money. People who have too much trust for things they read online have been duped by the lottery email, work from home, reshipping, employment, overpayment, and romance scams, leaving them destitute because they believed a lie.

There are many other ways to protect one self from scammers besides using telephone look-up services like the one previously mentioned. One is to delete any emails which come from unknown parties. It's important to remember that once opened, scammers can gain access to an entire address book with the touch of a button. With enough persistence eventually they will hit a soft mark and it all starts with one person opening an unknown email.

If such an e-mail is accidentally opened, poor spelling and grammar, or an offer of free gifts or exorbitant sums of cash that can be obtained by sending a small sum of money, or opening an empty checking account, are clues that it is a scam attempt. There is no global Internet law enforcement, but several individual countries, with the aid of those who have been scammed, are attempting to locate and terminate these fraudulent groups. If we all work in concert, this plague can be wiped out. - 31381

About the Author:

Sign Up for our Free Newsletter

Enter email address here