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Status: (7) Lexus
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 356
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Expertise: Fastlane Student
Locale: Williamsville, NY
My Mood:
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Re: New email scam?
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Apr 15th, 2008, 11:28 PM
#8 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RichKid
These emails shouldn't even be called scams anymore... just stupidities.
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The sad thing is, I have seen a lot of people fall for this crap.
Without completely giving away what I do for a living, let's just say I work along the U.S/Canadian border.
There is a scam similar to this where somebody is contacted about money being held at a border crossing. The victim has no idea who sent them the money, but through persuasion, the scammer sells them a story to make it seem legit. All the victim has to do is pay some ridiculous amount of money on duties, come in person to the border crossing office and claim what is theirs. By the way, that "duty" usually runs in the $10,000 and up range.
I can't tell you the amount of people in the course of the past few years who have shown up totally expecting to have wads of cash waiting for them, only to discover they've been had. In fact, often times, they don't believe US when we tell them what has happened. Especially when they see a person whose name they have already heard from the scammer.
These scammers are good...They'll call the border crossing office the money is supposed to be at, ask some stupid question, then ask who they're talking to. Imagine the victim's surprise when they see Officer Merkin Man (their direct point of contact for retrieving the "package") standing in front of them when he breaks the news to them that it was all a scam!!! It doesn't go well.
Sadly, in the end, I think the scammers get by on the human nature of greed - not just their own, but the willing participant on the other end of the line. $10,000 in duties for $350,000 in unknown money? I'm still amazed at how seemingly intelligent a lot of these victims come across as being yet how gullible they are when it comes to this type of scam.
Never take life too seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
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