How To Protect Yourself From Internet Fraud And Scams

by Cecile Cinco

Having been on the net since 1994 has a great advantage. I’ve seen the growth of scams and fraudulents schemes multiplying at least twofold each year.

Our first encounter was with Amway. Fortunately, we had no money! Ha! The blessing of having none!

A friend of us invited us to an orientation…a seminar…I knew all the people in that seminar though we’ve seen less of each other over the years. Some of them are from the upper generation, friends of my parents. I felt like it was a hypnotic kind of seminar and I we (husband and myself) were just playing along especially when the question arose, “What would you like to have in the future (materially)?”

They were all serious wanting lots of money and a big house and grand cars. When it was my turn I said I want a large lot with a nipa hut. The lot would be covered with plants and fruit-bearing trees to surround the nipa hut but underneath the nipa hut would be an entrance to the most hi-tech computerized underground with more of a detecting and communication capability at its highest standard.

Of course it needs money too and the dream was real…really something I looked forward to having. But I was thought of being weird at that time…as if they haven’t heard of such hi-techie stuff…all they want is lots of money and jewelry and houses and cars. For me that’s too braggish. I want my treasure hidden.

Anyway, after that seminar, we all went home…then we thought of searching it over the internet. To our surprise, we found a goldmine! Everywhere we looked it says Amway is a scam and a cult and all the experiences of those who got involved were itemized in too many details including why it was a scam.

Since then we always looked for signs from the internet about information on certain companies or groups that might be a scam or fraud.

It used to be that scams are found off the internet and the information about them being a scam is found in some places of the internet. Now, all scams seemed to have shifted on the net and if you are not careful, you can be victimized.

People have become aware as the years went by but also the scam makers have upgraded their system of scamming. If you are not aware of their craft, you might just follow suit the way of the victims.

Just like, for example, I get forwards from a number of friends about certain babies who are dying of cancer, Bill Gates tracking emails and you’ll get paid for the many forwards you make, fastfood dangers, and please donate. Or, I get tons of emails from somebody rich who is dying, or is in asylum, or someplace else impossible to move and that he or she is giving money to someone who will encash his/her treasure and you get some 20% as your effort’s fee. I also had a fried who did not heed my warning when a certain girl will only be given her inheritance if she marries and it has to be proven with a contract. My friend lost more than 4 thousand US dollars and lost 2K more because he couldn’t believe it was a scam the minute he forwarded the email to me and I said to drop it but he just did not listen. The perils of greed. He was promised some hundred thousand dollars…

There are tons and tons of such on the net and if you do not know how to make sure, you just might be one of the victims.

What do I do? What can you do?

First, don’t believe right away until you’ve done your due diligence to search for possibility that a certain person, group, company, event, gimick, contest is a scam or not.

This is actually easy. Google or Yahoo is good at this. All you do is do a search first. See my search box up there? Try to input ‘amway scam’ or ‘whatever company+scam’ for a start…you’ll most likely find one if it is a scam.

Of course you’ll want to look at every perspective. If there is only one search result, the person who put the site up might just be trying to put down the said company. Look for more…

Also, you can find this site handy: http://scambusters.org. You can subscribe to a regular newsletter where you get info on different modus operandi that takes the globe in a flash…if you are not careful enough. It also gives you information how you can report a scam if you think you found one.

After those long years seeing the scams come my way via email, just by the subject alone I can fairly say I can recognize a scam….so to the bin it goes.

I haven’t even mentioned phishing scams and urban legends…

All in all, these scammers generally appeal to your emotion and your greed. Beware!

Popularity: 17% [?]