1. The Great Nigerian Scam, also simply known as 419
It's been going on for over a decade, and it's amazing how successful it continues to be. And that, probably, is because it appeals to two of the strongest aspects of human nature: kindness and greed.
Dearly Beloved, it will begin, or with a salutation to Respected or Kind Sir/ Madam. This will be followed by a heartfelt plea for help. You see, the person writing the mail either has tons of money with no way of getting it out of the country or has tons of money and wants to donate it.
In either case, they can't do it without your help because they are stuck in an obscure African nation that has either just faced a coup or is in the grip of an evil dictator.
(There are many variations to this theme. Sometimes it's a widow giving away her millions, or an Arab billionaire feeling altruistic and picking you to give his fortune. . . but all these are nothing but scams.)
They'll promise you a huge sum of money in return for your help, even though they know your motive is truly altruistic. You'll need to send money to a few selfish souls in order to prod them into releasing the said funds, or transferring it in your name, but person writing you the anguished mail promises to reimburse every penny and then some!
The more money you send, the more they wheedle out of you. Of course, you can be sure you aren't going to get a penny -- after all, they aren't going to share their ill-gotten wealth with you, are they?
2.Pay up, get a guaranteed loan or credit card
You have to hand it to these scamsters; they are great students of human nature. And the biggest problem most of us mortal souls face is money.
Even as we juggle to satisfy our needs -- it could be that additional night out at an expensive new joint or the desire to buy an iPhone -- we just never seem to have enough money.
So, if someone promises you a 'pre-approved' loan or a credit card if you pay a small fee upfront, how can you not grab the offer?
You wouldn't actually, if you stopped to think for a moment. Why would you randomly be offered a pre-approved loan without a creditworthiness check? After all, the banks would like their money returned with interest, so they would like to know if you have the capacity to pay them back.
A credit card begs the same question -- why would any bank give you one without checking if you are capable of paying the bill every month? And why would they charge you a fee upfront?
3. Have you won a lottery?
Almost everyone you know would have had this fantasy: of winning tons of money so that you never have to work again, never have to juggle your wants, go for expensive holidays and super-expensive shopping sprees and, in general, spend the rest of their lives wallowing in luxury's luxurious lap.
So, when an email pops up, boldly titled WINNING NOTIFICATION, and tells you that you are the lucky soul to have won a huge pile of cash, you have no reason to disbelieve it. Except for the fact that you never entered any such sweepstake or lottery.
But that's taken care of as well -- you are either a randomly selected winner, or your email has been entered automatically. How? You don't know and we are sure you don't really care -- your attention is focussed on that never-ending series of zeroes after that initial number.
You're already writing your resignation and dreaming of all the exciting things you can do with the money when. . . Hold your horses! You need to send them a small processing fee (it's generally a small amount compared to the millions you've won, but it large enough to have one happy scamster scampering all the way to the bank).
If you've fallen for this trap, and are waiting for the moolah, it's an expensive lesson learnt. If not. . .
4. Phished!
There's no doubt about the fact that technology can make life much easier. For example, instead of going to the bank, standing in a long queue and dealing with a bored clerk, or even going to an ATM to check your balance, transfer funds or pay bills, you can just as easily do it over the Internet.
It's convenient, and it saves time! But those Internet hackers, the ones who want to make money ripping you off, have such activities firmly in their radar. The result? One of the most widespread scams to have hit mail in-boxes in recent times.
You'll get a rather official looking, and a rather frightening, mail that tells you that you urgently need to verify your identity with the bank/ shopping site because your account has been hacked.
The implied threat is that your personal details could be misused and you could lose money.
If you click on the re-verification link they provide you, that's exactly what's going to happen. As you key in your login name and password, it is captured by a computer programme.
You innocently heave a sigh of relief, thanking the stars for the quick alert from your bank. But your troubles are just beginning. The hackers now know your login and password and can easily skim all your money from your account.
5. Hey, you're hired!
You've been looking for a job, or a change of job -- something that will leave you with some free time so that you can have a life!
Then, like unexpected manna from heaven, such a job actually falls in your lap. You get mail from an impressive sounding company offering you the grand-sounding post in the finance or marketing department.
The company, the mail explains in professional sounding terms, is doing very well in its home country and is now expanding across the globe/ in Asia, including India. They need people and you seem the right fit. They have Indian customers; all you have to do is collect money from them and send it to the company (pretty much like a post box they assure you, you're not a recovery agent and don't have to run after their customers).
Your commission will be somewhere between 5 per cent and 15 per cent; all you need to do is drop the cheques/ money orders into your account and send the money, minus your percentage, to them.
Of course, you'll need to share some personal information, such as your contact details bank account details. It all sounds simple and aboveboard, doesn't it?
Soon, you'll actually receive cheques and money orders. You'll deposit it in your account and send money to your employers. Then, you'll discover the cheques and money orders are fraudulent. Which leaves you. . . yup, conned, having sent your hard-earned savings to a scamster. If you try to trace them, you find they've vanished into the Internet. . . oops, ether!
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