Internet Scams

by Melanie Stewart Owner of Find Work Online Dot Net

I cannot express to you enough about how many scams are out there, and yes, the way they have them set up, you end up being liable for them. That is another way the scammer gets you. I will name a couple of them that I have personally encountered.

One day I checked the mail, and there was a check for about $3000 in there. It looked like a very legitimate check. It even had the watermark security thing on the back. They had said I won a sweepstakes. It made me a little nervous because I was not expecting it at all. I went to my bank and they told me there is always a 30 day hold on those type of checks, and even after the 30 days it could come back as fraudulent.

I noticed that the address it came from, and the address on the check were in 2 different places. Even different countries. The address on the envelope came from Canada, and the address on the check was in the U.S.A.

I decided to look up the phone number to the issuing bank and call them to verify the funds. They immediately told me they get hundreds of calls a day about it, and it was in fact a scam! THANK GOD I played that one smartly. If in fact I would have cashed it, I would have been liable for it. Not only that, but it would have been a felony for grand larceny. I think anything over $500 is a felony. At least that is what I heard.

Another scam I have encountered was one that I had posted my resume on "Career Builder", and they contacted me about a job. It was from a place called "Geneva Tax". From what I gathered at www.scams.com they change their name frequently.

Anyhow, I was contacted by them, and they seemed very legitimate. They had an employee handbook a mile long, and had me fax all kinds of paperwork and stuff to them. They told me I would be in charge of finding an office in my area for them, and I would be running it. They even wanted me to go out and take pictures of different office properties. They told me they were going to give me a company card, and I would also be responsible for auditing people's taxes, and a whole slew of other responsibilities.

When it came down to it, they sent me the company card through Capital One, told me to go to the bank and get out $995 as a cash advance. Then in turn told me to go to the closest western union and send it to some guy in Egypt , less $100 for my troubles, so I did.

The next day, they had me do the same thing, except told me to go to a different bank, and do the same thing, only it was to go to a different guy in another country this time.

They claimed that they needed me to send it overseas so they could in turn open an office in that location.

I had told my mother what type of job I had encountered, and lucky for me, she got suspicious. I was too happy making such easy money, I didn't even want to think it was a scam.

I mean these people emailed me, were very friendly and seemed so legitimate. Lucky for me, my mother called the FBI to see if it was some kind of scam, because it seemed too good to be true. It in fact was a scam, and they told me not to do it anymore.

What they had done apparently, was get a hold of this lady's credit card account and put my name on it so I could withdraw funds. They sent her card to my address. We got the person's phone number that was attached to the card, (Which had a $25,000 line of credit) and she knew nothing about it, so she called to have the card cancelled and a new one sent to her. Lucky for her I'm an honest person because Capital One sent her new card to me, and I am still getting all her statements and billing. With all the identity theft going on these days, I could easily go and spend money, pay off my bills, and she would probably be none the wiser, but like I said I am honest and am not able to do something like that.

Anyhow, had I kept working for that company, and taking money off from her card, I would be liable if I had gotten caught. We called her, the FBI, and our local police, so I am in the clear now. I think my mother really saved my ass in that one!

But to answer you're question...Yes, most scams out there online end up making you liable.

There are many more out there! When I wrote the above, was many years ago, and now finding more and more throughout the internet. Now companies / people are finding trickier ways to scam others. Here is one example, and one of the trickiest that you have to watch out for. People will join a program to make money. Then they have to promote that program only to write nothing but good reviews on it, do youtube videos on it, making it look like it's a reliable, and viable resource of income. "Hey come join my program! It's Awesome!" because that's how they make their money, or think they are going to make money. Now a days, you have to dig really deep on some of these money making programs. A lot of times, you can find authentic reviews on something through forums such as http://forums.digitalpoint.com ...Also look on IM Report Card, scam advisor, etc...Put "Scam" behind Anything you research on Google, and see what comes up. Like I said, sometimes you can find only good reviews, but on the off chance you find an honest person willing to share their experiences, it doesn't hurt to dig deep before you invest.

That is what my site is geared towards! Helping others! I do thorough research on everything I promote so people are a lot less likely to get scammed! I help my subscribers in any way I can. If they are thinking about joining a program, even if I don't promote it, and want my help in doing my research, I will go out of my way to do research on something, and dig deep, even if I'm not promoting it, and let them know what I've found.. You can subscribe by clicking on http://findworkonline.net

To me, success is NOT how much money you make, it's all about building strong relationships, and the money will come later.