by Ed Gray

Created on: April 11, 2007   Last Updated: May 12, 2007

If it sounds too good to be true it probably is not true...

Introduction

I am an IT security consultant and as such can write a book on all ways the bad guys are trying to scam honest people of their hard earned money. A professional scam artist may sit for years preying on those who don't know or wish otherwise and one single score can pay for his or her year of effort.

However far more dangerous are organized crime organizations that are running sophisticated scam schemes that are bringing millions of dollars to their dirty business.

Hidden under the umbrella of High Yield Investment Programs, organized crime collects tens of millions of dollars a month and there is no way to stop them since by the time their dirty business gets exposed they had run away with the money and as long as there are places on this earth where the mighty dollar will overshadow all bad and criminal things one has conducted, the bad business and criminals benefiting from it will continue to prosper.

However no bad guy ever would prosper and certainly not this well if they run out of victims whom they steal from, defraud or cheat of money. But the sad truth is that many of us are nave to believe there is easy money and we fall into the trap. We justify our actions saying we will only put in few dollars, it must be true because other people are claiming of getting there and so on. But very few people out there ever got anything out of it and only if they were early enough to the game where scammer had to pay in order not to expose their dirty business prematurely, or if they were working with the scammer and were advertising the program works so they could lure more victims.

The best defense to not get scammed is to know how things work. I certainly cannot cover every scammer and type of scam I run across but here are few.

Internet Scams - Break Down of Some Recent Known and Not So Known Ones

Ponzi.

A ponzi is a pyramid type scam where the person is promised lucrative returns paid daily or weekly to their initial investment. Rate of return promised can be as high as 10% daily or higher.

The initial few that join early may even get something out of there. The scammer is financing the project from signups that occur and the payout is always paid from membership fees. The scammer is skimming the major portion of revenues for themselves and eventually the payable will be higher than receivable therefore causing the system to crash.

Few of those scams ever originate in USA or North America although

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• Next Page >>