The petrol service attendant assured me that the boss had given the person permission to approach customers. Usually I am very cautious in volunteering personal details, but something just prompted me to go along with the little survey. All I gave was name, phone number and occupation. I was informed by giving this information I had a big chance to win a one-week, free holiday at a popular seaside resort. I was told someone would phone me later this week. After I got back into my car, I thought to myself what a silly thing I had just done. A woman called me within a few days and invited me to a one-hour meeting. I had other plans already so I told her I would not be able to attend the meeting and asked her not to phone me again. She didn’t. I don’t know if this is a scam or not but you do have to be careful who you speak with and what kind of information you share. There are scams in every form out there.
The top scams depend on demographics. There is a scam for everyone out there, folks. Here are the four most popular ones, appealing to every age group:
* Romance/date/love scams
* Check scams (which include overpayment for goods and services, and part-time jobs collecting payments)
* Lottery scams
* Phishing fraud (which really is more identity theft than a scam)
In my article on Dec. 31, 2007, “All other swindlers upon earth are nothing to the self-swindlers, and with such pretenses did I cheat myself…,” I received a number of notes and long letters from Today’s Zaman readers who shared their experiences with scam situations. I’d like to share a few with you.
Property scams
Most of us know when it comes to buying or renting property there are a lot of property scams to be wary of -- and you really need to be careful with who you buy your property from or rent from.
New ‘friends’
Be wary of new friends or travel companions, sometimes they may seem like they want to help you but it may turn out differently. One Today’s Zaman reader said whenever he has people approach him who want to be friendly he tries to take their photo with his cell phone so if he is robbed later he has their photograph. He said that on occasion, people have not wanted their photograph taken, so he takes that as a clue that they may be up to no good and tries to get away from them as soon as possible.
Fake lottery scams
There are of course hundreds of thousands of scammers operating worldwide on the Internet. One of the new tricks is advance fee fraud. The sender claims to be a bureaucrat, banker or someone of “importance,” who wants to cut you, and only you, in on the financial deal of a lifetime. You probably have received a few of these letters on the web. Here are a couple of very common ones:
The sender claims to be in a position to skim public accounts or in other ways move vast amounts of cash into your hands. Watch out! There is no money to be moved -- except yours. Palms must be greased, with your money. You just need to make a few grand here, a few thousand there available. One Today’s Zaman reader said they fell for this, but eventually got wise, got out and cut their losses.
There are other versions of the scam that play on your sense of charity, your loneliness, or your naiveté. Widow, orphan, cancer patient, dead bank customer, overpayment with a cashier’s check, different names or countries -- same scam. Be careful! It can’t be real.
Taxis
When you get in a taxi be sure to check that meter has been reset. If you only have a large bill e.g. a YTL 50 note, be careful. One Today’s Zaman reader shared that he once only had a YTL 50 note and knew that the fare was going to be around YTL 15; he allowed the driver to drop him off on an adjacent street and confuse him by giving walking directions for the last few meters in Turkish. He was caught off guard by this and didn’t keep his eyes on the YTL 50 he handed over. Because the meter hadn’t been reset, his YTL 15 journey was actually going to cost YTL 23. Also, the driver swore the passenger only gave him YTL 5, not 50! Infuriated by this, the passenger knew he did not have a leg to stand on and just slammed the door and walked away. He was not about to pay more money. Keep your eye on your money when expecting change.
My grandfather told all of us grandkids a few things about life. One of them was that if it looks like a turkey, walks like a turkey, and sounds like a turkey, then it’s probably a turkey. Then he added: If it looks too good to be true it probably is.
