10 Popular Internet Frauds

Here are 10 popular Internet frauds. We can easily spot many of these Internet frauds but some are not as obvious.

1. Money Order Car Sales. There are many variations of this scam but generally it goes like this. Someone contacts a person who is selling a used car on the Internet. A person calls them up and offers to buy the car. The person will then send a money order to the person selling the car. The person buying the car calls up the seller and tells him that he accidently sent a money order that was more than the agreed upon price and asks if the seller will simply send him the difference. The seller does give him the difference in money back as he has already cashed the money order at his bank. 10 days later the seller is notified by his bank that the money order is a fraud and the previously deposited money has been removed. The seller not only lost his car but also a thousand dollars or more.
2. Nigerian Scam. The Nigerian scam is named because the vast majority of the people who attempt his scam are from Nigeria. The Nigerian scam is the random Email you receive that say they are a prince and have a large amount of money but need help to deposit the money in a bank account as their country will not let them because of political reasons. They offer to deposit millions of dollars and give you a nice percentage of it.
3. Job Scam. The Internet is full of people looking for a job. A common scam is to offer a high paying job for hire but in order to get the information you must pay a fee. If you have to pay a fee for  a job then it is a scam.
4. Fake Merchandise Auctions. There are many auctions that take place online for merchandise that is not authentic. You may be bidding on some chepa Nike shoes on Ebay but when you receive the shoes in the mail you realize they are a cheap fake. If merchandise is priced extremely cheap AND the seller doe snot have much feedback then do not bid on the item. It may be a fake or replica.
5. Fake Charities. When a major event such as Hurricane Katrina or the Gulf Oil Spill occurs it is common for many people to set up fake charities. You think that you are donating money to help people out in need but in reality you have been scammed.
6. Penny Stocks. These people purport to give you "insider information" on penny stocks that will increase in value. You along with thousands of other people buy the particular stock and it increases in value. The people that sent you the information then sell all their stock and the stock price drops back down again.
7. Fake Dating Website Profile. A person signs up for a free trial of a dating service. They are messaged by another member who seems to be just what they were looking for. In order to actually be able to get the ladies contact information they must pay to upgrade to a premium membership. They never actually get to meet the lady because she was a fake profile set up by the company to bait the customer into upgrading to a paid membership.
8. PayPal Fraud. A person buys an item off of Ebay that says "collect in person". The person pays with PayPal and then collects the item in person. The person then claims to PayPal that they did not receive their item. PayPal will then refund the money back to the scammer because the person selling the item doe snot have a tracking number they do not get their money. This only is for un-confirmed PayPal members without a valid address. If you sell an item with PayPal and the buyer collects the item in person then make sure they are a confirmed PayPal member or you may lose your money.
9. Fake Concert Tickets. A forged ticket will not get you into an event.
   
10. Diet Scams. Pay X Amount of dollars for our product and you will lose weight.