People Share Stories Of The Most Common Scams That Folks Still Fall For
People are sharing their stories of scams, from falling for multi-marketing ploys to eBay rip-offs to helping aging family members avoid buying gift cards for the IRS. Here is a list of scams that still prey on good-natured people, and even a few tips on how to avoid them.
1 Pop-Up Ads
Clicking [x] on a pop up ad and end up with opening the ad instead of closing it.
2 The ‘IRS’
Last year my grandma called me saying “the IRS” had called her, she had already written a check about and was about send it. It took me an hour to convince her it was a scam and the IRS wouldn’t call her randomly saying if she didn’t pay them a few grand she would be sued/jailed.
3 The Dating Site Soldier Scam
My mom was so close to falling for the “soldier scam.”
She started talking to some army guy through a dating site and very quickly he got romantic and almost in love over messages. She started to really fall for him.
Then he asked if she could buy phone credit for his daughter as he couldn’t use his money abroad whilst he was stationed…
She had no money and told him so and he got a bit weird over it. She Googled this situation as something didn’t sit right and discovered the popular scam of Nigerian men using photos of soldiers, setting up profiles and getting older women to part with cash. They start off small like phone credit and it escalates to life savings and all worldly possessions.
When we looked over his messages after finding out, it all seemed so obvious. The messages were a bit disconnected and seemed scripted. She realised he wasn’t really answering her questions or responding to specific thing she had said.
It seems silly now as people are so aware of these type of scams, but at the time it really wasn’t that obvious.
4 Call From ‘Criminal Investigation Division’
I got a call from a Washington, D.C. number yesterday with an automated message telling me it was the “Criminal Investigation Division” of the IRS, and to call them back immediately.
I did. Got on the phone with an Indian sounding man who told me his name was Matt Smith, or some generic sounding American name. He told me there was a warrant out for my arrest because I fraudulently claimed some tax exemptions over the past three years.
I wasn’t thinking straight because I’m in the process of buying a house, and my credit is really important. It sounded convincing until he asked me to pay.
He said there were two ways it could be handled, either “privately or publicly.” I could either pay the debt now and it wouldn’t be reported to any credit agencies, or I could do it publicly, in which case the debt would be reported to the police and local news outlets.
He told me all my assets had been frozen and my bank accounts were “black listed.” It didn’t seem like a term an IRS agent would use, but whatever. Then he told me since my accounts were frozen, the only way I could pay the debt was with gift cards from the grocery store, and that I needed to stay on the line with him the entire time until I got the cards. WTF? How am I going to buy gift cards if my bank account has been frozen? Do you think I just have $3,000 in cash on me right now?
That’s when it clicked. This is bulls**t. I lived in DC for a few years and I know the area. I started asking him how he gets to work, what neighborhood he lives in, what Metro stop he gets off at, etc.
He just hung up on me and when I tried to call back it just kept coming up as a busy signal.
I’m laughing about it now, but I was sh***ing bricks on the phone yesterday. I’m an educated, moderately intelligent person, and he had me going. They probably trick elderly people with this scam all the time.