The phone rings and a veeeeery scary voice on the other end tells you that you owe them money and need to pay up … or something else.
The caller, of course, leads you to believe that a recent loan you took out has come due and that its time to pay or face legal action.
Frightening, right?
But this terrifying scenario has been experienced by thousands of consumers in recent years. Because this is so-called "phantom debt collectors". I mean Debt Collection Scams - scams in which the scammer attempts to hire services to collect a supposed debt.

The phantom debt collection scam comes in a number of variations, but the common element in almost all of them is a claim that a consumer owes money on a debt and needs to pay or else face serious consequences. Often, the scam begins when a consumer inquires about a payday loan or other short-term credit online or over the phone. The Web site or phone number that the consumer contacts may or may not be associated with a legitimate lender. Regardless of whether the consumer actually takes out a loan, he or she may receive a call later demanding money be paid. Since consumers interested in payday loans are often financially strapped, they may be susceptible to such demands whether or not they actually took out a loan...

What else? Who can be a victim og this type of scam, and how to avoid?

The victim of the Debt Collection Scams can be consumers who do not have outstanding debts, the scammers are threatening and convincing and have led some consumers to wonder whether someone has taken out loans in their name. In cases where a consumer actually does have outstanding loans, the scammer may claim that the victim owes far more in fees and interest than he or she actually does. In other cases, the victim of the scam may be behind on a loan, but the caller has no authority to actually collect on the debt. No matter the consumer's actual situation, skilled scammers are convincing them to hand over precious cash to settle the "debt." Scammers often demand payment on these phantom debts via wire transfer, credit or debit card.
For example, one scammer alone can made at least 2 million calls, collecting more than $5 million before he was arrested. But in other cases, the scammers can working again and again!
You should be on the lookout for these scams. Warning signs of this scam is next:
- If you receive a call from someone claiming to be a debt collector, ask for the person’s name and address, the company they represent and the original creditor (if indeed you have an outstanding loan). If they can’t provide this information, hang up and forget.
- If you’re concerned about the status of an unpaid debt, hang up and call the creditor back yourself at the phone number provided on your loan paperwork.
- If the amount demanded is significantly more than the debt you owe, it’s probably a scam, hang up and forget too.
- Check your credit report. If the debt the caller claims you owe is not listed on there, it’s probably a scam too, and you know what you can do.
Don’t be intimidated if the debt collector is abusive or threatens legal action or arrest. Request that written notice of the debt be mailed to you and tell them that you do not wish to be contacted again about the debt. Remember that a debt collector always must respect this request!

Thank you for attention.

Be careful, if you are public man, and receive a strange email with invitation to some conference. Because it will be not invitation, just a scam!

Conference Scams - scams involving invitations to a fake conference.
Similar to the World Cup scam for example (aimed only at sports fans), this type of fraud comes as an invitation for businessmen/women, lecturers, philanthropists, and etc. public people. How it works? For example, by online way scammers find their profiles on the Internet and master craft an invitation, tailored to the victim’s name and activity.
The recipient of the letter is invited to be the keynote speaker at an event orconference held in a foreign country, for which plane tickets, meals and local transport are provided. The only thing that the invitee has to take care of is the hotel, which has to be pre-paid as the organizers want to make sure the guest won’t be a “no-show”.
With plane tickets and meals provided, several guests are fine with paying for their hotel rooms. This is where the scam comes – as the hotel suggested by the organizers, supposedly close to the conference center, is a fake.
The guest opens the fake hotel link that scammers create using beautiful stock photos and provide their credit card numbers. They pay for the hotel but they will never receive the plane tickets for the mythical conference.
How to avoid this thing?
So, if you receive an invitation to a conference that you have not previously heard about, check with other people working in the same field. Either no one will have heard of it, which proves it is a scam, or they will all have received the same invitation, which also proves it is a scam! So you can delete this email and forget about it.

The last large type of scam is Military Scams (Nigerians who is most cases posing as US military).

Scammers impersonating Military personnel are becoming increasingly common. They start in most cases by contacting you on a social networking site claiming to be in the military, usually the US military. This scam is performed by male scammers using stolen pictures of male military personnel. There have however been limited reports of scammers pretending to be female military personnel as well.
They will get to know their victims quickly, preferring to use instant messaging to speed the scam up. They will however also use emails only to groom their victims if needed. Like most romance scams, they will be quick to fall in love and display most of the common characteristics of any other African romance scam:
- Bad English and grammar
- Not paying much attention to what you say
- Rarely answering questions
- Over use of terms such as "babe"
- Telling you how attractive you are and how much you mean to them often and early
- Possibly having children at home being looked after by a family member
- Stolen poetry being sent with claims they wrote it themselves.
- Wife left them after infidelity or killed in an accident
- In almost all cases the scammers will claim to be currently serving in Iraq or Afghanistan however IP checks will usually place them in Africa or increasingly Malaysia or India.

How does the Military Romance Scam work?

There are several scenarios to this scam that are commonly attempted throughout, as well as any other of the more traditional romance scam excuses if they believe they will be able to extract money from their victim.
The most common military scam variants are:
- The military leave scam:
In this variant, the Scammer will suggest that they want to take leave so they can visit you. They will tell you that, in order to take leave you need to apply for leave on their behalf. At this stage they will often refer to you as their spouse. They will put you in touch with a superior officer to arrange the leave with you. The "superior officer" will in most cases be the same scammer, if not, it will be his accomplice.
Either way it will be part of the scam.
The Person you are directed to will usually send some fake documents and forms for you to fill in, and then tell you about a fee that needs to be paid. A "Replacement officer fee" is one such fee title that has been used. Usually payment will be requested by Western Union or Moneygram. Many scammers also have means of receiving money into a bank account if required.
This scam goes completely against how leave works in the US military. Military leave is little different to most other companies. If an employee is entitled to leave they will apply for it themselves and there is no fee payable. Further, the US Military (or other military forces for that matter) will not allow another person to apply for leave on a soldier's behalf. The mention of filling in a leave form for a military person is a definite sign of a scam.

- The satellite phone scam:

In this variant, the scammer may suggest that he is about to be deployed to another area where there is no regular phone service and possibly reduced access to the internet or chat. In order to keep in touch, he will suggest a phone (possibly a satellite phone or tellex) that will allow contact while he is deployed in a remote area.
The scammer may suggest that with this phone service future phone calls would be free or a greatly reduced price and often fixed as part of a contract. The scammer will often insist it is the only way to keep in touch. Of course, even without the phone, the scammer will always manage to stay in touch with you as that is the only way to be able to get their hands on your money.
Usually this part of the scam sees the scammer direct you to a fake company representative or perhaps a convincing website that will discuss the terms and conditions of the phone to you. There may be fake contracts to fill in or documents to be sent to make it seem more official.
At this stage the scammer will insist that he is unable to pay for the service at this time for one of many reasons and he will ask you to pay it for him, in most cases promising to pay you back as soon as he can.
Again, this is completely false. The US military goes to great lengths to ensure their personnel have access to the means to communicate with their family back home wherever possible. The length of calls and time spent on the phone may well be rationed but there will be access to be able to communicate with loved ones back home.

- The "Saddams Millions" variation of Military Scam
One more twist the scammer may take is to tell you that he has discovered a large sum of money and he will offer you a large portion of it to take delivery of it. This is much closer to the much older scam referring to Saddam's millions which was commonly used by scammers without a romantic component. In order for the money to reach you, a courier of some kind will need to be paid and this is where the scam victim comes in. Of course the millions the scammer mentions does not exists and any money sent to the "courier' will be lost and gone forever.
In this variant of the scam you may be introduced to couriers, diplomats, bankers or barristers who will assist with the delivery of the money to you. Any person you are introduced to will be a part of the scam, the large sum of money never existed, and even if it did there would be no legal way to remove it from the country. Of course, the scammers will tell you otherwise and with every fee you pay there will be another fee. In fact, the fees will only stop when the victim stops paying them.

What can you do to prevent and stop scam?

If you believe you are communicating with a scammer, even if you have the slightest of doubts, if you have been asked to send money to anybody, stop communicating with them immediately.
Remember, anything you say to the scammer about how you found out that it is a scam can be used by the scammer to improve his scamming for the next person.
If you have sent any money, unfortunately it will be gone and you will not be able to get the money back. Neither will you be able to have the scammer arrested. These scams are run primarily by males who use fake details, stolen pictures and the anonymity of an internet cafe to scam and they are virtually untraceable. Couple that with your local police having no jurisdiction where the scam occurred and the corruption that is often present in the countries where these scammers operate and you have no chance of an arrest.
In some cases, after you have stopped communicating, you may have further scams attempted on you. The new scams may be completely unrelated but one further scam often attempted is known as a recovery scam. Recovery scams usually begin with somebody contacting you and suggesting that the scammer is in custody or that they can have your money returned. Ultimately there will be fees to be paid and the scammer will be in your purse again.

Thank for attention...

Some Typical Scam Signs:
- Emails in bad English;
- Offering to buy your item and paying by certified check, cashiers cheque, building society or Bankers draft for an amount greater than you are asking, then to send the balance on to their shipping agent once the cheque has cleared, usually by Western Union.
This is a scam using stolen/forged bank drafts/cheques which can clear in 3 days and bounce a couple of weeks later. By then you have paid the scammer the surplus cash and your bank pulls the total amount back.
DO NOT REPLY.
The authorities are aware of this fraud but appear to be doing nothing about it.

The most common forms of these fraudulent business proposals fall into the following main categories:
- Disbursement of money from wills
- Contract fraud (C.O.D. of goods or services)
- Conversion of hard currency

Some of the fake reasons given to victims why they should send money:

- Legal fees: Many 419 scams involve a fake lawyer (usually a person who calls himself a Barrister or claims to work for a firm whose name includes the word "Chambers". Beware of anyone using a @lawyer.com, @justice.com etc. free webmail account who gets introduced in such emails.
- Insurance: Any lottery prize that is supposedly insured is fake.

Fake Wire transfer charges:

Real banks charge about $40 for an international wire transfer, not several $1000! Remember this!

Virtually no effort is made to hide the source of the spam though technical means. These spammers rely on the lack of efforts by the respective providers to stop their abuse of the service. The spams often trace to servers based in African countries (Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, South Africa, Senegal, Cameroon, etc.) and are often routed through Europe, Israel, Australia or South America. Some "419" mails originate from Europe, particularly from the Netherlands, UK and Spain. This is untypical for common spams (Viagra, penis enlargement, etc.), which are often routed through China, South Korea, Brasil or Russia or are sent from hijacked servers (e.g. broadband hosts infected with stealthware) in the United States. The relative absence of common cloaking techniques on the sender side means that "419" spam can only be distinguished from legitimate email from Africa or Europe by analyzing the text of the message, looking for typical phrases and features.

What can you do when you receive a 419 scam mail?
Whatever you do, never send any money, no matter what reason you are given. Don't be greedy, use your common sense.
Don't rush. Why the hurry? 419 scammers make up a deadline after which the unexpected (and imaginary) fortune will be lost forever. You're not supposed to have time to research and think about the matter.
Delete this email and removing person who send it to blacklist.

The penpal scam

The following scam format is a new twist on the classic advance fee fraud from West Africa. This scam starts off by a young female looking for a friend or pen pal. She supposedly lives in a refugee camp in Dakar, Senegal, helped by a pastor or reverend, whose email address and phone number are provided. Later she will mention that her father died leaving millions of dollars deposited with a security company and will provide contact details for a "lawyer" who will handle the inheritance claim, which the victim is supposed to make on behalf of the girl as her foreign partner.

So-called "diplomatic delivery" and "diplomatic courier services" are a common part of advance fee fraud plots.

The victim is told that a valuable "consignment", such as a trunkbox full of cash, a lottery prize check etc. will be delivered by a diplomat.
Why it is a scam:
Diplomats can carry documents for embassies between countries without inspection, but they do not run any kind of courier service. Any talk of a diplomat coming to your doorstep to deliver a fortune is utter nonsense and a scam. You will be told to pay thousands of dollars to that "diplomat" and if do, all of that money will be lost.

Iraq scam

The events in Iraq serve as a background for a variety of scams, from former mistresses of Saddam Hussein's sons to millions supposedly found and stashed by members of the US armed forces. But the basic storyline is the same: You can make a lot of money quickly for doing almost nothing. If you seriously believe this, don't be surprized when the crooks soon start asking for money.

Rich Investor scam

Some scammers using the next trick; they claim to be or represent a wealthy investor. They say they want to invest money in your business or to manage some funds for them. You stand to make a lot of money, but first you must send money to their lawyer that will handle the paperwork.

How to avoid a scam:
Don’t reply to messages asking for personal or financial information.
It doesn't matter whether the message comes as an email, a phone call, a text message, or an ad. Don’t click on links or call phone numbers included in the message, either. It’s called phishing. The crooks behind these messages are trying to trick you into revealing sensitive information. If you got a message like this and you are concerned about your account status, call the number on your credit or debit card — or your statement — and check on it.

Keep your fingers on the pulse! Do not allow scammers to ruin your life!
Avoid scams! Pay attention to incredibly low prices!

AVOID SCAMS


*Do not send money to a seller without checking vehicle.
*Beware of unusually low price & mileage.
*Request to send money before delivering the vehicle is usually scam.

Be aware of scams!
Dear clients, there is a large growing number of companies that may offer you online buying options and shipping service for incredibly low prices. However, please pay attention and do as much research as possible about the company of interest before making any sort of payments! Please be aware of scams and fraud.

Escaping from fraudulent sites!
No river is free from the dirty fish. The same is the case with online stores. The most essential precaution is to read customer reviews and scan the site thoroughly before going ahead with the transaction.

Check company terms and condition before making a payment, that will help to avoid problems!

Avoid Scam

Scammers as well as spammers will always be discovered!
so if you are the victim of one of them, we hope that these guys will get what they deserve!
Please be aware of scam!