Hi there, guys!
Recently I have been swindled by a person, who helped me to build my site, that's why I am interested in the most popular scammers' schemes on the Internet and in real life (in order not to be swindled another time )
Have you ever been deceived by anybody?
The most popular scammers' schemes (chit-chat in English)
-
- Green Belt
- Posts: 261
- Joined: Sun Sep 13, 2015 10:42 am
- Languages: English, French, German, Greek, Portuguese
- Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=6206
- x 196
The most popular scammers' schemes (chit-chat in English)
0 x
Output Challenge 2018
Hours of Recorded Speech:
Words:
Hours of Recorded Speech:
Words:
- zenmonkey
- Black Belt - 2nd Dan
- Posts: 2528
- Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 7:21 pm
- Location: California, Germany and France
- Languages: Spanish, English, French trilingual - German (B2/C1) on/off study: Persian, Hebrew, Tibetan, Setswana.
Some knowledge of Italian, Portuguese, Ladino, Yiddish ...
Want to tackle Tzotzil, Nahuatl - Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=859
- x 7032
- Contact:
Re: The most popular scammers' schemes (chit-chat in English)
Not on the Internet but I once helped out a person in a train station and found out later that the guy was a professional con.
1 x
I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar
-
- Orange Belt
- Posts: 239
- Joined: Sun Oct 04, 2015 9:18 am
- Location: Krakauer Baggersee
- Languages: Polish (native), speaks: English, Czech, German, Russian, French, Spanish, Italian. Writes in: Latin, Portuguese. Understands: Ancient Greek, Modern Greek, Slovak, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Serbian/Croatian. Studies for passive competence in: Romanian, Slovene, Bulgarian.
- Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1435
- x 471
Re: The most popular scammers' schemes (chit-chat in English)
LesRonces, I'm really sorry. As it's a public forum, I will abstain from expressing my opinion about the con.
Scheme 1. Do not ever try to rent an apartment via email/snail mail (I mean sending money without meeting the owner in person). The scheme seems to be very popular in Germany (at least in a medium size town where I happen to live) and I was confronted with it 3 times (would probably amount to 10% of all adverts I responded to). You see a nice advert with a reasonable price (usually without the pictures of the apartment) and you decide to contact the person behind it. What you get is a response in English or clearly non native German containing pictures and encouraging you to rent the apartment. This is the right time to report the scammer. If you fail to do so at this point, you are probably going to have the last chance when you will be told to transfer money not to a regular bank account, but to a financial services company offering anonymised transfers (I do not want to call the names but I hope its clear). I personally managed to avoid being robbed but I guess there are many people, e.g. international students who are only too wiling to make sure they will have a place to stay on their arrival in Germany.
Scheme 2. A person on the social media would present themselves as, for example, poor single mother asking people to donate not money, but some things for her baby. Then they would try to sell those things (from the same account if they are stupid enough) on the very social media they had used to swingle it.
Scheme 3. An advert offering money to be transferred to your account by financial services other than traditional banks in exchange for translation from the language A to the language B. Once a translation has been submitted, they stop contacting you.
Scheme 4 (real life). A person approaches you and presents themselves as a victim of a theft with no money to travel to their home town. And yes, they have contacted the police, but in vain. Now, I cannot tell for the rest of the world, but I would say that al least in the EU such stories have no credibility whatsoever. A person can be accompanied by their child to increase the persuasive effect and produce more guilt n case you are not willing to give them money.
Scheme 1. Do not ever try to rent an apartment via email/snail mail (I mean sending money without meeting the owner in person). The scheme seems to be very popular in Germany (at least in a medium size town where I happen to live) and I was confronted with it 3 times (would probably amount to 10% of all adverts I responded to). You see a nice advert with a reasonable price (usually without the pictures of the apartment) and you decide to contact the person behind it. What you get is a response in English or clearly non native German containing pictures and encouraging you to rent the apartment. This is the right time to report the scammer. If you fail to do so at this point, you are probably going to have the last chance when you will be told to transfer money not to a regular bank account, but to a financial services company offering anonymised transfers (I do not want to call the names but I hope its clear). I personally managed to avoid being robbed but I guess there are many people, e.g. international students who are only too wiling to make sure they will have a place to stay on their arrival in Germany.
Scheme 2. A person on the social media would present themselves as, for example, poor single mother asking people to donate not money, but some things for her baby. Then they would try to sell those things (from the same account if they are stupid enough) on the very social media they had used to swingle it.
Scheme 3. An advert offering money to be transferred to your account by financial services other than traditional banks in exchange for translation from the language A to the language B. Once a translation has been submitted, they stop contacting you.
Scheme 4 (real life). A person approaches you and presents themselves as a victim of a theft with no money to travel to their home town. And yes, they have contacted the police, but in vain. Now, I cannot tell for the rest of the world, but I would say that al least in the EU such stories have no credibility whatsoever. A person can be accompanied by their child to increase the persuasive effect and produce more guilt n case you are not willing to give them money.
1 x
BCS 400+ :
RUS 2800+ :
SPA 1500+ :
CZE 1900+ :
RUS 2800+ :
SPA 1500+ :
CZE 1900+ :
- BalancingAct
- Orange Belt
- Posts: 117
- Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2017 6:37 am
- Languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, English (Prof.), French (Adv. - Prof.), Italian (Adv.), German (Adv. receptive), Spanish (Int. receptive)
- x 182
Re: The most popular scammers' schemes (chit-chat in English)
LesRonces writes well. By that I mean he is a good story teller.
Edit: putting a missing "a" in.
Edit: putting a missing "a" in.
Last edited by BalancingAct on Fri Jun 23, 2017 7:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
0 x
-
- Black Belt - 1st Dan
- Posts: 1587
- Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 12:35 pm
- Location: Scotland
- Languages: Native: English
Advanced: Italian, French
Intermediate: Spanish
Beginner: German, Japanese - Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1855
- x 6089
- Contact:
Re: The most popular scammers' schemes (chit-chat in English)
It's pretty low-tech but... In Barcelona I got chatting with a guy who seemed friendly and interesting, and in the end we went for a beer together. I paid for the beer with a big note as I didn't have anything smaller, then when the waiter was about to bring the change the guy distracted me, took all the change, and walked out. So I effectively spent €50 for two beers. There was no convincing him to give it back and I didn't want to use violence in case he had a weapon. Since it was just cash, reporting it would have been useless. I felt like a total idiot, especially since Barcelona is infamous for petty crime, but it was the classic case of gaining my confidence then exploiting it.
1 x
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests