Police Warn Of Internet, Social Media Scams
The Bermuda Police Service issued another warning about internet scams, and said one of the latest scams is happening on social networking sites, where “an attractive member of the opposite sex proposes a relationship,” with the victim then being scammed to give the person money.
The full police statement is below:
The Financial Crime Unit of the Bermuda Police Service reports a marked increase in the number of internet scams circulating Bermuda, the following being the most prevalent:
1. Be suspicious of job advertisements where no experience is required other than to accept and forward funds from your account. Fraudulent personal or travelers cheques are received, which is typically an overpayment of what was originally agreed. The overpayment is usually then asked to be returned before the foreign personal or travelers cheque has sufficient time to clear.
2. Exercise care when purchasing or advertising items from the internet. Fraudsters will often use local classified advertisements to seek high valued goods, requesting the ‘purchased’ items to be sent overseas where fraudulent personal or travelers cheques are again the preferred method of payment. A common theme is stating that too many of the purchased items have been sent or payment of customs release fees. Look for correspondence from free email address –if the item sounds too good to be true, then it usually is.
3. ‘Phishing’ describes the practice of sending emails purporting to be from legitimate companies such as banking institutions, in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information. Some of these emails may look authentic, in that they may have an official logo or inform the reader that their account will be closed unless they respond immediately. No reputable organization will solicit your banking information by email or by telephone and if there is any doubt, contact the bank directly.
4. Unsolicited official looking documentation from organizations informing of lottery wins, email draws or unclaimed prizes. These scams lure the victim with the promise of huge amounts of money after the appropriate ‘fees’ are paid. In almost all instances, these notifications request reply to a free email address.
5. Emails from persons you know who state they’ve been a victim of crime in a foreign country and request money to be sent to them as a matter of urgency. Typically, the victim’s email account has been compromised and their address book / contacts have been used in an effort to obtain funds.
6. Latest scams have evolved to include social networking sites, where an attractive member of the opposite sex proposes a relationship with the possibility of marriage. Although having never met before, the victim is then asked to accept funds into their personal account, invariably being the proceeds of successful scams. The promise of companionship is then used as an inducement for the stolen funds to be forwarded to the fraudster.
Any person wishing to report suspicious correspondence should contact the Bermuda Police Financial Crime Unit on 295 0011.
It amazes me how many people actually fall for some of these scams. SMH.
DITTO
I agree. Sad that there are some people who tend to fall for these scams, time and time again. SMH too.
What is SMH?
SMH = shaking my head.
Thanks Onion……trying to keep up with these short hand stuff!
Someone needs to check some of these ads on e-moo as well! Such as the work from home ads, or ones for electronics (such as the iPad or Blackberry). They list a Bermudian telephone number that is not in service and only reply via email.
That happened to me once too. I was looking to buy and iphone and they had one for $500, i thought that was a deal so I tried to call the number but it was not working. They did reply to my email though, they said they are in England and they will ship it for free and I need to transfer the money into my account. After that I cut contact with them. It is very sad that some people would fall for it.
Number 6 is the killer. Oh my dear. Like “hey, I saw you on Facebook, You wanna get married? Oh yeah, and can I borrow $10,000 and give it back to you when we meet?” Who would really fall for something like that? I have noticed lately that I have been getting alot of emails from people saying something like one of their family members have died but they cant get the money and they need to transfer it into my account cause I supposedly have the same last name as them so I can pose as their family. My family name is only in Bermuda and St. Kitts so how you gonna say I have the same last name as your fam? I guess some people would fall for it right? Think people.
It is funny though because I had a OLD man send me a message on facebook saying he saw my profile and thinks that we would get along great and he wants to get to know me in the hopes of forming a relationship. I didn’t think to much about it. I just deleted it and went along with my business. A few days later I got another message from the same clown saying he really wanted me to respond and offered me cash if I would get to know him. Then continued to ask for my account information and the like. It is kind of creepy how deep some people will go to rip you off. But you could tell that is what he was trying!!
How someone would fall for that mess is beyond me. You must really be desperate for the attention to respond to these people, but then you turn from desprate to stupid by giving them your info!!
I have had similar emails telling me “I saw your profile on Facebook” etc.
….and I don’t even have a Facebook account – have NEVER been on Facebook!
@ Sunshine “Shaking My Head”
Well, guess what? I was the victim of a scam. I met with agents of a company. I was given legal documents with everything appearing in order. Month after month and year after year I handed over my hard-earned cash to people who seemed responsible and reliable. I was promised all kinds of wonderful returns on my investment and I looked forward to that eagerly.
Then the day came when I went in to pay and lo and behold the doors of the business were locked up. The nightly news reported that the company was deemed insolvent and was now in the hands of the provisional liquidator and that if I had any questions I could ask the agents of the liquidators. I-along with hundreds of others-called and called and were given the runaround for not months, but TWO years now. The bottom line is that all my hard-earned cash is GONE because this company was not doing what it was supposed to be doing.
What’s happened since? No investigation by Government. No proper answers. NOTHING.
This compnay was British American Insurance Co. and the bottom ine is that we as policyholders were SCAMMED. Yes-SCAMMED. If we were given proper answers instead of the run-around I might say differently. No-one is touching this subject. Whle all this stuff is going on, the only ones to profit are KPMG acting as the agents of the provisional liquidator because they’re getting paid while this is all sorted out-THAT IS A FACT…call them and ask them. In the meanwhile some staff at British American are still there getting paid. The head of the company didn’t even have any experience in insurance and THAT IS A FACT. Bernews can check that out. How can a head of an insurance company, someone with only an accounting degree be allowed to run an insurance company? Why did the Government allow these people to run an insurance company knowing this? How were they given a license knowing this???
We want to talk about scams? Well, I know people who worked there and who were told to LIE to the public before all this came out (the company shutting down). Those people were ready and willing to go public but it’s all getting brushed under the carpet. Government-who at one point endorsed this company through the Bermuda Small Business Development Corporation-seems to want to keep this hush-hushed. If me or anyone else did this we’d be in jail, yet these people were allowed to get away with this. It’s disgusting. Absolutely disgusting…and there’s nothing any of us who lost our money can do a thing about it.
What happened to you has NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS ARTICLE! This article is about ONLINE scams, not an insurance company going under. They’re not even close to being the same thing. GTFO of here Lol
lol stay on topic
I have been in the IT business for over 20 years and it is sad that people are still falling for these incompetent but highly sophisticated (depends of person surfing the net) scams!!
Unless you are pathetically desperate and unabashedly simpleminded, the old adage is true: IF IT TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, THEN IT USUALLY IS!!!!
Be satisfied with who you are and what you have instead of chasing the rainbow searching for the pot of gold!
Sunshine… SMH = Send Me a Hundred…
Well I was scammed as well! I actually got married and have been paying ever since!
It is now 2011 and if you fall for something like this than you are either a complete and utter moron or you’re over the age of 65 and have never used the internet.
WOW! By now I think some people would ahve learn a lesson and realise that if it sounds too good to be true, then it can’t be true.
I have gotten a lot of those emoo scams reply, I normally tell them when they give me the answer that they are in England or where ever that I wil get Interpol to check out their email and address and will get back to them. Never hear from them again.
Just mention Interpol and they will run for the hills. Works everytime!
As a result of internet activity I now have gigantic particulars, women find me irresistible and I can go all night- at a moments notice.