Some of them are. Now that there are all these GoFundMe type requests, it's easy to scam someone. It's the Internet version of begging - you don't have to sit on the sidewalk with a crayon written cardboard and a cup in your hand.
Yes, sadly there are.. It's all too common... There are many scammers on dating sites and people I would have thought more savvy have been caught by them..
There is no excuse for the stupidity of the masses. I have never and will never give money via an internet panhandling enterprise such as gofundme.com. Trust me on that.
I am afraid there are, which is why there are so many on-line, telephone and postal scams operating. Facebook and it ilk also seem to attract people with a very poor concept of personal privacy and security anyway.
Though not the target of fraudsters in the same way, a friend once proudly but foolishly displayed a large piece of craft-work he'd created, on Facebook. He'd not bargained for the result - various messages asking its value. He was not so foolish he failed to see the danger, and he deleted and blocked them; but I wonder how many people have been the victims of thieves as a consequence of their own incautious Internet post.
Laugh all you want, that guy from Nigeria really wasn't my long lost uncle but there's still that Saudi prince who's going to send me lots of money as soon as I email him all of my personal information.
This post was edited by Livvie at July 11, 2017 7:48 AM MDT
No! My friend John told me he loved me and would fly here to marry me if I sent him $2000 for airfare. Although it's been 2 months since I sent him the money, he got delayed only because his mother became ill suddenly. Just yesterday, I sent him another $1000 because he had to use half the money I sent to him to help his mother pay the hospital bills. He is such a good hearted man and a good son. That's why I love him so much.
Wait a minute....my friend John told me the same story. After his mom got sick, his sister got pregnant and is very high risk and needs a lot of medical attention. I sent $3,000 to help her. He said as soon as the baby is born he will fly out and be with me. Wait.....he just emailed me, his home was burglarized and he needs more money to replace everything he lost. Said the stress of all their belongings being stolen was causing his mom to get worse. Well, I'm off to Western Union....I'll be back later......
Hold on..... my friend John said he loved me but wouldn't feel complete without the gender reassignment surgery so I sent him $5000 to help get it done. Thought it would be smooth sailing from there until one day in the shower he looked down. It had fallen off. So he picked it up and put it in a Ziplock bag and rushed it to the ER but they said they couldn't sew it back on unless he paid $2500. Of course I wired him the money because I couldn't just leave him sitting there with his private in his hand. But now we're nearing the finish line. I can feel it. One plane ticket and he'll be here. And we can consummate our love. Thing cost me a fortune. Better be strong enough to hang a chandelier from it.
This keeps getting weirder and weirder.....My friend John also said his brother needed money for gender reassignment surgery. That cost me close to $7,000. I'm starting to get a bit suspicious about some things. The three of us should meet for coffee and compare pic......
Hi all, my real name is John. I have moved due to a disaster in the area and need 10K to help with moving expenses. Please forward all future checks to: P.O. Box 1234 Ocean Front City Arizona 12345.
Oh you poor Dear! Here's $15,000. If you need more, just let me know. You are my true love and I'd do anything help you. I knew in my heart you are good, kind and truthful. We will be together soon my love. I know you will get here just as soon as you can.....
'Fraid so to the first clause. I can't comment on the second where it may apply to US internal affairs, as I am not American nor live in America, but I do worry about President Trump's international dealings.
People here have mentioned the "Nigerian Prince" and the "I'm stranded" scams. Here's another, of which I have had to block and delete two attempts recently:
"Your goods have arrived at...." XXXX Airport . Good Terminal / etc. The venue is real, the merchant's name and small print like the copied-&-pasted T&Cs look convincing. Only - what goods? I've none on order, let alone imports. I suspect the liar gambles on people thinking something like a wrong delivery address or other genuine error so selecting the link to try to help correct it, and... oh dear!
Another that happened to a friend, is the strange offer to send well over the asking-price for a genuine but expensive item advertised for private sale, accompanied by instructions to retain the balance pending further instructions. These could be phishing, exchange-rate frauds or money-laundering. My friend realised the offer was bogus and ignored it.
Some of the most convincing scams copy genuine web-sites' home pages like those of your bank - I've rejected a number of these. In fact I knew they were lies immediately, because the banks they aped, were not mine; and I carry out almost no on-line banking anyway!
Harry 