Police Diary


Have you ever received an sms on your mobile or an email, informing you that you have own 1,000,000 Dollors/Pounds in a promotional event or in a lucky draw? Or work at home opportunities paying thick salaries? Or even a proposal for business partnership from someone from Europe or USA?Have you received an email from your service provider to re-enter your password or click on a link to verify your account? BE ALERT!!!!!! YOU MAY be about to STEP into the net of scamsters, who dupes simple people from their hard earned money.

Remember: Nothing comes for FREE   

These day's, practically every day I receive messages (SMS & email) telling me that I have own millions of pounds in a lottery. Once you respond to these emails, they will either tell you to deposit some Rupees etc. in a bank account etc for processing the lottery etc. many people fall victim of greed. 

One SMS from the scamster reads: Your SIM card no.won our 2010 Pacific West BMW Promo for cash Prize of 750,000GBP and car, Plz contact Mr. elie Clegg +448713154354, Email:elieclegg@hotmail.com.”

On telling them that this is just another scam to rob people of their hard-earned money, many of them found it hard to believe that it’s a fraudulent scheme.

There is a very beautiful story in Hitopadesha about a Old Tiger & a greedy traveler. Once upon a time, there lived a Tiger in a forest. With the passing years, he became too old to hunt. One day, the Tiger was walking by the side of a lake and suddenly, a gold bangle came across his sight. Quickly he picked up the bangle and thought that he could use it as an allure to catch someone. As he was under the thought process, a traveler happened to pass through the opposite side of the lake.

The Tiger instantly thought to himself, “What a delicious meal he would make?” He planned a scheme to attract the traveler. He held the bangle in his paw making it visible to the traveler and said, “Would you like to take this gold bangle. I don’t require it”. At once, the traveler wanted to take the bangle, but he hesitated to go near the Tiger. He knew that it was risky, yet he sought the Gold Bangle. He planned to be cautious, so he asked the Tiger, “How can I believe you? I know you are a beast and would kill me”.

The Clever Tiger innocently said, “Listen Traveler, in my youth, I was wicked unquestionably, but now I have changed myself. With the advice of a Sanyasi, I have left all evil. Now I am all alone in this world and have engaged myself in kind deeds. Moreover, I have grown old. I have no teeth and my claws are blunt. So, there is no need to fear from me”. The traveler’s was taken in by this smart talk and his love for gold soon overcame his fear of the Tiger. He jumped into the lake to wade across the Tiger.


But as per the plan of the Tiger, he got trapped in the marsh. On seeing this, the Tiger consoled him and said, “Oh! You need not worry. I’ll help you”. Gradually he came towards the traveler and seized him. As the traveler was being dragged out, onto the bank, he thought to himself, “Oh! This beast's talk of saintliness took me in totally. A beast is always a beast. If only I had not let my greed overcome my reason, I could be alive”. However, it was too late; the Tiger killed the traveler and ate him up. Like this, the traveler became victim of greed and Tiger was successful in his evil plan. 

Moral: Greed never goes unpunished.

  • A basic guide to scams

There are several different varieties of internet fraud, and we have set out some of the more general formats below and in our exact scams section. If you think you may have been scammed but cannot find something here relating to your specific situation, please do not assume that you are safe. These scams are just the most repeated ones, and there are many others.

General types of scams

Advance fee frauds

Also known as 419 scams, after the section of the criminal law in Nigeria which makes them illegal or"Nigerian" frauds. These take many forms, but all feature the entice of a huge sum of money or a delivery of jewellery, gold, or other valuables. They are called advance fee frauds because they all engross the victim being asked to pay fees in advance. The fees are said to be for a lawyer or barrister, court documents, registration or other formal payments needed, security company, courier or diplomat fees, or bribes. If the victim pays the fee, there will always be another one that needs to be paid before the money or shipment can be released, and this will continue until the victim realizes it is a scam, or simply runs out of money to send. There is no delivery or huge sum of money - the entire story is a lie to get the victim to pay.
 
The most frequent lies told are that there is an over-invoiced contract with the government, an unclaimed bank account which will be surrender if not claimed soon, a next-of-kin who has died and left the victim a luck, a political refugee (or the widow/son/daughter of one) who has valuables he cannot take out of the country alone, a dying person who wants to allocate huge sums to charity before they die, or an investor who has a large sum of money to invest in the victim's country. These are all lies, told just to set the scene for the request for money from the victim.

Lottery scams

In these, the scammer will imagine being from a legitimate or a fabricated lottery and will tell the victim they have won a huge sum of money. Again, there will be the endless requirements for fees to register, to claim the prize, to pay a lawyer or the courier company delivering the winnings and so on, until the victim has given up or run out of money. The scammer will play that it is a random lottery, often based on email addresses, to get round the fact that you cannot win a lottery you have never entered. Legal lottery sites, names and logos are often stolen or copied and used to bolster the pretence.

Cheque/check or money order scams

There are many differences on check scams and we have more details in our specific scams section. The most popular are overpayment for goods, investor scams, and the company agent or agent scam. If you have been asked by someone you don't know to cash a check, money order or traveler’s check and send on the proceeds or goods, please act with intense caution.
 
The basics are that the scammer asks the possible victim to receive payment (whether for goods being sold, investment, or from a "customer" of the scammer) and to forward all or part of the proceeds. The check/money order is phony, forged or stolen. The scammer hopes that the victim's bank will not realise initially, and will clear it. The victim sends money on, the bank later realises and debits the victim's account, and the victim has then lost the money sent on. The bank will approximately not be liable, and the victim may also find that their account is closed and/or that they are arrested or investigated by the police for money laundering.
 

Black money or "wash-wash"

The scammer claims to have a large supply of dollar bills which have been treated with a black dye to disguise that it is money. If delighted with chemicals, the money will be cleaned up and turned into lawful currency. The victim is asked to pay for the chemicals to make the transformation, but the fee will be much less than the total value of the currency, so the victim thinks there is a profit to be made. The victim may be shown photos of the black money or invited to visit the scammer for a live expression of the cleaning process. In fact, all the so-called money is just black paper, and the cleaning demonstration relies on sleight of hand to substitute a real banknote or bill for the piece of black paper.

Love scams

The scammer played to be looking for love, and engages the affection of their potential victim, often using photos from the internet to present a beautiful view of themselves. They target people on dating sites or in chat rooms and will often say that they are in love extraordinarily quickly in an effort to attach the victim to them. Once they think their target is falling for the lies, the scammer will ask for help with living expenses or the cost of a visa or flight to the victim's home country. Or the scammer may say that a relative is ill and needs vital medical attention, or that they need help paying for their education.

Charity scams

These play on the good nature of people moved by tragedy and the misfortunes of others. The scammer will claim to be an orphan in need of aid, or a pastor or churchman looking for charity to the work of his ministry. Outstandingly quickly after almost every natural disaster in recent years, there has been scammers capitalise on it and pretending to be a charity helping the victims. Examples include 9/11, the Indonesian tsunami, and Hurricane Katrina.
Work At Home

Work-at-home opportunities are big business for scam artists. Each year over billions of dollars is lost to scams. You can protect yourself by learning how to evaluate opportunities, knowing what are the most common scams you will run into, and using consumer protection resources. 

You are reading an e-mail or magazine ad that promises to help you make good money working at home. Or your neighbor invites you to a "meeting" to learn about a new way to "leverage time and money". They all sound so tempting and convincing. So how do you know which deals may be legit and which aren’t? Here are a few rules of thumb to consider when tempted by work-at-home schemes:

 

1. If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. Avoid any program that will "do the work for you" or gives grandiose income claims.

2. Avoid any company that doesn’t have a street address (not P.O. Box) and phone number.

3. Envelope stuffing and assembly work....stay away from it. I haven’t run into anyone yet who hasn’t lost money on these.

4. I tend to avoid work-at-home job ads in which the email address is not to the domain name of the site. For example, when you email Work-At-Home Success, your mail is sent tomanager@workathomesuccess. Some job announcements are sent to a commercial account such as AOL or Yahoo. Anybody with a legitimate job to offer over the internet will have an email address with their company's domain name... not a commercial account (unless of course it is AOL or Yahoo offering the job). The same goes for Website URLs. Any websites listed at free hosting sites such as Angelfire, Geocities, and Freeyellow, should be carefully investigated. Any company that can't afford its own website with domain name can't afford to hire you! 

5. NEVER SEND MONEY TO GET A JOB. Is isn't uncommon to invest money in a home business but if you are responding to a job announcement, don't send money. Legitimate employers never charge to hire you. The non-legitimate company will tell you to send money to cover the cost of  materials or to process your application. Don't believe it. You wouldn't pay for training or paperclips at your current job would you? These companies usually aren't offering jobs, just information on how to scam others or how to start a business.

6. Have you ever noticed that some ads are very appealing but, never indicate what exactly the program entails? Stay away from any company whose ad doesn’t come right out and tell what it is offering. How good can a program be if it relies on hype in stead of a good quality work-at-home program?

7. If you are looking for a home-based job from your classified ads, 800 numbers should raise a red flag. Most local companies don't use 800 numbers in local ads. If you decide to call, and it sounds like a "job" situation, get as much information as possible so you can research the company. And remember, never send money.

8. What about infomercial opportunities such as Carlton Sheets, Brad Richdale, or Jeff Paul? To be honest, they do provide legitimate information on building your own business BUT, most of the information they provide you can get for FREE or at least cheaper at the library or local book store. 

9. Network marketing opportunities abound. Over the past few years, MLM has begun to recover from the negative association with pyramid schemes. While the hierarchy is a pyramid in shape (come to think of it, all businesses are!), network marketing is a legitimate business opportunity IF the main purpose is to market products. You can feel safe in joining the companies that are well-known such as Amway, Mary Kay, Discovery Toys, Shaklee and others. Even so, it always pays to research any business opportunity. Be sure you understand the compensation plan and any refund policies. See below for information on how to investigate companies. 

10. Always "sleep-on-it". Many business opportunities can get you so excited about the possibilities that you end up writing a check without thinking. Always leave your checkbook and credit cards at home! Put the magazine ad away for a day or two. Turn off the t.v. You won’t miss out. The ads are run all the time. If you decide to pursue it, it will still be there.


chitthi aai hai aai hai chitthi aai hai

saawadhaana: kahi aap phasane to nahi jaa rahe

                                                                 yeh chitthi aapke saatha Cheating kar sakti hai

 

Please alert all your family members, relatives & friends and help & save them from getting cheated.

Dharmendra Yadav