Personal Finance and Money Stack Exchange
Personal Finance and Money Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [scams]

A scam is a fraudulent business or scheme that takes money or other goods from an unsuspecting person. Related tag is "fraud",

any question related to scams where funds are siphoned off innocent victims by one way or other. Related tags "fraud"

660 questions
186
votes
15 answers

Friend was brainwashed by MLM-/ponzi investment scam. What can I do?

Recently a friend of mine invited me to hear about “an interesting chance to simply earn money.” Basically we and other invited people drove to a meeting room where a speaker told us about a growing startup where you could invest money in a field…
H. Idden
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66
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8 answers

A newer friend of my brother's gave him a load of baseball cards that are supposedly extremely valuable. Is this a scam?

My brother is working in a union and has met a bunch of people and started making good money lately. Yesterday, a colleague of his needed a favor because his car broke down, so my brother spent the night driving him home and dealing with a few other…
el toro
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66
votes
8 answers

A man wants to send me money

I’m from Spain. Through Instagram, I have just met a man from Dubai who wants to send me money and even offered to pay my rent in the future. He says he does it because he has too much money and wants to spend it on someone good. We have talked only…
sophia
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56
votes
8 answers

I won $9500 in a game. Now they're asking me to send it back via different means, promising me more money if I do so

I played a guessing type game. I won and ended up giving them all this info. I got $9500 in my account but now they are asking me to send it back through different means. They say it's to prove to the company that they can trust me and that I will…
Kayla Davidson
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51
votes
8 answers

Ghana scam and direct deposit scam?

My father has been talking to a girl who calls herself Linda Owusu. She claims to be from Germany and living in the US away from her son. She recently found out that her father has left her with a large sum of gold that was left into a company that…
Lydia Thompson
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50
votes
5 answers

Lost $10K to scammers, found out their home address and want to take action

Lost $10K to scammers. I’ve been able to locate them. I know their home phone, their bank details, who they are renting from, their street address. I want to go there and take action. Does this information help me in any way? Can I use this…
Bob Jane
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41
votes
3 answers

How does this dating site scam work?

First of all, it's a scam. "Is this a scam" questions on here always are. I just don't understand how the moving pieces work. I was approached on a dating site by an attractive person. This person's profile was full of pictures and short videos,…
query337384
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37
votes
4 answers

Got $2 in the mail from the Pew Research Center, is this a scam?

Today my wife and I got a letter from the Pew Research center with a with a $2 bill enclosed. The survey has a link to the website: http://pewresearchstudy.com with a password, asking the youngest female in the household to take a survey. I'm a…
Russ Wilkie
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35
votes
7 answers

Sent money, bought and mailed phones. Am I getting scammed?

I follow big give aways on Twitter because I am currently in college debt and need money. This guy direct messaged me asking me a few questions. One thing led to another and next thing you know he tells me that he wants to send me money to help me…
Jacob Biel
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35
votes
7 answers

How scammy are cashback sites?

These days cashback sites (e.g. iGraal) are getting promoted pretty heavily, at least in France (many advertisements, YouTube sponsoring, etc...). The concept is that you buy stuff online and they give you money back on that purchase, which you can…
Pierre Cathé
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34
votes
10 answers

Shipped package arrived - didn't order, possible scam?

Two days ago I received a text message from DHL with a link to a DHL track parcel page. I can confirm that it is the official website. I even took the tracking code, and manually went onto the DHL website and entered in the code - and everything…
Ben10
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30
votes
6 answers

Is it a scam if a non-Amazon merchant sends two items from Amazon when I ordered one?

During Cyber Monday I was searching for a specific camera as a gift for a family member. I found it available at a merchant I had not heard of before for around $100, which is $25 cheaper than Amazon. Said merchant uses Paypal for payment…
Nicholas
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26
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9 answers

What do the scammers do when they get access to someone's online banking?

Lately all the banks around here (Latvia) have been sending out warnings about scammers that try to get access to your online banking. Fair enough. But what confuses me is - so, what can they do after that? I mean, obviously they can transfer my…
Vilx-
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25
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2 answers

Was this "sweepstakes" phone call a scam? And how would it work?

Earlier today I got a phone call from a man claiming to be from the city I live in. He said I had randomly won a sweepstakes from a pamphlet I filled out while shopping some time ago, and I would have to go to an office location with my partner in…
R. Barrett
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21
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2 answers

Is this apparent Class Action settlement a spam message?

I got the following email: CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT NOTICE LEGAL NOTICE BY ORDER OF THE SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA FOR THE COUNTY OF SANTA CLARA Douglas v. DHI Group, Inc. et al.; Case No. 18-cv-331732 You are receiving this Notice because you…
Alexan
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