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(Date Posted:03/20/2007 9:35 PM)
fromhttp://www.cadillacnews.com/articles/2007/03/21/news/news03.txtBy Tanya Berkebile, Cadillac News CADILLAC ? It is not uncommon for Dennis Hammer to receive inquiries about his rental property in Cadillac. So when he received an e-mail from a broker agent who wanted to rent the property for 20 days in June, he treated the message like any other inquiry. "I generally get most of my rental inquiries by e-mail, so there was nothing surprising about this message," said Hammer, who owns a rental unit and also works as a senior loan officer at Flagstar Bank. "The person said she had clients coming in from overseas and wanted to know the price for 20 days," he said. "We e-mailed back and forth and settled on an agreement." The woman agreed to make a deposit of $3,000. However, she said she needed Hammer to charge $10,000 to her credit card because she could only make money transfers in that amount at a time. "I was asked to send the $7,000 back through a Swift Wire transfer or international money gram to the company's account," Hammer said. "That is when I knew it was a scam." He then did some checking into the addresses and phone numbers, which he found were fictitious. Although many scams are aimed at individual consumers, businesses are beginning to get hit by scammers more frequently. It seems that no one is safe from scammers. Another local business that was recently almost taken in by a scam was the City Glass Shop in Cadillac. A call came in through an IP relay switchboard, wanting an e-mail address to get pricing on 80 pieces of tabletop glass. "He wanted the glass pieces to be delivered to the Church of Christ Ministries in Ghana as quickly as possible," said receptionist Lorrie Seeley. What sent up the first red flag was that the person requested a special freight company, but Seeley couldn't find any information about the company. Through e-mail, she found out the company didn't accept credit cards, but instead took Western Union. "I e-mailed the deaf gentleman back and told him I would need him to cover the freight up front, and he said it was no problem and gave me a different credit card number," Seeley said. Seeley then called the bank and found out the credit card number didn't belong to the name or address that was given to her. She also contacted the church, which said they didn't know anything about the situation. "For him to use the IP relay switchboard, I pictured a deaf person on the other end and just wanted to help because I felt sorry for him," she said. "I never expected this." Your local connection Falling for a scam can happen to anyone. Some contact people through churches or other groups while some can even be neighbors or friends. Find out how to minimize the risks: # Buy only from licensed or credentialed financial professionals. Stockbrokers and investment advisors must be licensed to sell you stocks, bonds and mutual funds, for example. Avoid buying investments from persons who are not licensed to sell those products. # Review your account statements. Check all statements when you get them and notice the details, including all changes to your investments. Make sure your correspondence is sent to the investment firm's official address. # Buy investment products that you have chosen and checked carefully. Stick to buying investment products that you have sought out yourself and investigated carefully. # Make sure you are buying registered investment products. Most legitimate products have to be registered with the SEC and in the state of sale. Check them before you buy. # Ignore spam e-mail and "hot tips." These types of messages are sometimes meant to trap unwary investors. Hot tips can come from people you know, or be left as "accidental" messages on your answering machine. Fake Web sites and blogs are sometimes set up to provide false information about investments. # Be careful if you are invited to invest by phone, at a meeting or at a social event. Get details about any investment in writing, and be sure to check them out. Never make a snap decision when you are first approached with an investment idea. If someone pressures you to buy quickly, offers to send a messenger to pick up your money, or claims that the offer is only good "right now" ? just say no. # If the promoter says it's practically a "sure thing" ? don't buy it. All investments carry some level of risk. Don't buy into any product if the salesperson says there is no risk to it, even if you like and trust that person. A salesperson can be the victim of a scam, too. # Never make an investment payable to the salesperson. Always make your payment to the investment company.
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Informations about Internet Scams: Fraudwatchers.org - Fake Bank Killing: aa419.org
Guidance about Love Scams: Internet-Love-Scams.org - Discussion about Pyramid-/Ponzi-schemes, HYIPs et al: Cattyshaq.com
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