Victims Still Falling Prey to Nigerian E-Mail Scam.
Is it me, or is this story almost unbelievable? I use that hoax as a punchline not as a storyline. To show you how out of touch I am:
The number of people falling for the scam is steadily increasing, with 55,419 lodging complaints in 2005 of at least receiving an e-mail that appeared to be a scam, according to the Federal Trade Commission. That’s almost three times the amount received in 2002, which was 21,616.
It gets worse:
But Audri Lanford, co-director of Scambusters.org, a service that helps fight Internet fraud, estimates that $200 million a year is lost to the Nigerian e-mail scam or variations of it.
So now you know, as do I, how big this scam is and how prevalent it is becoming. If you continue reading the story, you come to a paragraph that fits right in to this hoax.
Another trend involves classified ads. Scammers will post fake job ads, and interested parties are asked to fill out an application, complete with personal information that includes date of birth and Social Security number – everything the scammer needs to swindle the victim.
Pathetic really. I can see where the fake application would fool many people and lead to identity theft.