Thursday, September 13, 2007
Get-rich-quick Scams
Get-rich-quick schemes are so varied they nearly defy description. Everything from fake franchises, real estate "sure things", how-to-get-rich books and wealth-building seminars, self-help gurus, sure-fire inventions, useless products, chain letters, fortune tellers, quack doctors, miracle pharmaceuticals, charms and talismans are all used to separate the mark from his money. Variations include the pyramid scheme, Ponzi scheme, Matrix sale, and Multi-level Marketing.
Salting is the term for a scam in which gems or gold ore are planted in a mine or on the landscape, duping the greedy mark into purchasing shares in a worthless or non-existent mining company.[4] For a 19th-century example, see the Diamond hoax of 1872; for a modern example, involving imaginary gold deposits in Borneo, see Bre-X. Popularized in the HBO Series Deadwood (TV) season 1 when Al Swearingen and E.B. Farnum trick Brom Garret in to believing gold is to be found on the claim Swearingen intends to sell him.
The Spanish Prisoner scam — and its modern variant, the advance fee fraud or Nigerian scam — take advantage of the victim's greed. The basic premise involves enlisting the mark to aid in retrieving some stolen money from its hiding place. The victim sometimes believes he can cheat the con artists out of their money, but anyone trying this has already fallen for the essential con by believing that the money is there to steal. See also Black money scam. Note that the classic Spanish Prisoner trick also contains an element of the romance scam
Salting is the term for a scam in which gems or gold ore are planted in a mine or on the landscape, duping the greedy mark into purchasing shares in a worthless or non-existent mining company.[4] For a 19th-century example, see the Diamond hoax of 1872; for a modern example, involving imaginary gold deposits in Borneo, see Bre-X. Popularized in the HBO Series Deadwood (TV) season 1 when Al Swearingen and E.B. Farnum trick Brom Garret in to believing gold is to be found on the claim Swearingen intends to sell him.
The Spanish Prisoner scam — and its modern variant, the advance fee fraud or Nigerian scam — take advantage of the victim's greed. The basic premise involves enlisting the mark to aid in retrieving some stolen money from its hiding place. The victim sometimes believes he can cheat the con artists out of their money, but anyone trying this has already fallen for the essential con by believing that the money is there to steal. See also Black money scam. Note that the classic Spanish Prisoner trick also contains an element of the romance scam
// posted by Kritidas @ 10:36 PM 
