ISSUE 4

Internet Scams: The Facts of the Matter
By: C Jordan Brown

If one thing exists that children, teens, college students, and adults all have in common, it’s their love for money. It is almost universal that one’s current financial situation can, and does, determine overall happiness.

Just like all these people love money, they all know how hard it can be to get it. To make a good salary these days, a college education is almost required. Unless you have a specific trade that’s been being fostered since about the period in life of learning motor skills, an education is a must. However, often people who don’t have a learned trade, feel that college “isn’t for them.”

Within these people lies the group that isn’t necessarily worried about the others when it comes to broadening financial horizons: criminals. In particular, scam artists.
Scam artists have been around since money has and still are no strangers at all, even with America’s advanced technologies and anti-theft procedures. They are still causing businesses to go bankrupt and more often, individuals to experience financial ruin, even to those who thought they were invincible; i.e., myself.

I’ve always been the guy who was able to spot a scam. Having been on MySpace since about age eleven, I’ve never opened one of those virus-ridden password-stealing bulletins. I’ve never downloaded a virus when using file sharing programs, I’ve never opened a spam mail. So, one may wonder… “how’d they get ya?”

My situation: My roommate has a like-new Academy String violin with case she wanted me to list online for her (because I’m also the eBay/Craigslist guru of the house). I started on eBay, no sale… so I listed the item on Craigslist, a widely-known free classifieds website used all over the world. Two days later, I received an email from an enthusiastic buyer who was about the country on business. He asked me to remove the ad, because he was instructing his assistant to mail me money for the violin.

Proceeding as usual, I awaited his check. Turns out, they were two domestic money orders for $950 each. Myself, being a poor, working college student, saw “$$$!” but was curious as to why so much. I made my planned trip to the bank, gave my roommate her $800 for the violin.

Afterwards, I e-mailed him again asking why, he told me that he’d sent extra because he was going to need the item shipped to Benin (a country in Africa that I’d never heard of). He also told me that I wouldn’t have to do anything; that the shipping company would contact me about payment and picking up the violin.

I received an e-mail a couple days later with vague instructions to wire the extra money to an African address for payment to the shipping company. Luckily, school was hectic as was work and I didn’t do it…

This past Saturday night I checked my checking account to see if they’d been cleared and discovered quite the contrary: two returned items totaling $1900 and associated bank fees. Great! First of the month, rent’s due, and my checking is -$1211. And I don’t get anything until my roommate, who serves at a burger restaurant, can recollect the $800 she (naturally) blew within a day.

I got online, started reading… turns out my situation had occurred many times, often referred to as “Nigerian” money order scams. I also noticed huge disclaimers at the top of Craigslist websites and the emails we’d corresponded stating that “money order and overseas EQUAL SCAMS.” As much as I hate to admit it, I was ignorant to the situation.
Had I followed instruction and wired this money, a random African person would get to pocket over $1000 of money I certainly don’t have, which would have caused me to have to drop out of school and manage a Steak n’ Shake to get caught up (hence the aforementioned financial ruin). This has happened to many people.

Moral of the story? Sell online. It’s great! It’s fast, you get more money usually, and have to do less traveling. BUT- be more careful than your grandmother would. Don’t wire money- ever- ESPECIALLY overseas- even if the money order has cleared because they sometimes do. Have a branch manager at your bank check money orders before trying to deposit them, tellers are obviously oblivious.

Because I was too hasty with this and didn’t read the fine print, my finals week will have twice as much stress. Awesome, right!? Be careful, everyone. Unless… you want to give $1000 to some African creeper.