How Notto Become A Scam Addict (from The Confessions Of A Scam Addict)

We would all like to be rich, very rich and to get that way by having the money handed to us on a plate. What a dream. Until nine months ago, James never knew that such 'free money' was advertised through scamming over the Net. International scamming is a huge business, and growing by the day, perhaps in keeping with tough economic times. The business is big enough to involve one layer of corrupted individuals on top of another, equally corrupted layer of individuals. In fact, life is so complicated for them at times because they themselves don't know who is scamming whom!

We have been royally scammed out of a lot of money, initially because of ignorance and later because my husband believes, absolutely, that there is someone out there who wants to give him a handsome sum of money for nothing. He just has to keep going until he finds that person and strikes it rich.

There are scams and warnings posted all over the internet, but I thought you might be interested in a very personal experience which has evolved into a habit akin to a 'gambling' addiction.

Below is a list of ten warnings to heed should you ever be tempted to enter into any kind of arrangement with a business man looking for a partner via the net, to share in a large windfall. In further articles I will continue to outline how we were fooled - totally.

Top Ten Warning Signs

1.You never get anything for nothing (beware of any proposal coming via a non-specific server, e.g. yahoo.com or gmail.com).

2.Never let your business partner choose the bank where you will do business.

3.Never believe that a reputable bank is a reputable bank.

4.Never pay any money up front.

5.Never transport money to pay for suspect returns via MoneyGram or Western Union.

6.Never believe that your business partner has put up any money to secure this deal before getting you involved.

7.Never accept any document as being "an official document".

8.Never agree to pay any legal fees to a lawyer, no matter what it is for.

9.Never believe that the person on the other end of the phone is who he says he is.

10.Never forward any personal information to any person.

WARNING # 1: YOU NEVER GET ANYTHING FOR NOTHING, ESPECIALLY MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.

Last May, 2008, my husband handed me the printout of a letter he had received from a PW, who lives in Hong Kong and has many aliases. PW introduced himself and his family (accompanied by a charming family photograph) to James, and suggested that James might be interested in a business deal with him. This business deal was nothing less than transferring the enormous sum of US$123,750,000.00 out of the clutches of a bank in China, to the Western World. If James was agreeable to enter into this deal, PW would give him 40% of the total money!

My mouth fell open and I roared with laughter! I told my husband to forget it, because there was no way this was going to happen. It was a scam, nothing more and nothing less. I suggested a little bit of research would support that theory. Not to be outdone, James went away, did due diligence, and came back with some pretty legitimate reasons why this was not a scam. Of course, had sense prevailed and I had not started to count the dollars in the bank, I would have realized that there were no legitimate reasons at all.

WARNING #2: NEVER LET YOUR BUSINESS PARTNER CHOOSE THE BANK.

James entered into a verbal agreement to help PW with the transfer of this money to an off-shore account in the UK. Several possible banks were discussed, and we had a choice in this selection, but for some reason the final choice was made by PW and it was the Clydesdale Bank. He further suggested we get in touch with a Mr. PC, the operations manager, who would help us to open the account. This, of course, was fine with us. The bottom line was that we had no idea how to conduct business with an offshore bank. PW knew this and he had to have control, as revealed in the next paragraph.

WARNING #3: NEVER BELIEVE THAT A REPUTABLE BANK IS, IN FACT, A REPUTABLE BANK.

I duly checked into all the information available about the Clydesdale bank. It was well known in the UK and a member of the National Australia Bank Group. Further investigation revealed there were three Mr. PCs listed as employees of the bank. The bank logo, letterhead and account statement descriptions were all beyond reproach. I was quite satisfied with my research results and never suspected that there was a problem. We were blissfully unaware that PW had built a little gold mine of scam operations under the very nose of the Clydesdale Bank who knew nothing about this sub-set enterprise. This was borne out when my husband went for a holiday in Europe and visited the Clydesdale bank through which we had supposedly been dealing. He established that there was no trace of any bank account in our name and certainly no Mr. PC in Guernsey. While sympathetic towards my husband, Clydesdale did not seem in the least bit concerned about the scammers using their bank for their nefarious activities. This attitude bothers me.

Since that time, James has corresponded with other mainstream banks, such as Barclay's, Nat West and HSBC where scammers appear to be running a covert operation under a respectable banner.

To learn more about our scamming adventures, tune into the next article post.