1. Badge charity Scams - Scammers claim to be raising money on behalf of people who wear badges (armed services) or for emergencies currently in the news.
2. Bait & Switch - Advertisers lure victims by offering an item at a real cheap price. Then they are told item no longer available. They will either get a CHEAP substitute or baited and switched to a more expensive one.
3. The 419 Scams - This is named after the Nigerian state law section which covers all cons and schemes from that country. The victim is told they either inherited a fortune or won the lottery and the person needs help smuggling the large sum of money out the country.
4. Affinity Scams - The word affinity means a close connection or resemblance. Thus when someone you know well from work or church, they (most times) unknowingly recommend a way for you to make money or to buy a bargain. Then it turns out to be bogus.
5. The 809/890 Scam - You either get an email or voice mail asking you to call a number beginning with 809 or 890 area code. You get connected to the Dominican Republic and you could end up getting charged a large amount of money through your phone bill.
6. Advance fee - Here you get tricked by being asked to pay a fee upfront in order to get what you won. It could be a loan, some kind of cash or lottery winnings.
7. Flim Flam - This is done to mostly cashiers where by trying to change large denomination bills the scammers swaps money back and forth until the cashier loses track and money in the process.
8. Cramming - This is when you buy a service (like phone) and the provider bills you for extras you either did not order or they never provide you with.
9. Key Logging Scam - Victims unknowingly download a program or hack into their computer that monitors every key you press. Then a record is sent back to the hacker who uses the information to either steal your identity or shop with your info.
10. Black Money Scams - Here the crook claims to smuggled a huge sum of money from into the country which they dye black. They show you a phony demo where a mystery fluid removes it from the money. You're lured into buying more of the Dyed currency which turns out to be worthless paper.
11. Mystery shoppers - The victims are sent a letter being told they been randomly selected to participate in a store's customer service operation. The letter often includes a check which cons you into the Pay forward scam (next one down)
11. Payment forwarding - This involves a few sets of scams where the victims receive forged checks (for mystery shopping, auction sales or house rental) They are then asked to cash it and forward par of it as a money wire to another person. After they do, the check bounces.
12. Phising - This involves a Email that you receive and takes you to a phony website that mimics the real thing such as PayPal. Banks and such. They ask you for your password and personal information which they later use to clean out your accounts.
13. Pharming - this is another form of Phising. These are actually legitimate websites that have been high jacked by hackers and scammers.
14. Ponzi Schemes - This is an investment scam that gets victims with the promises of big returns on their investments. Part of the money is then used to pay earlier investors to keep them happy. This process is repeated until new investors dry up and the schemes collapses.
15. Spyware - Like key logging this is any computer program or part of it that tracks all your actions you do on your PC and then forwards that info back to the scammer with the sole purpose of ripping you off.
16. Scareware - This involves a Pop-up that appears on your screen warning you that your PC has been infected with a virus and you need to buy a program to remove it.
17. Ransomware - This is a program you unintentionally download onto your computer which then scrambles all your data and demands you pay a fee before it unscrambles it.
18. Skimming - This is a device used for capturing your information from ATM and store credit card machines which records all your info and then passes on to crooks.
19. Slamming - Victims here are tricked into changing their energy utility or phone provider. he prices start out cheaper than they quickly go up.
20. Spam - Last but not least. The official name of Spam is - Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE) But Spams sounds better. This is the mother of all these scams. It usually get spam peddling you things like 'Miracle medical drugs or treatments' financial schemes or designer label knock-offs sales. This is now moving to your cell phones which you get through text messages.
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