Category Archives: Online Scam

I didn’t intend for this site to become Scam-Stop central, but I can’t resist commenting on the persistence of people who are so single-minded in their attempts to part you from your money. I am also amazed at those who spend time trying to outwit the scammers! There seem to be plenty of both types around!

The latest wrinkle in the online scammer’s arsenal of tricks is the flock of "favorable commenters" who produce glowing testimonials after someone has written about systematic abuses by a particular company. In fact, this confirms that the company is really trying hard to keep the scam working.

These scammers use Google just like the rest of us and when they find that they are being exposed as lower life-forms, they mobilize their letter writing crews and post indignant comments on the offending websites. These cover-up emails usually come from the same IP address and all contain the same spelling mistakes.

I recently wrote about the "free" logsplitter advertised by home-garden-rewardpath.com and started getting letters almost at once from people defending this company as "good guys". The first few were from fake email addresses, but they have improved their approach and are now using real email addresses.

What they are trying to do is to offset the critical remarks on forum groups and on weblogs like this one. Unfortunately their praise of the scamming company is short on details and never uses their real name.

Here is how their comments appear in a list of complaints about a company. See if you notice a pattern:

This is a rip-off! (full details included)
These guys are absolute scumbags! (full details included)
I had a wonderful buying experience!  (anonymous)
I will never deal with this company again! (full details included)
I got everything I wanted!  (anonymous)
I am suing these guys!(full details included)
Warning! Do not do business with this company (full details included)

Use your own judgment in buying online and Google the company name with the words like: problems, ripoff, scam, and bad service. There are a few names I suggest you circle in red and avoid like the plague: CCI Camera, Royal Camera, Bananaboat Camera.

If you do get ripped off, you can report Internet crime at: http://www.ic3.gov/
If you receive an offer via email from someone claiming to need your
help getting money out of Nigeria — or any other country, for that
matter — forward it to the FTC at spam@uce.gov.

I also discovered that some people enjoy dealing with scammers. Perhaps they feel they can outwit them. You can read an email from one of them after the jump.

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