DRINKWALTER: More creative ways to take your money

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February 7, 2010

Anonymous The Lockport Union-Sun %26 Journal Sun Feb 07, 2010, 12:51 AM EST

LOCKPORT — Last week, I wrote about a phone call we got from a company offering to recover some unclaimed insurance funds for a fee. The call piqued my curiosity and I ended up going to www.osc.state.ny.us/ and starting the process of recovering those unclaimed funds myself for free.

Previously I wrote about another gimmick. Each year I receive a letter telling me that I was appointed as a biographical candidate to represent (fill in the place) Lockport in the Biltmore “Who's Who” among Executives and Professional women. My son used to receive letters back in middle school and high school from a “Who’s Who” group pulling the same scam on honor students. That, I amusedly wrote: “I interpreted the letters to say — ‘We will print your name in this book that we will publish if we get enough names to make it worth our while financially to do so and then we will charge you ridiculous fees to buy the book …’ ”

A few weeks ago I didn’t answer a few calls on my cell phone from an 800 number and decided to call back the number to see who it was. The woman asked me my phone number and then began her spiel; she offered me unlimited text messaging for $30 per month. “Why would I do that?” I asked. “Last month I spent less than $2 texting.” I told my daughter about the odd call and she said, “That makes no sense since it only costs us $10 per month for unlimited texting with Verizon.”

Then there are the spam e-mails. One even slipped through with the subject line reading: “I’m Mary, remember me?” Turns out, she is a “Russian beauty” who desires to marry and leave Russia. Her e-mail wrote, “I want you my good man, come to my profile — you’ll get a surprise!” It then directed me to a Web site for more information. Of course I know better not to open any attachments from unknown sources, but I’m guessing some poor unassuming fellas got the same e-mail and will open the link. (Mary probably has more whiskers than Grizzly Adams.)

Of course, there was the spam e-mail from Jonathan Goodluck wanting to transfer $25 million from the Bank of Africa into my account. I could then keep 40 percent of the funds. (Good luck with that!)

There was also a message from Dr. Foladay Dagogo (you must be joking with that name?) He too wanted to offer me 40 percent of his windfall. $19 million dollars in abandoned funds were left by someone who passed away with no family to leave the money to. That too was to be transferred from the Bank of Africa.

Seriously, we hear it about this all the time, people actually believe these e-mails from strangers, follow through with the convoluted plan and then end up losing every cent and never receiving a dime.

I just cleared 73 messages from my spam e-mail folder. I’m sure each one was a bit more creative and deceptive than the next. Desperate times make desperate people. There is no end to the scams that folks are dreaming up to take your hard earned money. You have to go with your gut. If it feels wrong, it likely is.

Deb Drinkwalter is a Lockport resident. Her column appears every Sunday. Contact her at d.drinkwalter@yahoo.com.

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