Personal Finance & Money Stack Exchange
Personal Finance & Money Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [scams]

A scam is a fraudulent business or scheme that takes money or other goods from an unsuspecting person. Related tag is "fraud",

any question related to scams where funds are siphoned off innocent victims by one way or other. Related tags "fraud"

709 questions
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12 answers

I received $1000 and was asked to send it back. How was this scam meant to work?

Possible Australianism - netbank = a website + app by which an Aussie can do their banking, including transferring money to other people. A while ago, I ended up with $1000 transferred into my account, which in the description looked like a netbank…
Scott
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11 answers

I'm supposedly eligible for an inheritance from a distant relative. Offer appears to be legitimate

About 12 months ago, I received a letter ostensibly from a company carrying out genealogical research for law firms. It said that they were dealing with the estate of someone who had left money to my late mother, who died about 20 years ago. They…
alephzero
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15 answers

Friend was brainwashed by MLM-/ponzi investment scam. What can I do?

Recently a friend of mine invited me to hear about “an interesting chance to simply earn money.” Basically we and other invited people drove to a meeting room where a speaker told us about a growing startup where you could invest money in a field…
H. Idden
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10 answers

Someone wants me to use my credit card at a card-only gas/petrol pump in return for cash

I was at a petrol station in rural New Zealand at the weekend which only accepted payment via the automated card reader on the forecourt. After I had filled up, a young woman approached me and asked if I would use my card to pay for her petrol, and…
Rupert Morrish
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8 answers

Scamming an investor by offering a quick sale of a property at her named price

My mother-in-law was approached by an old friend who she hadn't heard from in a couple of years with a "business proposition" which is almost certainly a scam. I don't really understand how the scam works, though. Here's the story: My mother-in-law…
Kryten
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100
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5 answers

Is this person doing illegal money transfers?

This girl that I'm friends with and have actually seen in person before, keeps posting [on social media] that she "loves when the transfer goes through" and gets $2000-$6000 for free quite often. She said you can make up to $6500 a day. She is not…
Autumn Thompson
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10 answers

Scam or Real: A woman from Facebook apparently needs my bank account to send money

A woman on Facebook recently contacted my dad. She asked him to get a bank account so she could send him money, and he would send money to her employees (about 12 people), and she would pay him for doing so each time. She said the last person who…
Ivana
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96
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5 answers

How do scammers retract money, while you can’t?

I see a lot of question about scams with the same premises: Someone puts money in your account. You send money somewhere. They take their money back, while you lost your money. I don't know a whole lot about banking and money transfers, but it…
darnok
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5 answers

Why do Nigerian email scammers openly say they are from Nigeria?

I know that a significant part of Nigerian scammers are indeed working from Nigeria. A scam starts with exchanging messages. Physical contact is not to be expected. It is widely known that scammer often say they are from Nigeria, so often so that…
Volker Siegel
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91
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8 answers

Is it a scam if the person only wants to deposit into my account, not make a withdrawal?

A man in west coast Austria wants to deposit money into my account. I'm in Alabama. I had to get an online account. I did that, but he says his bank manager needs all this information: DOB SSN online access username online access …
donna
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5 answers

Where is the scam in a "giveaway" in Oxford Circus, London?

This weekend I was walking around Oxford Circus with a friend when we saw a guy with a microphone on a stage giving stuff away almost for free to people inside an open store with no goods and big "clearance" signs. Just to clarify, this wasn't an…
Charmander
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83
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7 answers

Is this $200 "welcome money" (from a major bank) some sort of scam?

I googled around (this in the US) about "bank accounts you can open online", I noticed: https://www.us.hsbc.com/checking-accounts/campaigns/offer-2018/#advance-checking-details Notice they will (seemingly) literally give you 200 bucks cold hard…
Fattie
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83
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10 answers

I am an EU resident being contacted about stock I own in a defunct company by a supposedly US based lawyer, is this a scam?

I am based in the EU, so I have very little knowledge of how the US legal system works. I have been contacted by a "law firm" in the US about a financial issue: a company in which I own a small amount of shares went bankrupt several years ago, and…
blueFast
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82
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7 answers

Is this work legal? Someone promises payment for converting money transfers to Bitcoin

An online company hired my friend as an account assistant. They told him they are a business consulting firm, and that they need an account assistant in every area. His job is the following: Some companies send money to my friend's account by…
ashif antor
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11 answers

Dissuading my girlfriend from a scam

A significant portion of my girlfriend's family have fallen for, what seems to me, an obvious Ponzi scheme. They take money, in cash, to a casino in the area. They give the casino the cash, and one month later get 150% back. This amount is always…
Omegastick
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