What are the top ten scams in the world?

Answer 1

There are really less than ten kinds of scams, it's just that there are thousands of variations on them.

There are three scams listed on one website, named "salting the mine", "the gold brick" and "the snake oil scam". In the first, someone is putting a bit of gold dust around a worthless mine so you'll think it's valuable and buy it. In the second, someone has painted a brick gold so you'll buy it. In the third, someone prints out a lot of worthless, false, or easily obtainable "information" and sells it to you - be it weight loss or starting a business or getting government grants.

Of course, all of those - and their infinite variations, are just one scam. Selling you nothing for something, while usually acting like they are practically giving it away.

So. First type - selling you something fake that you have reason to believe is valuable.

The second type is the Ponzi scheme, where the original investors are paid by collecting money from secondary investors, and they by tertiary investors...etc.

Third type is "The Spanish Prisoner" or the "419" scam. It has tons of variations. It might be the guy who is barred from the casino, but has $10,000 of chips to cash in. If you do it for him, he'll give you a $1,000 reward. But he needs some collateral from you, so you give him your watch or credit cards to hold. Then when you try to cash the chips in, you find out they were fakes.

Or it might be the guy from Nigeria who says that he needs your help accessing his father's bank account, his father being a deposed prince or imprisoned businessman. He'll wire you 10 million dollars, and you can keep 10% for being nice enough to help him. But he needs you to send a $1,000 to take care of some fees and expenses to get this done. You send the money...and never hear from him again.

Or it might be the girl in the refugee camp who has you as a penpal. And needs your help to access an inheritance. And needs that fee to do so.

Etc. In all cases, you are being told you'll get a lot of money that you did not earn, and all you have to do is put up your own money first. In a sense, this is the same as the first scam, the "salting the mine" or the "gold brick", but they are simply using their words and your greed to get you to "buy" the supposed future profit.

Fourth type is the Fiddle game, named for how it used to be played. Two con artists working together do it. As it stands nowadays, someone claims to have lost a very valuable pet dog or wedding ring and says he'll give a $1,000 reward for it. He leaves you his phone number or business card and leaves. (In the old days it involved a violin or "fiddle")

Then his partner comes in, and is carrying the dog or the ring that he "found". And asking if anyone knows who it belongs to. You know there is a reward, but don't tell him, you just say you know the guy and will take the dog or ring to him. But the guy won't let you have it unless you pay him a reward. Picturing the $1,000, you give him a hundred bucks.

When you call the first guy for the reward, you find out that the number is no good. And that you just paid $100 for a stray dog or a cheap iron ring.

The fifth type, is called "the Sweetheart scam", but it's really just the Spanish Prisoner or 419. In it, you meet a woman who is far more attractive than you'd ordinarily expect to get. She seems to fall for you hard. She wants to be with you, but - Alas! - there is a man from her past who she owes money to, and she cannot be with you till that is taken care of.

So you give her the money, and never see her again.

Or nowadays, it is a woman from overseas, who wishes nothing more than to come to America to be with you, and never wishes to leave the kitchen unless it's to go to the bedroom! She wants to come over...but - Alas! - she doesn't have the plane fare, or needs to pay some back debts or fines so she can leave, etc.

You send the money, and never hear from her again.

It's a 419 or Spanish Prisoner, as you are paying up front for something you hope to get in return, but instead of a large sum of money, a large sum of romance which as portrayed is usually as unlikely as millions of dollars! (This isn't the 1950s, the whole world is pretty much developed, and foreign girls are not dying to be an American's sex and kitchen slave!)

The sixth type isn't for money, it's to get money by stealing your identity. There are many "phishing" scams, but the one I've noticed an upswing of is people pretending to be accepting applications for employment. You then fill out their forms on line and give them every single detail about yourself! Then you don't hear from them. Or you'll get an email thanking you and telling you the position was filled. You've just had your identity stolen!

Those are pretty much all the scams. Any thing else you think of would fall into one of those categories.

There are things that people think are scams but are not. Tricks and games, like pretending someone broke something of your's and shaming them into paying you for it. Or having someone steal your wallet, then the other guy brings it back for a "reward". But these aren't really scams, as they don't much require your participation. In the one case you are just being nice, in the other you are just being robbed.

Finally, there are things with a staggeringly low chance of success, but that are not technically scams or illegal. "Multi-level marketing" schemes like Amway or a million "corporations" on line. IF you can actually recruit a hundred people who each recruit a hundred who each recruit a hundred...I guess you'll make some money.

But as you won't actually be able to do that, you will have just paid all those starter fees and training fees and password access fees...for nothing. But as you could have made money, and some very, very, very, very few have, it's not quite a scam.

Any sales jobs are dice games, but multi-level marketing (Pyramid schemes) are far more dicier, as they don't depend on selling products as much as it depends on you selling other people on selling products.

The last non-scam scam is where someone sells you exactly what they said they were going to, but you just realize later it was kind of worthless or you could have got it elsewhere for cheaper or for free. This is the "snake oil" scam mentioned first - but while it feels like a scam and it's called a scam, if the information is technically accurate, or not provably false, it's not technically a crime.

Which is why the diet book industry is the largest "scam" in America, but is fully legal and never shut down. They are basically selling you either worthless nostrums or an elaborate way "eating right and exercising", things you could have done without reading them saying so in 100 pages of nonsense. Or my all time favorite weight loss scam, the "Magic weight loss ring"!

The magic ring worked - exactly as advertised. You see, the advertisement said that if you wore the ring and followed the instructions you would lose weight. Those who paid $20 got a cheap $2 ring and a set of "instructions" on how to...eat right and exercise!