The most apparent highlight of Advance Fee scams is the victim’s anticipation of receiving something of much greater value, such as a contract, gift, investment, loan, monies, product or service for little or no cost. In reality, the victim receives little or nothing in return for their money spent.
Features that all Advance Fee scams have in common are:
- The offers are unsolicited meaning that you, the prospective victim, are contacted at random by the scammers through mail, email, telephone or online at legitimate chatrooms, legitimate employee seeking websites or any online social gathering.
- The offers include a great urgency to complete the deal as soon as possible.
- The offers include a high degree of confidentiality so you will not mention the deal to someone who will recognize the offer as a scam.
- You, the victim, are logically convinced that you must pay money before you can receive the expected service, product or exorbitant amount of monies that doesn’t materialize. This money requested can be labeled as a fee, a service fee, a processing fee, taxes, a service charge, a processing charge.
- Various examples of Advance Fee scams include:
The only thing accomplished with Advance Fee scams is that you give your money to the scammers and you are still trying to accomplish the same goal but now with less money.
Religious organizations should be skeptical about prospective new members who want to donate large sums but can’t access the monies because someone in control (a government, an individual, tax collector, a company, an executor) need to receive a comparatively small fee (registration, processing charge, service charge, or taxes) compared to the promised donation. Whether this fee is a few dollars or a few thousand dollars, the religious organization will not receive the promised donation and has already lost the monies paid.
Notices of winning lotteries in another country are Advance Fee scams. When a response is given to the initial notice, the victim (the respondent) is told they must pay some charge (taxes, a processing fee, service charge) before they can qualify to receive the winnings. Victims don’t receive the promised winnings and have lost the monies they paid.
Legitimate credit repair companies do not charge an up-front fee. They also can’t remove bad information from a credit history file. In fact, any information that is accurate – good or bad – remains in the credit history for a specified time period according to the law that applies. A company can’t provide you with a different Social Security number or Employer Identification number. This is illegal. You can’t erase accurate information by simply using a different number. Remember that in the USA you are responsible for any fraud committed in your name even if you did not know it was against the law.
Be aware of the lender who isn’t interested in your credit history. Legitimate lenders confirm information contained in your application. They do charge fees but the fees are paid from the monies borrowed after the loan has been approved. Legitimate lenders do not have a need to hide fees and charges. Illegitimate lenders use your personal information such as social security number and bank account information to remove monies from your accounts under the guise of more hidden fees. Also be sure the lender is registered in the USA state where they are doing business by contacting the state Financial Regulation agency. And remember that legitimate businesses always request monies be sent to the company, never an individual. If you have been the victim of an advance fee scam, you can file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. For a review of how to recognize the majority of scams, read this article.