Scams and Cons Trivia Quiz

Answer: Advance fee scam

Advance fee fraud or 419 scams (419 refers to the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with these scams) involve the victim continuing to pay fees or costs before the supposed funds can be released. These sort of scams are related to the "Spanish prisoner scam", first conducted in the late 16th century.

This con revolved around the victim being told that a wealthy man was being held in a Spanish prison under a false name and could only be released if certain bribes and fees were paid. The prisoner would be most grateful when released and repay all fees plus a generous reward. Of course neither the prisoner nor the reward existed!

Answer: Romance scam

Scammers often pose as people looking for love and target people in chat rooms or on dating sites. They use photos of attractive people stolen from the internet and will usually fall in 'love' with the victim quite rapidly. Once they believe that their victim is 'hooked', the scammer will ask for money to be sent for help paying household bills, caring for a sick relative, payment for airfare or visa to visit the victim. The list is endless.

Answer: Cease all contact immediately

If you believe that you are in contact with a scammer the best advice is to stop all contact IMMEDIATELY. These people are criminals and probably have some of your personal details and will not hesitate to use them.

Answer: Overpayment fraud

When selling items online sellers should be wary of buyers who do not ask questions about condition or warranty, especially of high price used goods. If a buyer offers to pay more than the item price and asks you to send the excess to a courier or other third party, it is a SCAM! The payment you have received will either be a fake cheque or the electronic payment will be reversed and you will have been defrauded of the overpayment amount you have sent to the third party.

Answer: Rental scam

This type of scam is prevalent around university campuses, targeting students who are often naïve and in a hurry to find accommodation. These scams use pictures stolen from real estate websites. A genuine agent or landlord would be able to arrange a property inspection before renting. Never send any money before seeing that the property is genuine.

Answer: Money mule

Money mules are recruited to transfer money from victims of online fraud from sites such as eBay and Craigslist. The mule receives the proceeds and transfers it to the scammer, thereby hiding the scammer's true identity and also removing the possibility of the transaction being reversed. By using wire transfer services such as Western Union or MoneyGram the scammer is also able to make the transaction untraceable and irrecoverable.

As money mules are involved in criminal activity they are also liable to prosecution.

Answer: Ponzi scheme

This scheme is named after Charles Ponzi, a businessman who operated the scheme in the USA and Canada in the 1920s. Bernard Madoff operated a massive ponzi scheme from the 1980s until 2008, leaving investors approximately $18 billion worse off.

Answer: Escrow scam

Legimate ads are often hacked. When you reply the vendor tells you the car is cheap for quick sale ... Sometimes he will offer to meet you in your country, other times he has relocated to France/Spain/Norway or wherever and he no longer wants right-hand drive. Either way he will ask you to pay in advance to save him a needless journey/cost of shipping the vehicle. Your payment will be held by a third party ('escrow') until you approve the vehicle. Of course you'll never see your vehicle, or your money.

Remember: if something looks too good to be true ...

Answer: Identity theft/phishing

"Phishing" involves scammers sending large amounts of emails to victims in the hope that they will click on the link to a fake site asking the victim to login.

The best way to protect against this sort of fraud is to enter your bank's web address manually or from your favourites.

Answer: Stranded traveller scam

This scam is particularly tricky because it comes from the email address of a friend or aquaintance whose email account has been hacked. The hacker sends out the 'stranded traveller' email from the account and deletes the contents of the address book, so the account holder can't warn anyone.