Here are a few of the worst scams still out there!
10 - “Real” Televangelists On any given Sunday morning, you can turn
on the TV to find a number of different televangelists preaching the gospel.
More importantly, they’re asking you to give back to God...with your money.
Is there one Televangelist out there that’s NOT living rich?
Without a doubt, one of the biggest televangelists out there is Kenneth Copeland along with his
wife Gloria Copeland.
Together this unsavory pair of supposed Christians have extracted MILLIONS of dollars from their
international congregation!
Currently, it’s a tough time for most people in the US, and around the world in general
because people haven’t been working.
This couple told their followers that losing their jobs just because of what was going
on was no excuse to not donate to the church!
But we don't want to single out the Copeland's, as there is no shortage of sleazy televangelists.
Creflo Dollar asked his followers to pay for a 65 million dollar jet.
Texas Pastor, Joel Olsteen, has been reported to have a net worth of 50 million dollars.
Somehow, Olsteen couldn't find room in his 16,000 seat megachurch to house hurricane
victims during Hurricane Harvey back in 2017!
In South Carolina, another televangelist named John Gray Bought himself a Lamborghini because
he said it was what God wanted for him and his wife.
But really, how do these preachers dupe thousands of people into giving them money?
They often preached what’s known as the Prosperity Gospel.
That’s a Doctrine that claims that if you give to God, you’ll also receive blessings
from God.
Obviously, these guys are the ones that reap from that benefit and they’re fleecing their
sheep!
9 - Fake IRS Agent Tax season can be stressful enough without
an army of scammers trying to swindle you out of your tax returns!
One of the most common scams that people fall for involves fake IRS agents attempting to
steal sensitive information from people like you and me.
These scammers pose as real IRS agents by forging badge numbers or even giving real
badge numbers to appear legitimate.
The con is pretty simple.
These scammers will contact you via phone, text, or email threatening you with jail time
or severe legal penalties if you don’t provide immediate payment.
They’ll make up some claim that you owe money for back taxes or another popular one
right now are penalties related to the Affordable Care Act.
Then they’ll make up some ridiculous interest charges as well, unless you pay right now.
Some scammers have gotten so sophisticated that they have almost indistinguishable websites
from the IRS to steal your information!
One major sign that you’re a victim is if your tax return is rejected when you try to
file it.
This could happen if someone has already filed a fake return using your social security number
in order to claim a fraudulent refund!
The current scam right now relates to stimulus payments the IRS is about to give to US citizens.
Most Americans will get their checks through a direct deposit.
But for those people who didn’t pay their taxes electronically, they’ll get their
stimulus check through the mail.
Scammers will try and have people sign over checks in order to have you "verify" payment
details!
8 - Fake Prince Now we’re at the good ol’ fake Prince
scams, a hustle so old that there’s almost no way you haven’t heard of one!
In these scenarios, here’s the “too long didn’t read” situation.
A person usually claims to be of royal descent and then requests loans or Investments with
the promise of high returns.
The most famous of these is the Nigerian prince scam.
In this scam, the victim is contacted most often through email by a Nigerian prince or
Nigerian government official.
They claim that they need a small amount of money to gain access to millions of dollars
to their United States bank accounts.
Obviously, once anyone is duped into sending any money, they never see that money again.
Ever wonder why those emails are filled with bad grammar and typos?
It’s actually done on purpose in order to filter out people who WON’T fall for these
scams!
However, there are way more sophisticated fake prince scams.
A scammer named Anthony Gignac posed as a Saudi Arabian oil prince to con millionaire
investors into giving him roughly eight million dollars!
Gignac promised these investors a stake in his Oil Company, Saudi Aramco, one of the
largest oil companies in the world.
Who wouldn’t want in on that oil money?!
Saudi Aramco eventually did go public in December 2019 at a valuation over $1.8 TRILLION dollars,
making it the world’s most valuable public company.
These investors were led to believe that they would receive a discount on shares of the
company prior to the initial public offering.
Gignac then used these multimillion-dollar Investments to reinforce his fake stature
as a prince.
He would often stay in luxury hotels and drive exotic cars to lead people to believe that
he was in fact as wealthy as he claimed.
Too bad for these guys, Gignac was a lifelong con artist and a Colombian American immigrant.
The Department of Justice eventually reeled in Gignac and sentenced him to 18 years in
federal prison.
Amazingly, it was revealed that he had been running these types of Saudi Prince scam since
1988!
7 - Fake debt Earlier we mentioned fake IRS scams.
Similar to these scams are fake debt collection scams.
These con artists use almost identical tactics to separate hard working innocent people out
of their hard-earned money.
It’s common knowledge that credit card companies hire 3rd party debt collectors to handle overdue
& closed accounts.
Scammers use this to their advantage by posing as collection companies to get your payment
information.
These scams are all over the place!
Here are a few telltale signs that you’re talking to a con artist rather than a legitimate
company.
More than likely, these scammers will threaten you with jail time or further Financial penalties
for not settling the debt immediately.
They’ll also withhold vital Information, such as the name of the original creditor.
Real debt collectors are legally obligated to disclose this information to you.
If they refuse to do so or you don't recognize the original creditor then you’re likely
speaking to a scammer.
One of the most common forms of payment will be a prepaid debit card or a money transfer.
Legitimate debt collection companies would never ask you to pay this way.
One of the dirty tactics that these Swindlers employ is the threat of harassing close friends
and family members.
But, some less than reputable debt collection companies have been accused of using these
tactics.
But realistically, if some debt collector makes these threats, they’re most likely
a scammer.
6 - Fake Tech support Another form of telephone fraud is the tech
support scam.
This scam usually targets seniors, because for whatever the reason, they’re the least
tech savvy.
And to anyone that’s not good with computers, viruses and malware are scary.
Tech support scammers aim to exploit that fear, and offer a fake solution.
In this con, the criminal will contact you claiming that there’s some sort of security
issue with your computer.
These tech support scammers will claim to be some tech at a reputable company and say
that they’ve found malware on your computer.
Once they give you a lengthy explanation of how and why your information is at risk, then
they’ll ask you to provide remote access to your computer.
Once they get access to your computer, then they’ll attempt to install some sort of
malware or phishing software to record your sensitive information over time.
In some cases, they’ll ask you to pay a one-time refundable fee for their Technical
Support.
Obviously, all sorts of weird charges will start popping up!
Another version of the scam involves pop-up ads on unsecured websites.
These ads will often look like real alerts and claim that your computer is at risk.
And that’s why a lot of senior citizens will fall for these claims!
The truth is, initiation for tech support always has to be initiated by the end user.
5 - Guardianship scam Age comes for us all and when it does, we
can only hope that we have someone trustworthy to look after us.
In the case of guardianship scams, the victims get quite the opposite.
When an individual reaches an age where their competency is lacking, the state may assign
them a legal guardian.
This guardian is tasked with handling an elder person's day to day affairs.
With this responsibility comes complete access to the disabled person's financial information.
The Guardian is supposed to use this power to do such things as paying bills and expenses.
But with that much power over someone that doesn’t know what’s going on, corruption
comes easily!
In many cases, guardians take advantage of their clients' disabilities to make purchases
that are beneficial to them.
One of the most famous cases involves a guardian by the name of April Parks.
Parks had made a career of scamming disabled clients out of their money.
She would take her potential clients to a single doctor's appointment in order to obtain
a diagnosis of mental incompetence.
She would then take this doctor's note to a judge who would grant Parks emergency control
over her targets.
After she becomes their guardian, she then begins selling her client's belongings!
She would start having her doctor who is on the scam to have her clients placed on heavy
sedatives.
From there she would go on to abuse her access to their bank information!
There are a lot of other ways guardians can scam their clients.
Sometimes crooked lawyers will make themselves a guardian as well.
In one particular case, a lawyer guardian once took a birthday cake to one of his clients.
And he charged her $850 dollars for that visit.
On another occasion, he later took her out for ice cream, and he charged her $1,275 for
a single cone!
At least for the case involving April Parks, there’s a happy result.
She pleaded guilty in court, and she was sentenced to serve 16 to 40 years in prison and pay
more than half a million dollars in restitution!
Maybe she’ll attempt an escape.
Kind of like those guys from Alcatraz!
Find out more about their escape here!
4 - Fake Romance Romance scams are one of scammers' favorites.
That’s because for some guys, no matter how unlikely the situation is, when they get
female attention, they don’t think with their right head!
Let’s take Tinder for example.
This con is simple enough, but you’d be surprised at how many guys get duped into
it.
Fake accounts will often start with a friendly conversation at first.
After a few responses, a bot will attempt to direct you to a third-party website outside
of the app.
Obviously, these are just a ploy to get credit card information.
And for one reason or another guys will do it just for some pictures.
Sometimes it IS a real girl with paypal or Venmo info.
And then they just stop responding or just unmatch.
Another tactic is just flat-out blackmail.
The user will engage in a conversation with you in an attempt to get let’s just call
them, extra “personal photos” of you.
Once they have these photos of you in compromising positions, they’ll then threaten to use
it against you.
For example, they may threaten to send those photos to your employer or your friends if
they don’t receive immediate payment.
Yeah, let’s not get in THAT situation!
3 - Fake Monks When you think of a Buddhist monk the words
virtuous and honorable might come to mind.
But as with any religion, there are gonna be a few scam artists in the bunch!
And this guy Is definitely someone that you don't want to let in your temple!
How many monks do you know fly in private jets sporting a Louis Vuitton bag, wireless
headphones, as well as a pair of what looks to be designer sunglasses?
If you see any monks doing this, you know they’re definitely scam artists!
These guys show up on YouTube, and their video gained so much notoriety that the Thailand
department of special investigations and the office of national Buddhism opened an inquiry
into their lavish lifestyle.
People posing as monks in order to scam people out of money is a big thing in Asia.
The results of the Department's investigation would stun the entire Buddhist community.
These guys became the center of a money-laundering investigation which revealed that one of them
was accepting public donations through FORTY-ONE different bank accounts!
One of them was also married.
That’s obviously a direct violation of being a monk.
All monks are required to take a vow of celibacy while being part of the community.
And if THAT wasn’t enough, they also found him having affairs with seven other women!
The lead investigator went on to claim that this guy named Pu Nenkham owned 13 cars and
motorbikes, along with 2 houses.
And it was all paid for with misappropriated funds.
Pu Nenkham fled to Europe and was on the run for three years before he was FINALLY apprehended
in the US in 2016!
2 - COVID Scams Currently, one of the worst scams possible
is someone posing as a healthcare professional doing fake COVID testing!
Scammers are charging as much 240 dollars for a test that doesn’t give any actual
results, AND they’re stealing personal information such as social security numbers and credit
card numbers.
These scammers will set up makeshift testing sites outside various churches with workers
dressed head to toe in hazmat gear in order to attract attention.
What’s even worse is that typically these scammers are wearing the SAME gloves from
person to person, and they’re further contributing to the current problem!
One known scam was set up in the middle of Louisville in Kentucky.
It’s not just testing either.
It’s gone down to disinfectants and sanitizers as well.
The Environmental Protection Agency has threatened legal action against retailers that sell unregistered
disinfectants and sanitizers that falsely claim to protect against the virus!
But okay, maybe the worst is hoarding personal protective gear to sell at a giant markup
for healthcare professionals.
And although this technically isn’t a scam, we just can’t help but point out how scummy
this practice is.
Does it get any lower to intentionally hoard and raise prices astronomically for essential
items healthcare professionals need in order to perform their jobs during a time of crisis?
1 - Fake Fedex It's a great feeling to know that your package
has finally arrived.
But what about getting a text about a package that you have no clue about?
It didn't take long for scammers to exploit text message tracking to try and steal your
credit card information!
These scams are exceedingly deceptive because a lot of times it includes your actual name
and address.
Scammers will send a text message with a fake shipment tracking code and a link to update
your delivery preferences.
However, the link will end up sending you to a fake Amazon satisfaction survey.
After answering some questions, you’re asked for a credit card number to claim a free product.
If you’re in doubt about a tracking number, go to the main website of any shipping company
and search the tracking number yourself.
Watch this next video to learn about The Untold Truth About the Escape From Alcatraz!