Articles

A cartoon criminal stealing money and important information.

Advanced Fee Scam

Type: Email

Have you been contacted by a Nigerian prince? Has a dying widow offered you an inheritance of millions of dollars? Did the United Nations email you about a generous fund? These are all examples of advanced fee scams (also known as 419 scams, because 419 refers to Nigerian Code dealing with fraud). Advanced fee scams have been around for decades and can be traced back to the early 1900's. They have evolved from using mail and fax to using email as the primary delivery mechanism for the scam. Adva... Read More

A person on a laptop on a suspicious phone call.

Refund Scam

Type: Phone, Computer

Phone and computer scams are among the most common scams today. The refund scam (also sometimes referred to as the overpayment scam) is both a computer and a phone scam, the scammer will use both of these tools in order to scam their victim. The refund scam can be considered a type of tech support scam. The scammers often impersonate tech support from companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, and eBay. These scammers usually prey upon victims who don’t know a lot about technology; however, anyone ca... Read More

A pyramid scheme structure with those at the top making a lot and those at the bottom making less and less.

Multi-level Marketing

Type: Business opportunity

Multi-level marketing, also referred to as network marketing or simply MLM for short, has been around for decades. Have you ever been contacted out of the blue by a friend who claimed that you would be perfect for an opportunity they have? If you have ever received a "cold message" like that, it most likely had to do with an MLM. MLMs are often compared to pyramid schemes, so in order to understand how MLMs work it would be best to understand what pyramid schemes are and the difference between t... Read More

Someone trying to give money to a fake guru, but their wallet is empty.

Fake Gurus

Type: Business opportunity, Get rich quick scheme

You have may have seen advertisements (especially video advertisements) talking about the new way to make easy riches. It may talk about something like drop shipping, high-ticket sales, selling on Amazon, or something similar. It will often say how easy it is and that it only takes minutes a day. Then it will proceed to say that you can make thousands of dollars a month using this method. Often times they will have testimonials of people who claim they have made a large amount of money in just o... Read More