Article by Charlie Wright
I hope this email will find you in the best of health.
I am Prince Joe Eboh, the Chairman of the “Contract Award Committee”, of the “Nigerian Delta Development Commission (NDDC)”, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
I am looking for someone to transfer monies…
SORRY!
Sorry about that. I am not Prince Joe Eboh.
It’s me, Charlie, honest.
Of course, you know all about the Nigerian Scam thing by now. It’s old hat.
But the scam artists are changing their tack all the time.
Recently, there’s been a spate of Lottery email scams. I’ve been digging around for more info on them and I found a sample copy of their attempts.
Make sure you ignore emails that begin this way:
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You Have Won 710,000 Pounds Sterling
Our Dear Winner,
You have won the sum of £710,000 (SEVEN HUNDRED AND TEN THOUSAND,POUNDS STERLING ) from BRITISH LOTTERY on our 2007 new year charity bonanza.
The winning ticket was selected from a Data Base of Internet Email Users, from which your Address came out as the winning coupon.
——————————————–
Or this:
——————————————
Attention: Sir/Madam,
RE: Award Notification
We are pleased to inform you of the announcement today, 22th April 2006, of winners of the UK Lotto / International Programs held on 17TH JAN 2006 as part of our beginning of year bonanza.
You or your company, attached to ticket number 1416-4612-750, with serial number 3187-17 drew the lucky numbers 31-17-8-28-55, and consequently won the lottery in the “A” category.
——————————————
The most recent email scam was exposed in a News Release issued by The Government News Network last Thursday.
“A new email scam has arrived and it’s more plausible than many because it uses the names of two charities. It claims to be run in conjunction with the British Red Cross and Action Against Hunger UK – which is news to both these charities.
“The scam tells recipients they’ve won half a million pounds and then requests personal details so it can award their ‘prize’. Needless to say, callers are asked for a sizeable amount of cash up front before the ‘prize’ can be processed.”
One to delete immediately.
Watch out for El Gordo
Another recent scam comes courtesy of the Spanish lottery.
UK residents are getting mailings telling them that they’ve won the Spanish lottery.
In order to claim their ‘prize’ you’re asked to provide you bank account details and told that 5-10% of the winnings will be retained for costs.
So watch out for fraudsters using the name “El Gordo” or claiming to be from the Spanish Lottery.
Okay, that’s enough of Charlie The Consumer Rights Champion.
Back to the biz opps.
But what’s this? Another scam?
A timely warning from a reader
If you’ve heard from someone called Sebastian Foss, offering you the chance to earn part time money running surveys for companies…
‘”I took him up on one where he states a money back guarantee”, says my reader.
“It is a list of companies to sign up with for surveys. They’re supposed to earn you between 100 and 500 dollars per day.”
“I tried signing up to these companies only to find you have to reside in the United States and in some cases a specified state.”
“This was not mentioned in the sales blurb. If it had I obviously would not have signed up being a UK resident. I therefore requested a refund from our Mr Foss only to hit a wall of silence.”
“To rub it in, until I stopped it he was still sending me further biz-opps! Please tell your readers to beware.”
‘Tis done.
One a slightly more positive note…
“60 Minute” Money
You may have seen a website called “60 Minute Money.”
It offers to show you how to earn up to £500- £2,100/month part time. Or create the option to develop a full time career income of up to £5,000 or more per month.
There’s not much detail on the page, you have to enter your email address to go on.
But I’ll give you a shortcut.
“60 minute Money” is actually the opportunity to market Herbalife’s weight loss products. It’s no scam. The products are real and the company has been going for quite a few years.
The idea is that you get trained to sell their stock, but you have to pay out a large amount of money – a couple of grand – to buy that stock. And you must be prepared to work hard at selling it. That means putting in the hours, talking to people and selling over the phone.
If you don’t, you could end up with a pile of stock you can’t sell. In that case, you’ll be well out of pocket.
To go for the bigger money, you need to go to loads of meetings and seminars for training and networking. Which all sounds very glamorous, but all these costs are yours, and they can mount up. I read about one guy who finished the first year £20,000 in debt.
That said, if you have a good sales infrastructure already, with contacts, lists and some experience, this could be a goer.
Just don’t think that it’s easy money. Not that anything ever really is, in truth.
Let’s be realistic
If anybody could really create money out of thin air, and then passed on that information to the public, the global economy would collapse.
I mean, who would CHOOSE to work in a chicken-plucking factory when they could be dancing the fandango in Rio De Janeiro?
In my view, we should be realistic. Let’s look for fun, easy ways to work part-time for money, without taking any crap off anyone… and doing something we enjoy.
If you enjoy selling weight loss products, then do it. If you don’t enjoy selling stuff like that, don’t fall for the big money promise. Instead, find something that suits you.
With the right kind of home business, you will still have to do some work, but it should never FEEL like work.