So Many Scams; So Little Credability

We have all been bombarded by scams but they seem to be becoming more unbelievable and more frequent just lately.

Of course, there has always been the Nigerian Scam in its many guises and it has always been remarkably successful mainly because it taps into people's greed.  But we are getting a new type which tries to scare us in one form or another.

Firstly there was the Microsoft Scam where people would receive a phonecall, supposedly from a Microsoft Technician who announced that there was something nasty in their computer and all we had to do was to allow him "remote access" to put everything right.  Ouch!

Then came the short-lived Telstra scam which I never bothered to listen to as Telstra is not my internet provider and I had better things to do with my time.  Obviously that was not very successful as it was only up and running for a short time but was probably a variation of the Microsoft Scam.

A scary one was the Taxation scam and I understand that the perpetrators of that one between them garnered  about $1,000,000 from terrified pensioners who thought that they were in trouble with the Tax Department and were told to either turn up at an address, presumably the Tax Department, with a lawyer  -  or pay the tax owed to the caller's organisation.

A couple of days ago I received a notice that I had been photographed infringing the traffic code and that I could check out the photo at an email link which I didn't open and which would tell me where to pay the fine of $AU4.73.  This was naïve on two counts:  firstly the fine would have been more like $100.00 and the loss of some demerit points and secondly I have not owned a car for at least three years.

I was given 24 hours to pay the fine:

You have been registered with a rule violation:
Reason: negligent driving
Registered No: 143570442
Date of infringement: 23/10/2016
Amount due: 004.73 AUD
This fine will be forwarded by mail to your address. However you can screen it now, please press here  Photo Proof - xxxxxxxxxx

The IP was  ekonisenerji.com which is Turkish.



Then last night a friend emailed me to ask where to report a scam which she had just received:-

"The sum of $13,781.80 has been deposited into your commissions account.
                                                Tell us where to send your check."

The same inept use of English and probably from the same organisation.  Unlike the Nigerian scam I doubt if many people will fall for this one but it is a bit of fun.