Earlier this week I talked to a professor an friend, a true smart cookie you could say. He showed me a letter and asked me what I thought of it. I guess the recent scandals like Madoff has made us all a bit more careful about promises that sound too good to be true. Pumping lots of money in some of these great investment schemes is being approached with utmost care.
But scam artists understand all this all too well. I guess with spamming laws tightening up all over the place, they apparently are giving snail mail a second go. The letter spoke of a business opportunity and was apparently aimed at those that would not mind giving a small investment a go. For an "investment" of only $199 you were promised to make around $250,000 in a matter of weeks and around $750,000 or even more in a matter months.
All you needed to do was sending money to a list of strangers on a list and add your name at the bottom of the list: the all too familiar chain letter concept. By adding your name to the list other strangers would start sending you money! That sounds all to easy and familiar doesn't it.
Well here is the issue, it is an illegal chain letter and pyramid scheme. Moreover it is ILLEGAL and regardless of that, the only ones that will be making money are the ones that started it. The way for you to make money from it is to send that lame business opportunity pitch to all your contacts, friends and family to get them to send you $199.
RING!!!!!!!!! REALITY CHECK!
Send your money and you will lose it. In addition to that consider that while most of your contacts will probably just delete the message, some are a bit more vigilant about spam and may very well report you and ultimately your internet access could be suspended or even revoked. You will look like a fool to all your contacts and some may even consider you to be a scam artist yourself. And for what, because you thought in all foolishness that this was going to work. At the very worst you may be prosecuted as in many jurisdictions chain letters and pyramid schemes are defined as an illegal, criminal practice.
It would be great to think that you will not fall for such an obvious scam but the sad truth is that thousands of people lose millions of dollars on these schemes every year. Yo make sure you are not one of them.
This does not just sound too good to be true: it is!
But scam artists understand all this all too well. I guess with spamming laws tightening up all over the place, they apparently are giving snail mail a second go. The letter spoke of a business opportunity and was apparently aimed at those that would not mind giving a small investment a go. For an "investment" of only $199 you were promised to make around $250,000 in a matter of weeks and around $750,000 or even more in a matter months.
All you needed to do was sending money to a list of strangers on a list and add your name at the bottom of the list: the all too familiar chain letter concept. By adding your name to the list other strangers would start sending you money! That sounds all to easy and familiar doesn't it.
Well here is the issue, it is an illegal chain letter and pyramid scheme. Moreover it is ILLEGAL and regardless of that, the only ones that will be making money are the ones that started it. The way for you to make money from it is to send that lame business opportunity pitch to all your contacts, friends and family to get them to send you $199.
RING!!!!!!!!! REALITY CHECK!
Send your money and you will lose it. In addition to that consider that while most of your contacts will probably just delete the message, some are a bit more vigilant about spam and may very well report you and ultimately your internet access could be suspended or even revoked. You will look like a fool to all your contacts and some may even consider you to be a scam artist yourself. And for what, because you thought in all foolishness that this was going to work. At the very worst you may be prosecuted as in many jurisdictions chain letters and pyramid schemes are defined as an illegal, criminal practice.
It would be great to think that you will not fall for such an obvious scam but the sad truth is that thousands of people lose millions of dollars on these schemes every year. Yo make sure you are not one of them.
This does not just sound too good to be true: it is!
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