RED CROSS TELEPHONE SCAM

Her husband was a military man assigned to the place of conflict in the Middle East. He was assigned there for 2 years. Letter of communication from him was her only relief from the worry she felt because of the nature of his work.

Her worry came true. She received a call from the representative of the Red Cross informing her of the bad news. Her husband was wounded in an ambush from the military operation they initiated. He was hospitalized in the medical center.

The hospital can’t pursue the surgical operation as they needed wife’s consent and to supply them also with the personal and financial information of her husband, the protocol they have to follow before the surgical operation to begin. There were lots of paper works to do and information to indicate.

Most often, the wife where in the state of shock and panic is in her blood in the period of her distress. She can no longer think properly. She readily give in to the pressure. She did not give the first initiative to verify. Her panic controlled her totally. She supplied the information without thinking of the consequence.

She was surprised when her husband called her, a few days later. She told him what happened and what she give to the representative of the Red Cross. Her husband immediately verify about the call but the Red Cross head denied they have the hand of it.

Her husband checked his account in the bank. Nothing left in his savings. He advised the bank to close his account telling the reason of his decision. His wife will open a new account (local) for him to transfer his salary every month.

What to Do

-Once you received a notice that brings bad news, remain calm and have an open mind so that you an think right what’s the best under this circumstances. If you panic, you no longer has control of your better judgment and easily give in to pressure.

-The scammer knew the weakness of the wives of military men. This is their specialty that we have to prevent to happen.

-Verify immediately the source of the news. Call the embassy (local or abroad) and ask them if there was an incident recorded to their office involving her husband. All workers working abroad were under their care. The news like this will be reported to them by the commander of the field.

-The Red Cross will never inform you about this. The embassy is the one to notify you about the bad news not the other agency.

-His hospitalization and emergency care is under their responsibility. All personnel wounded in whatever form will be attended to with dispatch without for any information that will trigger the surgical operation. No need to wait for the consent of the wife. It is an emergency they will do what is best to save him.

-The embassy never ask about personal information of the wounded. They already have the record of him in their database once he applied working abroad. The more they will not asked of his Social Security number or bank account details just to facilitate his treatment. They are empowered to do what is best to save his life.

-The Red Cross has hotline numbers. You can call them directly to inquire the bad news. You can also call the embassy for some information.

-Do not succumb to fear and be fooled to give all the personal information so easily. Contact the right person. If you are afraid, the more you can’t think straight.

PSYCHO SCAM

This kind of scam is not common to most people. There were few incident that has been recorded. One woman was in grief due to the loss of her loved ones in the space of 3 months, first her husband then her sister.

She believed in the reading of the tarot card. This superstitious act already rooted in her mind. Fortune-telling sometimes give relief to her troubles and comfort her of her sadness.

She consulted a fortune teller the reasons of the deaths of her husband and sister. Her face is new to her among the many fortune teller she known. She told her that the readings of the tarot cards told her about the curse that is tailing her due to her money. The woman is not too rich but she has the money, a beautiful house and car.

The fortune teller told her that there should be a purification ceremony to lift the curse of the money she has at home that is tailing her life. The cleansing rite will be done in silent place mostly in the cemetery for the fortune teller to concentrate deeply in the ceremony that she will do. It will be done midnight.

The victim consented to the instruction. Not all money she will brought to the purification ceremony but only portion of it but still enough. She brought the money inside her carry bag with only her and the fortune teller are there. According to the fortune teller, what has to be done is necessary for the protection of the family from bad luck.

In the dark corner of the cemetery, the fortune teller told the victim to wait quite a distance from the place of purification but not visible from the eyes of the victim. The fortune teller lighted 3 candles and started to chant some words very hard to understand. There was moaning she heard, then the chants continues.

It took few minutes until the surrounding is in total silence but the light of the candles still shine. She waited too long. She started to approach the place the fortune teller is making the ceremony but she was not there, the bag of money was not there also. She came to realize later she was being robbed. The chant and moaning she heard is just a trick as one of her scamming technique.

She shed in tears of dismay and frustration the manipulation done to her.

What to Do

-A good fortune teller will not cost much. If she asked unreasonable pay for her service, it will be a sign that she should consider to keep away from her.

-Too superstitious is not a right belief. There is no such thing as curse money. Her mind only played trick to deepen her understanding that it is true.

-Fortune telling was already in our society for a long time. What has been told or read can only be interpreted in two ways: it may be true or not, it may be good or bad, if it is true then well and good. If not, it is the saddest part. She only fooled you face to face.

-Her belief brought her bad luck not the money being told. She was careless and confused. It always has the price.

HOME IMPROVEMENT SCAM

We were always visited by natural calamities, flood especially typhoon. It is the hardest moment of our lives as we lost our home and most of our personal properties. Typhoon will not respect even how concrete the foundation of our home. We have to rebuild what has been lost. We have to make another small but decent house to live.

This is the moment the scam artist make his move. He knew that people that were hardest hit by typhoon were desperate. He started to manipulate the situation by offering help to repair or construct a house.

He posed as a contractor of the house. He will facilitate immediate repair of the house if agreed under his terms and conditions. He will supply experienced worker so that the construction is a good one.

He is not aware of contractor’s true intention. He desired to construct the house without further delay because they were temporarily sheltered in the sport center with government help.

The contractor gives his quotation for labor and materials. He can supply the materials taken from other sources. The contractor asked partial payment for labor and materials. The owner gave the initial amount without any doubt about him.

They agreed that the construction will start on certain date 5 days from the date of their agreement. But the contractor did not appear on the scheduled date. He can’t be found anywhere bringing with him the first payment in the construction of the house.

What to Do

-Work only with licensed contractor not a fly-by-night contractor roaming around the community looking for person to victimize.

-If anyone is trying to offer construction job and you don’t know him personally then investigate. Ask him about his credentials, the place where he lived, his work references and his license as a contractor of the house. If he is not, he can’t show you anything. If in doubt, personally verify his claim.

-A licensed contractor will not roam around. He has his own office, a company he led and men to handle. The bogus contractor worked alone, secretive and cautious of other men. Watch all this signs.

-Ask him to show you police clearance. You will know if he is clean or not.

-Do not immediately agree without taking initiative to verify his personal life.

-Saving cost of repair is useless if you only lost money more than you are trying to save. It may be costly to have licensed contractor but you are assured that your money will be in good hands.

ACCIDENT SCAM

You son is looking for job to the place he mentioned. Your son communicated to you through long distance call. He did not give his exact place of residence because he still looking for a job. You can’t contact him but he can easily contact you through paid telephone. Months had past but your son no longer called you. Your son has lapses not to inform you beforehand where he can be found and you did not ask him also about his address.

One fateful day, someone called you giving his name that your son met some sort of road accident telling you of his condition and the necessity of immediate hospitalization. Although the condition of your son is not serious but he needs money for his hospitalization, an initial deposit before his admittance to the hospital.

Temporarily, according to him he shouldered the initial deposit and requested you to send money as part of reimbursement. He asked further to send additional money your son needed while recuperating from his wound.

He gives his account number in the bank for you to transfer the money. He told you that he is the friend of your son and he knows whom to call per advice of your son.

The accident blurred your vision. You can’t think straight. You did not even asked him where he was now, what place he worked, what hospital he was admitted. Your too much worries leads you to give in easily to his call and send the money to the bank he mentioned.

You wanted to go to him but you have no enough money for the trip and it would entail delays before you can save enough. Your son needed immediate attention and it slipped into your mind to keep sane.

It is true that your son has friend in the working place. This may be the reason he knew your telephone number at home. But what you did not know is that there was no accident that happened. The friend of your son took advantage of your vulnerability.

You only know it a little when your son called you asking your situation. You are surprised to hear his voice and asked him about the accident he met. He told you he did not have any accident and asked who told her. You mentioned the name and he confirmed that he is his friend.

Another call from his son told her that Roger no longer in his rented room and took the money with him. You are fooled without your son’s knowledge because of your trust to a man you did not know.

For Your Protection:

-Don’t trust a call from other person you don’t know. Verify it first through your son. If it is not possible don’t give in. Try to reach him to the place where he worked or his residence in case he failed to answer your call or text.

-Keep your composure solid and strong. Don’t panic. You can’t think properly if you allow your emotion to control your action. If he can’t answer your call in quite a time then make the necessary action. This will give you time to know the truth but never give something in a second.

-Inform your son to take it private his mobile phone number or your telephone number or mobile phone number and never divulge to anyone.

-You can call his working place to ask about his whereabouts. As an employer they surely know where your son was most of time or call the landlady about him in his place of residence.

-All this information is helpful for you in case you want to reach him and inquire about his situation.

SOCIAL MEDIA SCAM

Social media is very popular in the internet. It was favorites to most teenagers to make friends, to communicate and make known in the social circle. They are very popular in winning thousand members in their fold.

They participated in discussion, make comments, upload and download pictures of interest. They can even upload videos of any kind as long as it can win interest from others.

Many youngsters are addicted to it giving many hours in front of the computer spending money for internet load for the purpose of socializing himself.

Not all social media are honest to their intention. This owner of the site has one purpose to get your personal information for their advantage.

It allows him access to harvest any information of value in your computer he can use against you. Social media is only a front for information gathering. Fooling people give him the excitement. The risky part is that all your personal information is already in his table.

The curiosity of the victim to click the link makes it possible for scam artist to fool him. Sometimes a catchy phrase and other interesting features like fantastic computer applications to download to his computer lead him to be fooled, the trick that often gets favorable result.

Be cautious dealing with suspicious social media sites before joining them.

For your protection do the following:

-Think twice before making any download especially a site not known to many.

-Give enough protection to your computer. There are many paid protections against viruses, spyware or malware you can depend on to block any malicious application.

-Take caution of any offered computer application especially if you have doubts. Control your fingers to click to any programs you don’t know.

-Don’t be too happy to click a link. Most malicious programs originate from clicking a link.

-Never divulge your log-in information or password to anyone if they asked.

-Don’t immediately act to a friend request to make friends. How strong is your belief to trust him? How long did you know him?

-Make your page private where your true known friends can only view whatever the contents of your page.

-Don’t entertain any messages in your social media page asking financial assistance from someone you don’t know.

-It is better if you will not divulge completely your personal information details. You can use another pen name hard for them to recognize your true identity. It is not of your advantage if they will use your name making something illegal in your behalf. Beware publishing your picture in the social media site they might use against you.