This particular scam has its origins in the 1500s, where thieves took advantage of many victims and left them without any money. Due to how it started, it’s known as the Spanish Prisoner. Apparently, the powerful nature of Spain left it with a lot of enemies, leaving suspicions high. Scammers would tell victims that a member of Spanish royalty had been taken prisoner, and bribes would be required to release them. By offering their money to release the reward, not only would they be promised large rewards, but a princess would be offered as well.
The con man had already researched to be sure the quarry was wealthy but gullible, and to be able to present a convincing story. The hustler must be able to persuade the individual to cooperate and provide the money, without letting him know that he is being taken.
This type of confidence game continues today, but can take various forms. As always it relies on confidentiality, mystery, and a feeling that a great deal is at stake. They play on the fact that, at heart, people want to save the world and come out financially well-off in the process. As the con continues, more and more money is harvested. Eventually the mark has invested so much they can’t pull out without risking losing it all, which they do in the end anyway.
The 419 fraud, or the advance fee fraud, is but one form of this extremely popular scam. The Internet has made scamming a very easy business. You can get access to people’s email addresses easily enough, and even find their last name with the right sources. With this information, you can pretend to be a relative with the same last name as them.
When you contact them over the Internet, you tend to follow up with a call that explains the detailed situation. Since you’ll be using the phone, consult a telephone look-up service like ip-hunter.com/46/index.phtml which can help you to figure out whether or not their claims are legitimate. The Spanish Prisoner con is the basis for the majority of today’s scams, with plenty of alterations.
The advance free fraud is another variation with a lot of offshoots, where the basis is that the mark has to pay the scammer money to theoretically get money. People who have too much trust for things they read online have been duped by the lottery email, work from home, reshipping, employment, overpayment, and romance scams, leaving them destitute because they believed a lie.
There are many other ways to protect one self from scammers besides using telephone look-up services like the one previously mentioned. One is to delete any emails which come from unknown parties. It’s important to remember that once opened, scammers can gain access to an entire address book with the touch of a button. With enough persistence eventually they will hit a soft mark and it all starts with one person opening an unknown email.
If an email is inadvertently opened, scanning it quickly for poor spelling and grammar as well as any “hook” or free things a person might get just by sending a miniscule amount or opening a checking account that contains no money at all, should be questioned. Unfortunately, there are no international Internet police, however, agencies in many countries are trying to identify these groups and shut them down with the help of those who are tired of being fleeced. With everyone’s help hopefully this epidemic will end soon.
To find out more about telephone look ups that allow to track scammers, go to ip-hunter.com/45/index.phtml