From the 1500’s on there has been a scam that has proven very lucrative for thieves and has left thousand of victims destitute. It’s called the Spanish Prisoner due to its origins. It seems that back then Spain was a constant threat to many countries resulting in much mistrust. “Marks,” or victims, would be notified that a royal person was being held prisoner and to set them free would require bribes. In exchange the victim would receive not only a generous reward, but also the hand of the princess in marriage.
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.
There are many different types of this con, but they still exist today. The con man preys on the secrecy and urgency of the matter to speed things along before the mark can consider their actions. People want to not only help people out, they want to be made rich for their effort, and it’s that opinion that scammers prey upon. Additional amounts of money are taken from these marks. The mark keeps putting in more money, because they still hold on to the idea that they’ll get their money back, but they won’t.
One of the most common forms today is called the advanced fee fraud, also known as the 419 fraud. With the Internet this has become easier than ever. Not only can names be pulled from email headers, but the last name can often be determined from that information. The result is a conman often claims they are a relative and has the name to prove it.
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 phonelookupagent.com/302/381/ 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.
Besides using telephone look-up services, there are several other safeguards available to guard against being scammed. The easiest is simply to delete any e-mails sent by unfamiliar people. If the e-mail is even opened, the sender can access the opener’s address book with a single click of a button. They are assured of ultimately finding a patsy when someone opens their e-mail.
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 minuscule 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 help hopefully this epidemic will end soon.
Please go to phonelookupagent.com/205/290/ if you want to find out more about reverse phone lookup services online