How To Protect Yourself - Scams and Cons Explained

Protecting Your Financial Health

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Learn about scams before they happen. While we cannot offer legal advice we can teach and inform so you know what to watch for. Collection offers may sound valid, but companies want your money and may promise to help. This is your online scam, fraud and con prevention center

On these pages we tell you the truth about settlements scams, debt collector scams, false promises, and how companies later claim "There is no record of that conversation", and how to prevent future frustration

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The FBI says types of public corruption include:

Law Enforcement corruption at the state or local level typically involves the payment of bribes or kickbacks in exchange for official actions or inaction. It also includes any violation of law not necessarily connected to the official duties of law enforcement personnel.

Legislative corruption at the state or local level usually involves payment of bribes or kickbacks in exchange for official action or inaction. These bribes or kickbacks can be received by the legislators themselves, by aides, by staff persons, and/or by outside parties doing business with the government.

Municipal corruption involves illegal activities similar to legislative corruption. Common corruption schemes at a local level include bribes or kickbacks in exchange for: supporting local ordinances, approving local government bond issuance, reducing taxes unlawfully, fraudulently manipulating probate assets, and conspiring with others to rezone property or to influence land-use proposals.

Judicial corruption typically arises out of the corrupt influencing of state or local judges, juries, or court personnel (clerks, bailiffs, probation officials, and other administrative staff). Common corrupt schemes include: payments to judiciary personnel in exchange for dismissal of charges; reduction of charges, bonds, or sentences; waiver of fines; return of forfeitable property; and favorable probation conditions.

Contract corruption usually involves the payment of bribes or kickbacks to local or state officials in exchange for favorable treatment on government contracts. Potential subjects are private contractors, anyone acting on their behalf, and public officials involved in the contracting process (procurement officers, purchasing agents, city councilpersons, and county commissioners).

Regulatory corruption involves payment to local, state, or federal officials in exchange for favorable action or inaction pertaining to identification documents, licensing, and inspection and zoning variances. Unlawful payments are commonly known as bribes and kickbacks.

Prison corruption involves corrections officers taking unlawful payment for acts directly or indirectly related to their job. Common schemes include: smuggling contraband into the facility, granting unlawful privileges, and prematurely releasing inmates.

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How the introduction scam works

This is a simple scam that is used on people with marginal credit and there is no reason to fall for the scam. The introduction scam is a needless expense that uses a middleman.

This scam cons people in one of two ways. The scammer runs a newspaper ad that guarantees a loan using investors and "other sources". While the borrowers do in fact get a loan the scammer takes a fee for making the arrangement.

The setup is simple. You fill out some paperwork at an office, the scammer gives you a business card with the contact's information, and sends you to a loan company such as HFC, American General, or Beneficial. The fee (let's say it is $300) is regarded as a referral fee, and is paid out of the loan proceeds.

A settlement version of this scam is a simple modification. You and the collector talk about a settlement for less that the full payoff for a certain account. You don't have the money to make the payoff. The collector sends you to his contact.

The introduction scam usually only works in larger cities. The reality of the matter is that you can probably get the loan without a middleman, and many people as upset or embarassed when they end up at Beneficial Finance or Household Finance after agreeing to pay somebody $300.

This type of con game lost some customers to payday lenders, but usually the con is run on those needing to borrow more than payday lenders will loan.

2010/09/03 · by T. Blake