Today I had a call to my cellphone from someone soliciting money for the Washington State Police Federation. This was the second time I had a call from this caller because I recognized the voice as well as the content of the call. It triggered a warning flag by the end of the call in which I just hung up on the caller before departing with any money. You see I had been scammed by a check cashing scam before and I thought I this would be a good time to write a whole post about ways people try to fraud you out of your hard earned money. Never give people you do not know your credit card information over the phone or cash a money order, cashiers check, or anything no matter how legitimate the cause may seem to a third party. It is a scam, every single time.
Today’s scam caller asks you if Carla is there. When you answer no, the caller quickly changes the call to a solicitation for the Police Federation asking for a donation to help train police and help police officer’s families when killed in the line of duty. This sort of call causes you to feel the need to give to our hard-working police officers in this state. Although the police in this state have treated me fairly and I care if they are in need I do not expect them to call me in this manner and solicit money. It seemed like a scam because if you look on the Police Federations website, it clearly states this is a scam. The police never call for donations, ever. If they did would they always start out by asking for a Carla? I don’t think so.
I was scammed in 2005 by a check cashing scam. It hurt me pretty bad because I was making only 9 dollars per hour and I was looking for a legitimate work from home job to increase my income. I applied to what I thought was a legitimate company who was looking for agents to work as an accounts manager in a work from home setting. They sent me legitimate looking cashiers checks and I was to keep 30% of the money in my bank account and send the rest by wire transfer service to a third party to pay for good purchased in this state. The checks were legit enough for my bank to cash the checks and put the amount in my bank account. Yet, 5 days later the charges were reversed and the bank was calling them telling me I owed the money back. The company that hired me pressured me to send the cash via MoneyGram to purchase go-carts being shipped from overseas to the United States. This was a scam that cost me $1579 dollars that I did not have. If I did not pay back the bank they threatened to charge ME with a fraud! I was the one that was defrauded and nothing could be done to help me the police have no jurisdiction overseas. But what does not kill you makes you strong and I began to investigate anything that even remotely sounds too good to be true.
Last month I was thinking of being a part-time pet sitter. It seems like something I could do as a hobby and make a bit of money to pay for my medical bills. I joined PetSitter.com and made a profile. Because of my disability and inability to pay for Petsitters monthly fee I did not find any opportunities on the website because you have to pay the monthly fee before you can contact anybody. But someone that paid the fee contacted me they were interested in hiring me. And they were willing to pay me double the money I had asked for. I thought, oh boy finally a legitimate offer. At first, they wanted to meet me in person and interview me. But after finding out I was a real person they decide that they wanted to hire me without the interview and wanted my address so they could mail me a check for my first-week pay. Again my scam detector went off inside my mind! Again this turned out to be another scam. How was I sure this was a scam? They wanted to send me a paycheck a week in advance and they were sending “extra” for dog blankets, cages, food, flea treatments, and other stuff. The scammer would then convince me to cash the check in a hurry telling me they would arrive early and pressure me to send payment to their “supplier.” I did not wait for any further instructions nor respond to any more emails. Since I did not divulge my mailing address I heard nothing further from the scammer.
Tips For Avoiding Scams
- 1. If it sounds too good to be true, it is definitely a scam.
- 2. If they hire you sight -unseen without an interview or video conference, its a scam.
- 3. If they send you more than you ask for then ask you to send some money to a third party to pay for supplies. This is a 100% scam!
- 4. If they claim to be the Police, Fire Department, or other people from authority this is a scam! The Police would never call you asking for donations.
In summary if you feel like you are being pressured in any way start doing research. Google the organization with the word, “scam” and see what pops up. I would be willing to bet you can avoid being scammed using the tips above along with common sense research. Question everything and if you do not get solid answers do not send any money to people you do not know.
Perhaps you have been scammed or would like to share scams that you have researched. Please share them with my readers and comment below. I allow comments after I approve the comment usually within 24 hours. I have it set this way to avoid scams and phishing attacks to my website. Thank you for reading and consider sharing this post to your friends on your favorite social media platform. It will help me get the word out and help me expand my audience. Thank you!
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Sources:
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0085-fundraisers-calling-behalf-police-and-firefighters
https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2008/html/pb22225/html/kit_014.html
https://www.bbb.org/stlouis/news-events/bbb-warnings/2017/national-police-support-fund/
https://smartasset.com/mortgage/the-50-worst-charities-in-america-how-to-keep-from-being-scammed