How do you know if an email, letter or phone call you receive is real or a scam?  We are asked that question every day.  Often, there is no single determining factors.  It is often a combination of inconsistencies that don’t add up.  Remember, a scammer is trying to create a believable, plausible lie – he is deliberately trying to weave a story that is difficult to disprove.

In some cases, there is really no way to know at all.  If you advertise something for sale, say a car and a person answers the ad and says he wants to buy it, he could be real or a scammer. As you progress in the sale, you must simply keep asking yourself; is this what I would do?  Is this what a legitimate buyer would do?  Are his requests reasonable?  Have I taken the right precautions, in case he should turn out to be lying?

There is no one indicator that is proof positive of a scam, but if a correspondence (letter, email or phone call) exhibits enough of them, we would suggest that a scam is likely.

Here are some of the things we look for.

To check out contact from an individuals / personal contacts:

1. Location – Where are they? Some places are famous for being home to scams and scammers, most notably, Nigeria, Russia, Romania, Africa, and anywhere in the Third World, in general. For example, would would someone in Nigeria want to buy a car from the United States or Britain? If the person is located in a different country, assume first that it is a scam and keep your guard up!

2. Inconsistent information – It’s hard to maintain a lie.  Look for information that doesn’t match.  If he says he grew up in Virginia, then he’d know about Busch Gardens and Williamsburg, wouldn’t he.  If he claims to be American but writes in a way that makes little sense, or has a foreign accent, then English is not his first language.

3. Inaccurate information – Look for inaccuracies that indicate a lie. If he’s gives you email addresses that bounce, phone numbers that are disconnected, that’s assign.  If he gives you an address; look at it in Google earth.  Maybe it is just a parking lot. Do a Google search on his phone number and the word “scam”.

4. Have they asked you to send them money via Western Union or “wire transfer”?
   Unless it is a family member or a friend since childhood, this will always be a scammer 

I will tell you more in my next post….
Drop me a comment if you have any thoughts.