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NEWS > BUSINESS > THOUSANDS SCAMMED BY SCAMMY OFFER
THOUSANDS SCAMMED BY SCAMMY OFFER
October 21 2009
Chicago, IL – From its earliest days the web and the internet has been riddle with scams. The earliest recorded mass ‘spamming’ dates to 1994 in which a husband and wife lawyer team began bulk posting Usenet messages. The origins of spam though
date back much further than that, to the pre-web days in fact. The first recorded 
spam message was sent in 1978 by Gary Thuerk over ARPANET, the precursor to the internet. Little did Thuerk or his recipients know that they were engaged in actions that would eventually help to define an entire form of communication for generations to come.
Despite the prevalence of spam and other forms of direct selling, many are still caught unawares, costing themselves millions of dollars every year. Such is the case for William Truscott who fell for a teeth whitening email scam which ended up costing him almost $100. Truscott fell for one of the most common forms of fraud on the web, direct emailing, which failed to highlight the small print. Though he has complained to the Better Business Bureau, it’s seen as unlikely that Truscott will ever see any of his money again, something that only proves that such scams are an excellent business model.
“They said, 'If you're not satisfied, let us know within two weeks. But they went from the date of the e-mail instead of the date the trial package arrived. It was a real scam. It cost me $88 and I can guarantee that I’m not the only one,” said Truscott to the Chicago Sun-Times. “People really need to watch out for these scams. When I read it I thought it was legitimate. I clicked on the link and it took me to a website with all these declarations as to how well it worked. They convinced me but obviously they weren’t being honest. It’s very easy to fall prey to these types of things because everything sounds so legitimate but I want to warn people that they aren’t being honest and they just want to take your money.”
Truscott has also fallen prey to the famous Golden Gate Bridge scam, twice, and is still waiting on a big pay day from a prisoner in Nigeria.
“One would think that after such a long time on the web that people would learn that many of these totally unsolicited offers are really fraudulent in nature. Story after story is the same but for some reason people either don’t believe them or the scam busters are not nearly as efficient as the scammers themselves at getting the word out,” said Scrape TV Fraud analyst Kevin Uebengo. “In order to be safe people should think of their email address in the same way they think of their front door. If a stranger shows up at your door with a delicious looking cake it’s likely they want something other than a slice. People just need to be cautious.”
An extremely casual survey by the Sun-Times found that thousands were hit by the same scam as Truscott. The paper wouldn’t give exact numbers, raising concerns that their data might be a little fraudulent.
“The bigger concern here isn’t whether or not people are being scammed. The real issue is whether or not newspapers have the right to publish potentially slanderous articles about their business. Ultimately, the people taken in by these offers are taken in by their own free will and the companies just do what they do,” continued Uebengo. “The real issue with this article and others like it is the claim that thousands have been taken in. The Sun-Times offers no firm number never mind demonstrable data to prove that assertion, and at the same time offer their own dental referral service. One truly has to question their motivations and whether or not they actually want people to have white teeth.”
The Sun-Times recently closed down their Nigerian branch.
William Ashford, Business Correspondent
NEWS > BUSINESS > THOUSANDS SCAMMED BY SCAMMY OFFER
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