May 2008 Archives

It had to happen (and frankly, we're surprised the scams didn't start even more quickly). With the plight of earthquake and cyclone victims in China and Myanmar hitting he headlines -- and our hearts -- every day, it didn't take aid scammers long to put together phony relief campaigns and solicit donations. More on this below.

Another fund-raising scam this week preys on trusting clergymen in Israel, while we've turned up two more of those phony ad scams, where businesses pay to promote themselves in non-existent publications.

Watch out for these and the other cheap tricks in this week's round-up of 8 new scams in the headlines. Remember, they could turn up in your town next.

Some of our haul of 8 new scams could qualify this week as "Crazy Scams Week" after a spate of outrageous tricks. In one case, a conman sells a church; in another a scammer claims to be a Native American Chief raising money for his stranded son.

Weirdest of all, a Vietnamese man falls for a claim that a liquid mixed with his money will double its value. And there's more, as you'll find out in our roundup below.

Also this week, as the promise of summer brings the threat of rising gasoline prices, the Federal Trade Commission warns of a new flood of spams on ways to save fuel. Let's start there.

Tax scams -- we've written about them so many times, but with economic stimulus and refund checks finding their way to millions of homes across the US this month, it's time to sound a new warning.

Police departments across the nation, the IRS itself, the FTC and a host of consumer organizations have issued a full-scale alert.

And don't think you're safe if you're outside the US. Australian authorities issued a tax scam warning in the past week. Who knows where they'll strike next?

Also in this week's round-up of scams in the headlines: a couple of cons based on the American Idol TV show, a cunning scam tricks people into paying for something that's free and a baffling spam-scam hits a Texas zoo.

We all know the saying "All that glitters is not gold" but that doesn't stop scammers from pretending it is. This week we have two stories from the headlines about scammers passing off fake coins and gold-colored bars as the real thing.

Sadly, as some of our stories show, plenty of people fall for even the simplest and most obvious tricks. Many of these cons have been around for years and regularly feature in our weekly Scambusters article topics. Others show great cunning, like the scammers who passed themselves off as a monk stranded in Canada!