Scam baiting, also known as counterscamming, is the practice of feigning interest in a fraudulent scheme in order to manipulate a scammer. The purpose of scam baiting might be to waste the scammer’s time, cause them embarrassment, cause them to reveal incriminating information which can be passed on to legal authorities, waste the scammer’s money, or simply for the baiter’s amusement.

The primary goal of the majority of scam baiting is stopping “419″ advance-fee fraud, which bilks hundreds of millions of dollars from victims, and can lead to victims committing crimes to raise enough money to feed the fraudulent schemes.

Scam baiters often simply attempt to waste the scammer’s time by pretending to be a victim; they often believe if a scammer is busy communicating with a baiter, then less time is spent finding and exploiting potential victims. In “Conversations with a Nigerian Bank Scammer,” writer Karl Mamer documents verbose “conversations” over email with several Nigerian 419 scammers. After statements like “Marco, my good and soon to be prosperous friend, you have correctly intimated from my writings on religion and Elvis that indeed, like you, I whole heartily [sic] agree that the separation of church and state is both unnatural and ungodly,” “Marco” finally says “I am so scared to meet you with this amount of talking.” Baiters often refer to scammers as “lads.”

Another common practice among scambaiters is to ask the scammer to do something in order to prove their identity or their intentions, such as sending a photograph of himself or herself in a compromising position. Baiting forums relish in a special bait they term “safari” in which they attempt to persuade scammers into traveling long distances to meet phantom victims or to pick up bogus wire transfers.

A small number of scam baiters claim to have convinced their scammers to send money to them, although the actual occurrence of this is disputed. Tom Craig, a former Scotland Yard officer, says that it would be unprecedented for 419 con artists to part with money and suggests that scam baiters could easily forge the scanty “evidence” of such successes. Other baiters have succeeded in getting their scammers to send them art or other “trophies” as evidence of completed work for the baiter, which is, of course, never paid.

Foreclosure rescue fraud is sweeping the country and can end up costing you the home and equity you’re desperately trying to save from foreclosure.

In these tough economic times, mortgage foreclosure rescue scams are sweeping the nation. Foreclosure rescue fraud is both devious and cruel. Homeowners, finding it difficult to make ends meet and facing foreclosure, are promised help to save their homes. These scammers often turn around and steal the homes from those they promised aid to. Some collect large fees for services never provided and are never seen from again.

In any form, mortgage foreclosure rescue scams add insult to injury and are expected to grow in popularity with crooks as Americans default on their mortgages in larger and larger numbers.

I stopped at a Kangaroo BP gas station, located at 1325 Main Street, Cartersville, GA. My truck’s gas gauge was on 1/4 of a tank. I use the mid-grade, which was priced at $3.71 per gallon. When my tank is at this point, it takes somewhere around 14 gallon’s to fill it up. When the pump showed 14 gallons had been pumped I began to slow it down, then to my surprise it went to 15, then 16. I even looked under my truck to see if it was being spilled. It was not. Then it showed 17 gallons had been pumped. It stopped at almost 18 gallons. This was very strange to me, since my truck has only an 18 gallon tank. I went on my way a little confused, then on the evening news I heard a report that 1 out of 4 gas stations had calibrated their pumps to show more gas had been pumped than a person actually got. Here is how to check a pump to see if you are getting the right amount: Whichever grade you are using, put EXACTLY 10 GALLONS in your tank, then look at the dollar amount, if the dollar amount is not EXACTLY 10 times the price of the fuel you have chosen, then the pumps are rigged. In my case as I said the mid-grade was $3.71 9/10 per gallon, my dollar amount for 10 gallons should have been $37.19. If I had only checked the pump. It doesn’t matter where you pump gas, please check the 10 gallon price. If you do find a station that is cheating, contact the Georgia Agriculture Department, and direct your comments to Tommy Irvin, Commissioner. In other states contact proper authorities. Please don’t delete this until you have sent it to all people in your address book. We need to put a stop to this outrageous cheating of customers. The gas companies are making enough profits at honest rates.

Are new project called fail scam will now include some of the worlds worst scam artists, so stay logged in as we will be posting these fail scams ever now and again.

Detectives with the Shelby County Sheriff’s ALERT Squad (Area Law Enforcement & Retailers Team) say they’re tracking a spate of locker room thefts at fitness centers from Southaven to Collierville to East Shelby County.

The latest, a break-in at 24-Hour Fitness Sport, 1285 Ridgeway Rd. in East Memphis, led to a credit card theft caught on the Action News 5 Scam Cam.

ALERT Det. Dee Bowling says Nov. 7, someone worked her way through 24-Hour Fitness Sport’s check-in process and broke into a member’s locker inside the women’s locker room.

“Cut the lock off her locker, took all of the personal belongings out, then replaced it with a new lock,” says Bowling.

Not long afterward, the Scam Cam caught the woman below using the member’s credit card at two Southeast Shelby County department stores.

Bowling says the suspect charged over $8,500 in electronics.

“We’re talking IPods, Wii games, high-end electronics, and each time she forged the victim’s signature,” says Bowling.

A department store source says the cashier never asked the suspect for identification because credit card companies, including VISA and MasterCard, advise retailers not to request identification on credit card purchases. The source says — and a MasterCard source confirms — that the companies believe it’s more beneficial to keep purchases flowing and let the credit card’s built-in insurance against unauthorized purchases protect the consumer.

Bowling disagrees.

He says retailers should make it store policy to request identification on all credit and debit card purchases. He also believes consumers should write “Ask For ID” or “Check ID” in the signature boxes on the back of their credit cards to subtly encourage cashiers to check.

Check out this video. It shows how on paintballbidwars.com is scaming its users. They says you win stuff but yet they fail to deliever the goods even after you pay.

The staff internal auditor for the bank frowned and said to the auditor-in-charge, “The Smith loan was $175,000, but the credit limit was $100,000. The file contained no explanation for granting a loan in excess of the credit limit. And the Jones loan for $150,000 was well within the borrower’s credit limit, but the documentation is missing!”

The auditor-in-charge replied, “Fortunately the Smith loan was paid off shortly after date of the loan listing, so there was no need for further follow-up. As for the Jones loan, we’ll follow up on that at the next audit. If we followed up on every little exception, we would never finish all our audits.”

Follow-up at the next audit revealed that the Jones loan had been paid off with funds from outside the bank. What the auditors did not realize was that both loans had been paid off with the proceeds of fictitious loans made in the names of other borrowers. Later it was determined that both loans were part of a fictitious loan scheme. Losses exceeded $5,000,000. Fraudulent loans totaled less than $2,000,000 at the time the auditors failed to follow through.

Environmental extremists, notable politicians among them, then teamed up with movie, media and other liberal, environmentalist journalists to create this wild “scientific” scenario of the civilization threatening environmental consequences from Global Warming unless we adhere to their radical agenda. Now their ridiculous manipulated science has been accepted as fact and become a cornerstone issue for CNN, CBS, NBC, the Democratic Political Party, the Governor of California, school teachers and, in many cases, well informed but very gullible environmental conscientious citizens. Only one reporter at ABC has been allowed to counter the Global Warming frenzy with one 15 minutes documentary segment.

[...]

I have read dozens of scientific papers. I have talked with numerous scientists. I have studied. I have thought about it. I know I am correct. There is no run away climate change. The impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in peril. I am incensed by the incredible media glamour, the politically correct silliness and rude dismissal of counter arguments by the high priest of Global Warming.

In time, a decade or two, the outrageous scam will be obvious.

Let’s hope so, John; let’s hope so.

Peel Regional Police are warning the public about a lottery scam, which involves you paying a fee after finding a fake “scratch and win” card.

Police said the phony cards are dropped in public places, instructing victims to call a phone number if it’s a winner.

Fraudsters pretending to be with the lottery commission then promise to mail the winnings out, after collecting a registration fee from victims.

Police said the winnings are never sent out, and are reminding people the lottery commission will never ask for a registration fee.

The premium rate increase, which will average approximately 14.6 percent statewide, was approved by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR). The effective dates for the premium rate increase are Oct. 22, 2009 for new business and Dec. 11, 2009 for renewal business.

UPCIC, one of the five biggest writers of homeowners’ insurance in Florida, is now also operaring in Georgia, Hawaii, North Carolina and South Carolina. Additionally, the company said it has filed an application to form a separate property/ casualty subsidiary to write homeowners’ insurance coverage in Texas.