Have You Seen This Scam?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I recieved this in my email this morning:

Give yourself a break and stop worrying about how you’re going to pay the bills from week to week.
This program is just a few months old and is already generating income for hundreds of people
just like you who are eagerly responding due to the low investment and high profit potential.
Follow the simple directions below and in two to three weeks you’ll have at least $18,000.

Loan one person ten dollars. That’s all. Don’t worry about finance charges or repaying
the money. After the first time you’ll see how easy it is and how well it works!
Here are the details.

On a blank piece of paper write your name and address and a note saying,
"Here is your ten dollar loan. Wrap the paper around the bill and send it to the
first person on the list. REMEMBER, only the first name on the list gets your name and
a ten dollar loan. Now, move that persons name from the list and move the other name
up to the first position. Then put your name and address in the number two position.

After you have put the names into their proper places, (your name in the number two position)
you’re ready to begin mailing. You can use snail mail or you can truly maximize your responses
by using a bulk emailer. I found one that is fast, effective and gives excellent service.
They sent 100,000 emails out for only $89.00 and gave me an extra 50,000 free! Call 207-XXX-XXXX
and get started today.

That’s all there is to it! When your name moves up to the number one position, in a week (or less)
it will be your turn to receive the loans. They will be sent to you by about two thousand people just
like yourself who are willing to invest $10.00 to receive their loans of about $18,000 to $25,000.
Because there are only two names on the list, your loans will be coming in VERY FAST.
Much faster than programs with 4, 5 or 6 names on them.

Get out of debt! Take a vacation! Reach into your mailbox and pull out cash instead of bills!
Here are the names and addresses.

(1) J. Toeben
P.O. Box 385
Waite Park, MN 56387

(2) R. Toeben
25752 385th St.
Freeport, MN 56331

Integrity and honesty make this plan work. At this time we are receiving an 80% return.
Most have received about $18,000 to $22,000 so far. Some are on their third and fourth
mailing! What are you waiting for … !

Well, a quick Zip Code check reveals that the zip’s are legit, but an AnyWho search on the one name with an address reveals, natch, no such person.

I X’d out the phone number for the ‘bulk emailer’, because my search on that number showed it to be for a private individual.

I did a quick search on Snopes and didn’t find anything, yet.

Has anyone out there gotten this, recently or in the past?

2

It’s a chainletter, and a pyramid scam. Pretty common, and illegal.

3

Typical chain letter scam. There’s literally millions of 'em floating around. You’d be doing the world a favor if you reported it to the authorities (or their isp, whichever you can stomach better).

4
5

And just to point out the three major reasons these don’t EVER work:

(1) There are literally thousands of totally identical chain letter/pyramid schemes out there. They are so common that anyone you send one to has, at this point, almost certainly seen several before. I would guess the response rate is very poor.

(2) They are illegal (I believe the crime would be mail fraud). Note how the letter goes out of its way to pretend it ISN’T a pyramid scheme; no, you’re simply giving a “loan” to the first couple names on a list, and adding your name to the bottom. While these things are so common that the chance of being prosecuted is virtually nill, even if you did by some bizarre chance make $100 grand, you could be indicted on some pretty major fraud charges.

(3) They don’t work anyway. The only guys who would make any real money would be those on the top of the list. I’ve read a breakdown of these (perhaps here on the Straight Dope, though I ferget), and once the pyramid gets to its 15th or so level, it involves everyone on earth or something like that. So you won’t be making $83,000. What, the money’s going to come out of thin air? Obviously you need an exponential increase in victim–er, I mean, “loans” in order to make large amounts of money, and that ain’t gonna happen.

6

…I was asking if anyone had “seen it recently, or in the past.”

I’d love to report it to my ISP, however, they’re a cable company (Optima, in NYC) and, oddly, there’s no metion anywhere on their site about what to do with things like this. In fact, I wonder about their competence in general. Just last night I got an email notice about their email server storage, which ended…“The following list of Frequently Asked Questions will answer any questions you may have. (You may want to print them.) We thank you for subscribing to Optimum Online and want you to know that our primary goal is to ensure the ultimate performance of your Optimum Online service.”

The list of FAQ’s arrived, twelve hours later, in another email.

So my question: Has anyone seen this recently? It’s sure a new one on me.

7

Hey look, a low post count registered member posting chainletter pyramid scheme crap. What a shock…

8

Interesting.

Particularly since Waite Park is the city I work in (it’s a suburb of St. Cloud). Freeport is just down the road, as well.

I’d assume the Toebens are relatives and put their own names on the list; IOW, the $10 you send off go directly to them.

I know chain letters can be reported to the post office for mail fraud; what about chain emails?

Duck Duck Goose, where are you? :wink:

9

Oh. Right. Not that one, specificly or recently, but others like it in the past.

10

I remember getting a similar e-mail. This url will explain it all:

http://www.snopes2.com/inboxer/scams/chain.htm

11

According to the US Postal Inspection Service, the post office still has jurisdiction if regular mail is involved at any step:

Alternatively, you can notify the Federal Trade Commission.