If you have received a warning from someone claiming to be a ScamWarner and want to check if it is genuine, please ask here.
#3112 by Jack Smith Wed Apr 09, 2008 10:46 am
I call many scam victims or potential victims every day, so if I've called you and you're following up by checking out this site, that's a great start! Thanks for trusting me enough to look into my warning further.

A little about me. I'm a retired scientist living in San Francisco. I have a wife and three kids. Rather than play video games, I prefer to do community service, and helping people that have been scammed seems to fit my interests and abilities. I have no employer--nobody pays me to call you, and I never get anything from a victim except an occasional "thank you," which is more than enough. I am simply a member of this group of similar-minded individuals from all around the world here (and feel free to inquire of the site administrator if I am reliable and truthful).

Almost everybody that I call has the same first reaction: who are you and how did you find out about me? That's natural, and I'm happy to reveal whatever I can that doesn't compromise my own sources. However, since most of all warners' sources are highly confidential (and deeply embedded with the scammers), I usually can't say very much.

On the other hand, sometimes victims talk so much that everybody suffers. Here is a sequence of events that happens all too frequently:

1. A victim pays a significant amount of money to a scammer.
2. Someone in our group becomes aware of what's going on, and we send a warning by phone or email.
3. The victim has trouble accepting that he/she has been robbed and so (quite naturally) would prefer to believe in the story from the scammer and all its promised riches.
4. The victim forwards all warnings on to the scammer and says "what do you say to this?" :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:
5. When the scammer is warned, two very bad things happen:

a. the scammer comes up with another story to cover the warning, distorts facts further, tells the victim that the warners are tricksters trying to steal some of the money, even accuses the victim of misbehavior. Frequently, this new story is enough to keep the victim on the hook and continuing to pay money. (Bad for the victim)
---AND---
b. the scammer looks around and wonders how his scam could have been exposed. With all the money at stake for him, he can act ruthlessly. Our source of information can be eliminated or neutralized, and now we can no longer help others. (Bad for everybody)

With this possibility in mind, I really can't answer all of everybody's questions about my sources and what I know about them. I'm warning people as a service to them, and I want to give the greatest possible satisfaction, but I also have to think about the community at large. Wouldn't it be great if we made scamming so unprofitable that scammers went on and used their talents in a productive way? [Actually, I'd like to see them being productive making license plates in a jail workhouse, but that's beyond me at the moment.]

So, if you and I have entered into a conversation, I'm going to want to keep the conversation about you and how you can protect yourself now and in the future, and less about me and how I came to be calling you. I'd like the information we have about you to be the important thing. If we have come across some extremely confidential information about you, that should show that we really know what we're talking about (usually it means that we are aware that you sent your confidential information to a scammer), and that we are not just making up a story to annoy you. Just how we got the information should be much less important that what the information itself means.

Again, thanks for checking in. Please look around at the resources here and see if some of the situations don't fit your own circumstances. The more knowledge you have of scams and scammers, the better prepared you will be now and in the future.

All of us here really just want to see you safe. Let us know if we can do any more.

Jack
Last edited by Jack Smith on Fri Jun 20, 2008 11:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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#3170 by Jack Smith Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:23 am
Update: My own son was recently almost scammed. He didn't lose a penny, as he saw through it on his own before sending any money, but we are all really shaken by the experience. I'm sorry my own son had to go through even what he did, but seeing and feeling his outrage has certainly added to my desire to help others, and it has helped me understand better the feelings of those that I warn. Remember: if you were a victim, you really didn't do anything bad to get caught up in a scam!

#3180 by Julia Wed Apr 16, 2008 2:45 pm
I am so sorry to hear your son was almost a victim, Jack :( You are right, a victim should never feel that they have done anything wrong and please keep telling your son that. These scammers are really good at what they do, hence the millions lost to them every year.

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