Beware of Schemes and Scams
Learn What the Experts Have to Say
Definition of a Scam
Even though we think we often know the definition of a word we can often find out a lot more information about it with a little extra research. It never hurts to add to ones knowledge while at the same time gaining that extra edge we may need one day.
So, I was surprised to find out that the word scam was not in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary I owned, which was printed in 1974. I thought that interesting. I thought that scams had been around for a long time. Heck if you ask most people they would have a story to tell somewhere along the line where they felt they had been the victim of some sort of “scam”. Still not believing it was not in the dictionary, I tried another dictionary printed almost twelve years later the Webster’s New World Dictionary printed in 1986 and the word “scam” was in that. I asked myself, had things changed that must in twelve years? Hummm, food for thought! This is the definition that was given.
Scam (skam) n. prob. Altered < SCHEME) slang, same as confidence game – vt. Scammed, scamming, slang to cheat or swindle, as in a confidence game.
Scam on the Wikipedia – brings up all types of different scams. Take a look here click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/confidence_trick for the definition given for confidence trick. As you can see the big game is to gain a persons confidence to swindle them out of money, sometimes getting them to buy worthless property.
Also under “scam” is “scam baiting”. What’s interesting here is the idea of baiting the scammer with the goal of stopping the scammer. Please note below where they mention the idea of the advance fee fraud. This is probably the most common type of scam in dealing with the timeshare resale industry. There are always warnings in the time share industry to look out for companies asking for advance fees or up-front money paid. Yet even with all the warnings still hundreds of thousands of dollars are made from unsuspecting victims.
“Scam baiting 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 scammers' time, embarrass him or her, cause him or her to reveal information which can be passed on to legal authorities, get him or her to waste money, or simply to amuse the baiter.
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."
While we are not encouraging anyone to do “scam baiting” as describe in the above definition. We can help you to stop a potential scammer by not becoming their victim in the first place. How can we do this? It’s very simple. Learn the techniques they use and that will make it much easier to say no to their marketing techinques and gimmicks.
Unfortunately, because of the nature of these types of scams they are hard to prove thus providing little protection to a victim if you have been scammed. That is why your best protection is prevention. Armed with knowledge you have the power to make educated decisions. This helps to prevent one from falling victim to many of the high pressure, emotional buying, the time share industry is known for.
So, I was surprised to find out that the word scam was not in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary I owned, which was printed in 1974. I thought that interesting. I thought that scams had been around for a long time. Heck if you ask most people they would have a story to tell somewhere along the line where they felt they had been the victim of some sort of “scam”. Still not believing it was not in the dictionary, I tried another dictionary printed almost twelve years later the Webster’s New World Dictionary printed in 1986 and the word “scam” was in that. I asked myself, had things changed that must in twelve years? Hummm, food for thought! This is the definition that was given.
Scam (skam) n. prob. Altered < SCHEME) slang, same as confidence game – vt. Scammed, scamming, slang to cheat or swindle, as in a confidence game.
Scam on the Wikipedia – brings up all types of different scams. Take a look here click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/confidence_trick for the definition given for confidence trick. As you can see the big game is to gain a persons confidence to swindle them out of money, sometimes getting them to buy worthless property.
Also under “scam” is “scam baiting”. What’s interesting here is the idea of baiting the scammer with the goal of stopping the scammer. Please note below where they mention the idea of the advance fee fraud. This is probably the most common type of scam in dealing with the timeshare resale industry. There are always warnings in the time share industry to look out for companies asking for advance fees or up-front money paid. Yet even with all the warnings still hundreds of thousands of dollars are made from unsuspecting victims.
“Scam baiting 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 scammers' time, embarrass him or her, cause him or her to reveal information which can be passed on to legal authorities, get him or her to waste money, or simply to amuse the baiter.
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."
While we are not encouraging anyone to do “scam baiting” as describe in the above definition. We can help you to stop a potential scammer by not becoming their victim in the first place. How can we do this? It’s very simple. Learn the techniques they use and that will make it much easier to say no to their marketing techinques and gimmicks.
Unfortunately, because of the nature of these types of scams they are hard to prove thus providing little protection to a victim if you have been scammed. That is why your best protection is prevention. Armed with knowledge you have the power to make educated decisions. This helps to prevent one from falling victim to many of the high pressure, emotional buying, the time share industry is known for.
Scams are continualy changing with the times so prevention is the key to not becoming a scam victim. Click here to learn about scammers today and what you can do.