This must've been the year of the scammer because in the last few days, this blogger uncovered at least three of them, which lead me to believe the old sayings:
In all fairness, the person that referred me to News-Person.com reached the limit and never was paid because they refused. After Googling the company, the following was found on Craigslist: BEWARE!!! NEWS-PERSON.COM IS A FRAUDULENT SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This writer not only told the company that they were being reported to the FTC, they were soon written up on that site. It was probably a lot like the others below.
In a pyramid scheme, new recruits' money was used to pay off up to date investors. The only problem was that as more people were lured into this program the harder it was for payouts to occur because of its large growth. Evidently the bottom fell out and everyone looses their money.
In the last few weeks, this blogger fund two of them, which was unusual. TheYouthJob.com had everything spelled out on the site, even that the survey taken before the funds were released was mandatory. Minimal payout was $300 but one was known to make up to $5000. Money was earned faster the more it was circulated on social media. It took longer to reach the payout limit at $5 a click.
TheWeeklyRewards.com hid the survey until the payout limit was reached. Then, the process started all over again. Like the first link, the file to download wasn't done until the sign up task was completed It looked like they just reopened under a new name and upped the payout to $10 a click.
This writer also took things a lot further than telling the company that they were committing fraud. They were also reported to FTC.gov, both of them. Like the first link, they were supposed to contact me in five or six days, but in that time all that happened was reopening the site under a new name with the same type of survey.
People were wicked. This was just about as bad as the government grant scam that promised the person on the end of the phone a large amount of government funds. Once they had bank information or a credit card, the scam begins. Federal grants were awarded for a public purpose and are typically awarded to local governments, educational institutions and organizations. The federal government does not offer grants for personal financial assistance. In addition, didn't contact anyone by mail, phone or email to offer a grant award. Representatives of this site would never request any banking/credit card information or any processing fees.
The IRS scam has been just as bad as the person impersonating an officer of the court, a Lt.Truitt, telling them that they were to be arrested if they didn't stop the warrant issued for their arrest by sending the fake person $560 via a green dot card from Walmart. One was to read the number off the back of the card.
In the IRS' case, the scammers, were known to possess the last four digits of the victim's SSN, and the IRS' toll-free number appeared on caller ID. Sometimes, the target received an email, supposedly to be from the IRS, to further the scheme. The caller told the individual that the tax bill must be paid promptly through a pre-loaded debit card or wire transfer, threatening arrest or deportation as a penalty.
The IRS stressed that if someone owed money, the first contact from the IRS is likely to come via mail, like the notice of failure to show for jury duty.
Like the computer technicians that used Microsoft as a satellite company to get clients that had trouble with their computers, These independent companies were not to call people trolling for work Microsoft answered most questions in the forum. If the only thing these scam reports produce was 10 Ways to Avoid Fraud, it was better than nothing at all. My name, address and phone number was out there. Because of the survey taken from the pyramid scheme, my phone rang off the hook in the last few days.
The hardest thing was telling a reputable coffee company that my membership was acquired via the first pyramid scheme. They were very understanding when they cancelled my membership, offering me a choice to accept or reject their offers in the future.
Here was the worst thing that bothered me. The loss of my social media accounts or traffic exchanges was a concern, just like a writer who committed plagiarism or copyright infringement, that hurt too, not being able to write or circulate one's articles. Thank goodness a lot of the people that were alerted by me were understanding enough not to throw me to the curb after telling them of this disgrace.