Sarah
19 January 2007, 04:18
Hello, and welcome to the board.
The best way for anyone to fight internet fraud is to spread awareness. We have descriptions of many types of fraud on our forums (here). If you have become a victim to some type of fraud then you can tell your story to warn others. You can learn about different types of scams and tell people about them, especially if you know someone who is new to the internet or to for example EBay and other auction sites.
All of us on FraudWatchers and in the scamfighting community are volunteers. Whatever resources we need to for example set up this website is donated by members. Most of what we do is try to spread awareness. We also try to warn people who we know are about to get scammed when we receive information about it. We have informants who are in positions to pass on information about the scammers, their victims and activities. Warning people can be very rewarding, and also very stressful if you encounter someone who has invested a large amount of money in something that you have to convince him is a complete scam.
We try to pass on information to law enforcement when we can, but the sad fact is that it's very difficult to get an internet fraudster arrested even when you have his real name and address. Scammers sometimes set up websites, and when we hear of them we try to get them shut down by contacting the webhosts. Sometimes we receive stolen credit card info or bank accounts used by scammers, and we can pass those on to various authorities.
If you are interested in joining the scamfighting community, one good way to start is by becoming active on the general forums and responding to inquiries. If you are bilingual, we could use your help as well.
We have people from all walks of life working with us, everything from students and professionals to members of law enforcement organizations.
Some scammers deliberately target developing countries to find victims. They know that people there are more vulnerable and not as aware of internet fraud as in the western world. We have a number of different nationalities represented here on FraudWatchers and some language specific forums, but we sometimes come across victims where we don't have anyone who knows the language and that can be a problem. If you are willing and able to help out every now and then with translations in anything from Arabic and Persian to Spanish or Hindu then please contact us.
If you know of any victim support resources for countries we don't have listed here, then we'd appreciate hearing about it so we can refer people there:
http://www.fraudwatchers.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=43
The best way for anyone to fight internet fraud is to spread awareness. We have descriptions of many types of fraud on our forums (here). If you have become a victim to some type of fraud then you can tell your story to warn others. You can learn about different types of scams and tell people about them, especially if you know someone who is new to the internet or to for example EBay and other auction sites.
All of us on FraudWatchers and in the scamfighting community are volunteers. Whatever resources we need to for example set up this website is donated by members. Most of what we do is try to spread awareness. We also try to warn people who we know are about to get scammed when we receive information about it. We have informants who are in positions to pass on information about the scammers, their victims and activities. Warning people can be very rewarding, and also very stressful if you encounter someone who has invested a large amount of money in something that you have to convince him is a complete scam.
We try to pass on information to law enforcement when we can, but the sad fact is that it's very difficult to get an internet fraudster arrested even when you have his real name and address. Scammers sometimes set up websites, and when we hear of them we try to get them shut down by contacting the webhosts. Sometimes we receive stolen credit card info or bank accounts used by scammers, and we can pass those on to various authorities.
If you are interested in joining the scamfighting community, one good way to start is by becoming active on the general forums and responding to inquiries. If you are bilingual, we could use your help as well.
We have people from all walks of life working with us, everything from students and professionals to members of law enforcement organizations.
Some scammers deliberately target developing countries to find victims. They know that people there are more vulnerable and not as aware of internet fraud as in the western world. We have a number of different nationalities represented here on FraudWatchers and some language specific forums, but we sometimes come across victims where we don't have anyone who knows the language and that can be a problem. If you are willing and able to help out every now and then with translations in anything from Arabic and Persian to Spanish or Hindu then please contact us.
If you know of any victim support resources for countries we don't have listed here, then we'd appreciate hearing about it so we can refer people there:
http://www.fraudwatchers.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=43