With the tough economy, people seem to be falling for Internet scams more and more these days. Most of those deal with e-mail where a company asks you to send them money for the promise of more money and quite possibly a job.
“That can be anything from a lottery or sweepstakes scam to issues involving work-at-home or part time employment,” said Neil Frederiksen, deputy press secretary with the Pennsylvania State Attorney General’s Office.
He said the tough economy has people naturally looking for ways to make money, only to fall victim to an Internet scam artist.
“We’ve seen an increase in the number of people who are victimized and also an increase in the number or people who are simply passing along information,” he said. “There’s no doubt the financial related scams are looking for money whether its easy money or people who are looking for part time employment to supplement their income.”
However, Frederiksen says these scams–and scam artists–are really nothing new, adding that they’ve existed for years.
“These are fairly traditional scams,” he said. “We simply see an increase in their marketing because they know people are facing tough financial times.”
Frederiksen said seniors are being targeted as are people who are low-income.
“They are also targeting people who are naive and they are targeting folks who may be desperate,” he said.
Frederiksen said [one] recent scam was tied to the Superbowl in the form of a sweepstakes prize that targeted people in western Pennsylvania. He said the scam came via e-mail (on what looked to be official NFL letterhead) and was promising a $100,000 prize and two tickets to see the Steelers in the Superbowl.
“It’s a fairly typical scam,” said Frederiksen. “Many of them give consumers a check and instruct them to wire transfer money.”
He says people are free to contact the state AG’s…