Business Scams - Why so many?...

Hi all

Something that has often puzzled me so thought I might as well post it today on a quiet Friday:

Why are there so many hundreds and hundreds of business scams out there - what I mean is, surely they are illegal, but if so then it appears that even when these companies are caught and there are thousands of complaints nothing is done?

This always seems unfair when law abiding businesses have such incredibly strict guidelines and pressures to comply to, whilst the cowboys out there seem to get away with everything - even when caught. Does something need to be done to redress the balance?

Tim

Re : Business Scams - Why so many?

Interesting question - I guess they tend to be very cleverly worded and can often get away with it.

There is one common scheme where you get promised advertising in a magazine for instance, and to get around it technically they do print one copy on their printer and call it 'the magazine' or something like that - anyway which to the letter of the law means they deliver on their promise though of course not the spirit of it.

Carl

Re : Business Scams - Why so many?

Scams seem to be everywhere at the moment, not just in business, even by apparently reputable companies.

I regularly get visits to my door from the different energy companies, some of which I've heard of and some I haven't, and most of them actually claim to be my current supplier. I then ask them why they need to check the name of the person that lives here! It really is outrageous but basically those who want to pay no attention to the laws never seem to have any comeback whilst the majority who do live by the rules get clobbered by stepping out of line once.

Wonder if it's like that in other countries too?

Lianne

Re : Business Scams - Why so many?

As for why there are so many (returning to the original question) the only answer must be because they work.

I know many intelligent people who have fallen or almost fallen for a scam to a greater or lesser extent. The fact is if you go through life being as suspicious as you have to be to never even almost fall for a scam then you have to question pretty much everything

Carl

Re : Business Scams - Why so many?

Unfortunately I suspect scams of some sort will be a fact of all areas of life.

The problem with scams that come through the internet is that it is so easy for the scammers to send the same message to millions of people at once through some automated route. Although they have a very low success rate the sheer volume they can send makes it worthwhile.

I know the idea of charging for sending emails to try and stop this was raised at one point - and whilst this may come in eventually unfortunately like most things it would probably end up hitting innocent businesses more than those who want to abuse the system.

Chris

Re : Business Scams - Why so many?

Chris

I think you're spot on. The internet is ideally suited to scams since the ability to contact millions of people in seconds is there which you just can't get through any other medium without huge costs and logistics

Tim

Re : Business Scams - Why so many?

One question that has often puzzled me is where they get the massive mailing lists from.

They must have millions of addresses on their list - but we all know how expensive email lists are to buy. Do they just get at the names they send to - e.g. try every-word-in-english.com and .co.uk etc?

Carl

Re : Business Scams - Why so many?

Carl

I suspect they just get a list of all registered domain names (available in many places online) and then just try anything@thatdomain.com

It's a simple method, but obviously just about works enough for it to be worth it.

Tim

Re : Business Scams - Why so many?

Scams are a fact of life.

Unfortunately it means that you have to be fairly cynical and question everything. Sometimes you will be cynical about something which turns out to be genuine, but even if this method prevents you getting scammed just the once it is probably worth it...

David
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