Reflections on some scam attempts that have been attempted on me

From time to time I get an email asking me what promoted me to start this blog. This isn't the first or only blog I have. In the past I wrote on my personal blog about making fun of the email scammers that happen to contact me wanting me to buy their dog or claiming I won a prize or giving me some sob story about how they are rich but need to get out of their dangerous corrupt country. What I use to do is waste their time by reply to their emails with the most ridiculous responses I could think of, just to see if they would respond and think I was a sucker. If you take a look at some of my beginning post you will see some of the pranks I pulled on these would be scammers. Those blog post were originally on my personal blog but then I had something happen to me which hit a little closer to home then expected.

In 2007 I was laid off from my job. I did the usual went on unemployment, went to all the job posting websites I could think of and scoured the unemployment office database looking for a new job. I stumbled upon an ad on monster for a VOIP company looking for reps. I filled out their information page and click send. With in a few a half hour I got a call and they proceeded to try and scam me out of $199 to start. I was already out of work the last thing I could afford was to get scammed.
After the battle that ensued with this company I decided to take my experience to the web and I started this blog. Here is a quick link to the post that started it all. http://listofscams.blogspot.com/2007/04/get-rich-quick-let-me-show-you-how-aka.html

Over time I started reporting other scams some job listing scams that are found on craigslist. Not all the job listed there are scams but since it's not well regulated it's hard to distinguish which ones are real and which ones aren't. Soon I found another job and I went about my life. One day I was searching the internet to find some motorcycle parts and I came across a company that sounded legit. I almost fell for it. The tip off was they wanted me to send a check or money order through the mail they refused to take credit cards and they refused to take paypal. Luckily, that gave me time to really look at the company and I was shocked to see what I found. I decided to write up a blog post on them and this time I got bold I used the companies name. In the end that company was shut down and fined, I was contacted by the State Attorney Generals office of Washington and informed of what happened to the owners of that company. The quick links to those blog post are here:

First Post:
http://listofscams.blogspot.com/2008/04/cycleparts2007com-website-is-scam.html

Second Post:
http://listofscams.blogspot.com/2009/06/washington-state-attorney-generals.html

Then I had something happen that really ticked me off. Someone got a hold of my debit card information and tried to sign up for porn sites. I was so mad I did a quick shout out on my blog. I admit the post wasn't my best but I didn't have a lot of time to compose it and I wanted to get the word out. Since I am doing a recap of my next post will be a more detailed account of my experience with webnetbill.com.

http://listofscams.blogspot.com/2008/11/beware-of-httpwwwwebnetbillcom.html

In July of 2009 I had a door to door sales rep come to my door wanting to sell magazines. She was nice but I told her I was not interested. She asked me to come into the house to use the restroom and I declined saying my dogs don't like strangers. A week later another door to door magazine rep came to the door. My roommate answered the door and she was trying very hard to get him to buy something. I interjected and said we already had a rep come by and we told her no. She got hostile and rude. My roommate trying to stay civil asked her to leave, she then walked past him into the house and said she needed to use the bathroom. She locked herself into the bathroom. I told her I was calling the cops. She left but not without making some more nasty comments. I called the cops and gave her description. I watched as the police cruiser came through the neighborhood and then leave with her in the back seat. I did some research on line about door to door magazine sales and found some very disturbing information about that industry it prompted me to make my next series of post about door to door magazine scams. I was not prepared for the reaction those post got. I received comments thanking me because it saved someone from being scammed, along with other people backing up the post with their own experiences. I also received threats and some tried to hack the site and get me banned for reporting them.

In conclusion the reason I've kept this blog alive is because of the responses I get from people. I feel it's important to help keep others informed and hopefully safe from becoming victims of any type of scam. I also feel it's important to put a name to the companies or individuals who perpetrate the cons.

Key Words: LSI Magazine Sales, webnetbill.com, cycle parts 2007