The Probert Encyclopaedia of General Information

SCAM

A scam is a trick or fraud. All scams rely on a single premise in order to function; the greed of the victim. Popular scams through the ages have ranged from low-key confidence tricks such as the 'find the lady' scam performed on street corners by card sharps in which victims are encouraged to bet on being able to locate the position of a specific playing card - often a queen - which is in a row of three cards mixed by the performer, though elaborate frauds such as the 'sale' of London's Tower Bridge or Australia's Sydney Opera House to unsuspecting foreign millionaires. A popular scam is the 'get rich quick' scam in which victims are invited to send money for details or a book proffering to detail a sure-fire method of achieving immense earnings with negligible effort. The secret to doing so is to place adverts in newspapers or on the Internet inviting people to send money for details or a book detailing how to earn vast income with negligible effort.

During the late 1990's a new scam appeared in Britain, or at least became more obvious. That of the 'male escort'. Adverts appeared, generally in free newspapers where advertising rates are very low, purporting to be recruiting 'male escorts', and explaining that age, size and looks are unimportant to earn up to five-hundred pounds a night with the implied bonus of having sex with beautiful women. The 'agencies' offering to recruit such men in reality require interested parties to send a registration fee for inclusion in their catalogue of escorts. Any cynical prospect who considers checking the agency catalogue first, to ensure that they are genuine, finds that prospective customers also have to send a registration fee before being allowed access to the catalogue. In comparison, genuine escort agencies do not require a registration fee from clients, instead the client simply contacts the agency with their requirements and is suggested a suitable escort, which they may then contact or gracefully decline.

The growth of the Internet saw with it the growth of another scam. That of the 'affiliate scheme' where naïve web site publishers are enticed to place an advert for a third company which in turn offers a percentage sales commission for all sales originating from customers who have accessed the web site through the advert placed on the web site publisher's own site. Very often - but not always - these schemes have get out clauses that allow the company to avoid paying sales commission, perhaps because they claim at their discretion that the web site publisher has broken the rules of the affiliation, or because they claim that the customer has not originated from the advert. By paying a small amount of money these scams operate the same as the classic 'find the lady' scam, by enticing a few naïve victims with a small amount of revenue to recommend them to many more naïve victims who never receive anything. Most of the victims of the affiliate scam are teenagers who publish small web sites and who lack the experience to read the contract, and the money to pursue claims for owed monies which are almost impossible to prove anyway.

The most insidious of all scams is 'The Nigerian Scam', which follows a general pattern of a victim receives correspondence, often by email, purporting to come from a close relative of a dead African - originally a Nigerian, whence the name - politician or some such who just before his death deposited a large amount of money in a European bank account. The scam implores the victim to assist in retrieving the money, as the scammer is unable to leave his country. In return, the victim is offered a large amount of money, perhaps as much as $50 million. The victim is asked to contact the scammer and then later is asked to send some money to assist with arrangements, or to travel to Africa with some money to make arrangements. Several victims travelling to Africa have subsequently disappeared, presumed murdered and robbed.
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