Has anyone been a victim of an Internet scam - If so what was the scam? What were the consequences?

Question

I'm just interested - I keep getting these dodgy emails - "You have won the south african lottery" or prize draws - Has anyone actually fallen for these?
Have you been caught out by "phishing" what happened and what were the consequences - Lets hear from you all

Answer 1

Have you ever gotten the email about a Nigerian prince with a check for 20 million dollars that he can only cash in america? Well, a part of that scam is to contact the mark using IP Relay. I used to work at IP Relay.

People fall for it.

There's also the one about calling up a shop and ordering a bunch of merchendise to Ghana. The guy will order a bunch of stuff for shipment to ghana and ask the shop to pick up the shipping charge and the guy will pay for it all with his credit card. He then asks for the shipping number to make sure its on the way. After the pakage leaves the shop the guy then cancels the shipment to ghana, gets it rerouted to stay in the us, and asks for a refund check for the shipping difference.

Then the Shop owner is left holding the bag.

Answer 2

I also had my ebay account taken over. Someone was trying to sell stuff but as the other person said ebay caught it. I would imagine that people have fallen for these scams or they wouldnt continue to send them.

Answer 3

I had my ebay account stolen from me once, within hours they were selling a car on there using my details.
Thankfully ebay was able to put an end to before it was to late.

Answer 4

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=419+scam&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

Sites like 419 eater are fighting back against the scammers. People post their stories on loads of sites like this one.

Answer 5

They must be pretty stupid people if they have.