A few days back, Australian broadcaster Derryn Hinch admitted in an article in the Herald Sun to being scammed. He called it a
“…clever internet scam that made those Nigerian banking fraudsters look like amateurs.”
It wasn’t.
Essentially, Hinch sent $4000 to a New Yorker who had offered to rent him an apartment for a few weeks. The scammer didn’t really own the apartment and took off with his money.
Never, ever send a stranger money via Western Union. Using Western Union is like having unprotected sex. (now you have images of Hinch having sex). It’s convient and easy but, eventually it will end up getting you in trouble.
I was interviewed on Tuesday night at The Catchpenny Club for Australian Magic News. You can hear me spill the beans on the Real Hustle, scams, stand up comedy at The Catchpenny Club.
Is it just me or does that screen grab look like I’m constipated?
Back in the dark ages when everyone had dial up modems and burnt witches at the stake, con artists would distribute ‘free porn’ on the internet through dialer programs.
To access the porn, you’d download a program that rang a specific number using your modem.
While the porn was free, the phone number your modem was calling was a premium, high toll number and you ended up getting stung on your phone bill.
That swindle is dead since no one but nannas uses a dial up modem any more. (and nannas don’t download porn, what with being dead from the waist down)
Owners of Iphones who jailbreak their handset, overriding the Apple controls, are being hit with offers of “Free Porn Via Java”.
They download the free, non-approved, application which, then sends a text message to a premium text service.
You end up signed on for a premium account, with no chance of ever being able to unsubscribe because, in most cases, people aren’t even aware the text has been sent.
I don’t need who this is, but this video is the best and most accurate portrayal of the shell game with matchboxes as it is done on the streets today. Most performances you will see of this will be little more than magic tricks dressed up.
