Be on lookout for spam scams

Virginia’s newly enacted law against sending e-mails with fraudulent and untraceable routing information has led to the conviction of two scamsters who have made millions of dollars over the years by using the Internet to peddle all sorts of junk products and services.

Before e-mail, con artists would advertise various spurious projects for earning money at home in newspapers and magazines. One of the more infamous schemes that targeted mostly mothers, shut-ins and people out of work who needed to supplement their income was stuffing envelopes in their homes for corporations that would pay them for their services. All they needed to do was buy a kit that would show them how to contact the companies, and go from there. Those who bought the no-money-back kit, unfortunately, learned the hard way that there were no corporations looking to outsource their mass-mailing operations.

In the case of the two recently convicted con artists, they used modern cyberspace technology to reach their potential marks (victims) with e-mails touting such money-making opportunities as a FedEx refund processor that would supposedly allow people to earn $75 an hour or more processing refund claims for the company. All they had to do was buy the product for $39.95, and then wait for the money to roll in — which it did, straight to the crooks’ coffers. According the Virginia prosecutors, they received 10,000 credit-card orders for $39.95 each in just one month.

Bottom Line: It’s been suggested that this conviction for using spam for fraudulent purposes may be the first step in deterring con artists from reeling in profits from a gullible public. But the best deterrent of all is for the public not to bite in the first place.