"THERE'S A SUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE!"
      This weeks blog, I feel is very important, as I know most of you out there have been caught in one or more of these elaborate scams. I am certainly not sad to admit, but yes my hands up, on quite a few of them too.So I thought I would take some time, in educating some of you on the well known cons out there and some the not so well noted schemes that appear on your internet everyday. So lets begin a trip down "Ripoff Lane" shall we.In fact, there are so many scams on the internet these days, I decided to break this one up into a 2-part blog, okay, so before I forget look for this one again next week as well. Now, the first one is so common, and even nowdays, probably even more popular with the price of liquor and beer in the bars.Not to mention the continuing threat of aids and other sexual related diseases.Lonely sex-starved people are flocking to dating sites in droves, and it has become a muilt-billion dollar buisiness too.I am talking of course about "Romance and Dating Scams" people,
       They usually take place through an on-line dating website and the cyber-scammers may even use social media or emails to make your contact. They may even call their victim as a first introduction but these scams are really known as "Catfishing" The way it is usually done is you will see, what you think are real profiles on a site, but read the fine print somewhere there. It will usually tell you if fake profiles of attractive maleor female models have been used. The site may also use "Autobot" technology whereby a  typical response is texted out to a normal question, such as what do you look like? The response might be, "Wouldn't you like to know babe?" as an example. A fictional name might also be used or a even a false identity such as military personnel, aidsworkers, or real professional working people. The Dating/Romance scammer will express strong emotions for you in a relatively short period of time too. They will go to great lenghts to earn your trust, such as showering with loving or sexy words. They might share personal stories with you, in which you have in common to get on your good side.This may take months to build a strong bond between the both of you and it may feel like the "Romance of a Lifetime" but it ain't! They may even pretend to book flights to where you live, but never actually show up either. Once they have gained your trust and your defences are down they will pounce hard on you! The individual will ask you for money, gifts or even your credit card. They may ask you to send pornographic pictures of yourself, plus videos as well. More times than not, the fake profiled person will need money for some sort of emergency. They might state they want to visit you,but have no money whereby they will reimburse you for the visit, when they see you but it never happens.
        Another more modern scam that takes place nowdays is the "Supermodel Date Scam." These people are professional escorts, hookers or con people that make you think they want to date you, because you're so attractive. They talk you up, lavish compliments on your looks, and make you feel special. After numerous conversations over a couple of days plus pornographic pictures sent to you, they then drop the bomb on you. They will guide you to a website which is usually a dating service and tell you to sign up, only on the 3 day trial, and that you arn't obligated to anything else. As soon as you test that credit card information, they tell you that they will email you their cellphone number, but rarely does that happen. In fact no date ever occurs and no you are signed up to another fake website, where after the 3 day trial expires, you end up paying an exorbitant amount of money per mth. Cancellation of these websites is nearly impossible as the real company behind the fraud is overseas somewhere or in a foreign country. In 2015, 22.7 million dollars was lost to online dating scams. Oddly enough there are only about 3 out of the thousands that are legitimate.
         Phishing Scams are next and are based on communication via email or on social networks. The Cyber-criminal will send you a message trying to trick you into giving them your log-in credentials. These usually consist of your bank account information, social network account info, or any other personal data. They often come from an official looking source as well. This could be a banking institution, or a loan company. In addition to that delivery companies and social networking representatives can also be involved in the con as well. In order for them to succeed, scammers must creat a sence of urgency. They might tell you a frightening story of how your bank account is being threatened. Therefore you must insert your personal credentials inorder to confirm your identity regarding your account. After you fill in what they request, cyber-scammers use this info to breach your own bank account. Often they sell this information to others on the dark side of the internet or other interested parties.
          I will mention one more, then I will let you read an excerpt from a scam I was the creator of from one of my books, okay.
          The third one I will mention is one of the oldest around "The Money Laundering Scam." This is truly still one of the most popular conjobs out there, nicknamed "The Nigerian Scam." Most of us reading this have already encountered it in our emails in one form or another. This typical scam starts with an emotional message. It is usually written formally by a government official, a businessman, a lawyer, or a member of a family member, usually a woman.They may ask you to provide help in retrieving a large sum of money. All you have to do is pay a small fee for necessary paperwork and legal matters to complete the transction of huge funds from a bank or institution. In exchange for your generous assistance, they promise you a very large portion of the original sum of money. However, this is just the beginning as they ask you to to pay more additional costs such as transfer fees. The person will even mail you out official looking paperwork that makes it even more realistic. Sadly in the end, the victim is left broke without the promised money. Next week I will focus on even more elaborate scams on the internet, but for now enjoy my most notorius scam when I was a cab-driver in the 80's back in Peace River Alberta.

         

          Probably my best con-job occurred in Peace River as well.

          I have told this story to many people, too numerous to mention here, and not one of them was ever bored in hearing it. Again it is something only I would have attempted to pull off to the fullest extent. As previously mentioned, I was a cabdriver at the time and in those days there was no such thing as meter charging for a fare. All passengers were charged by distance only and this had now become a game of hustle due to this known fact. By far, my most productive and busiest days, usually occurred on Friday’s and Saturday’s, mostly in the evenings. Remembrance Day has always stood out in my mind for a couple of reasons actually; one of those is this little tale I am about to tell you now. So there I am driving by the Peace River Inn on this day in question. I am the first cabdriver there to focus my attention on a rather tipsy-looking native fella, leaning against the outside of the building.Oh, I should tell you this before I get too far into the explicit details of my great caper.

          You see, nearly all the times when you picked up a Native Indian in Peace River, there was very little chance that you would actually get paid for the fare. Most often, they would give you some cock-amamie excuse as to why they couldn’t pay, when I drove them to their intended destination. Usually on more than one occasion I would receive some sort of collateral for the fare. It could be anything really, ranging from leather jackets, belts, purses, switch blades, hunting knives, native jewellery, to sexual favours. As for me, I always preferred to pick up the male Native Indians, at least you could sell the stuff off at a local pawn shop. In fact, odd as this sounds I never picked up “Female Native Fares” for fear they could charge you with Attempted Rape! I mean you gotta draw the line somewhere right?

          I told you this important anecdote so you understand I did what I did, not because of prejudice toward Native Indians, but more of revenge for cabdrivers. So, for sake of argument, we will call our Native Indian in this chronicle Shad-Thu okay. By the way that’s Indian for “Sound of Water” from what he told me that day.

         So here comes Peace River’s most inebriated Indian that is about to approach my cab. He proceeds to explain to me that he needs to travel to Edmonton and can I transport him to the local train-station that’s just across town.

         I reply “Sure, why not? Saddle on in, here Partner”.

         Now at this point I am thinking to myself, I will charge him double the fare for my trouble anyways.About 15 minutes later we get to the Peace River Train Station; however it is closed due to the fact it is Remberance Day. To my surprise this Shad-Thu guy is still hell-bent and determined to get to Edmonton, as I can see he is most disappointed by this new turn of events. He asks me a real doosey of a question that quite frankly, I am not prepared for which is, can I take him to Edmonton myself.

         Now a fare to Edmonton from Peace River at that time would be charged at about Three-Hundred Fifty Dollars.

         I let Shad know the fare price, but I also tell him for me to leave town, that I would need all the cash up front first.

         It doesn’t surprise me that he doesn’t have all the money on him at that moment. On the other hand, he does hand me a dirty old crumpled one hundred dollar bill out of his jeans pocket.

         I answer back, “Ah Chief, that’s nowhere near enough cash”, “I need alot more if we are leaving here today?”

         He comes back with the fact he has a little bit more on him, excluding that he needs that cash for some drinking money and smokes. Shad does his best to assure me that he is good for the rest and can we now travel to Edmonton.

         He promises me that when we arrive in Edmonton, his brother Harry Two-Shoes will pay for the rest of the cab fare.

         As I had mentioned previously, I had been so screwed over by these Peace River Indians, I definitely didn’t believe him. I replied that I needed at least three-quarters of the fare before we left town. Again he countered with the information that would be cutting into his drinkin money if he did that. I respond to that statement by repeating that I need the three-quarters up front before going ahead with this fare. Reluctantly he pulled out another $100.00 out of his right side jacket pocket and gave it to me. Now I had acquired $200.00 towards the outstanding balance but Shad was still $150.00 short. Next, I radio’d into my dispatcher and informed her of the reason for the fare. I was told that in no uncertain terms that I couldn’t leave town without all the cash. Subsequently, I let my fare know the bad news and told him that I needed the money he was short, but this dude told me, he just doesn’t have it on him now. However, what he did have on him was a cheque he told me, that if he could get it cashed, I would have the remainder of the fare. I’m thinking at that point that its maybe his welfare cheque for a couple $100 dollars more, so maybe, he could give me the money he still owed me. He showed me the cheque and I have to tell you, I was absolutely blown away by what I read. Not one word of a lie, the amount of the cheque was $2000.00 and it’s made out to Shad-Thu Proudfoot, himself. Not only that but it’s a legitimate company cheque with the name Alberta Oil Riggers Inc. emblazoned on it.

          This changed the whole ball game, as I knew it was a real oil company and  my sense of immediate greed took over my mind at that point. I told him that we will try and get this cheque cashed as we travelled to Edmonton, Alberta. In point of fact I still have three things that are against me now, that are quickly brought to my attention. One, Shad apparently has lost his entire ID which had been previously in his wallet, which he lost, of course. Two and this one is real important, it is Remembrance Day and all the banks in Peace River are closed.

        Do you recall the third one? “Don’t leave town until all the cash is your hand.”

        Decisions, decisions! What could I possibly do, I mean I would leave town and head south, surely that couldn’t hurt right?

        I would make it a point to stop at every town, we passed through, surely to God, someone or some institution would cash this cheque. My impulsive part of my personality now took over and I made the decision to leave town anyways, so I told Shad to get back into the cab. I bought him up to speed on what we did, and he agreed to my crazy idea anyhow.

      “There’s just one glitch, here”, I tell him.

      “What’s that cabby?” He asks.

      “Everytime we have to stop, I will charge you $25.00 waiting time and that goes towards the fare at the end of the trip”, I told him.

        Surprisingly again, he agreed to this and off we leave the town of Peace River. In fact, I didn’t even radio in the trip or give any possible indication that I left town. It was like I had vanished! Furthermore, we had travelled though about 20 to 30 different small towns in our trek to Edmonton. Nobody! And I mean nobody would cash that $2000.00 cheque made out to my Indian friend. By the time I made it to Whitecourt Alberta, Shad-Thu Proudfoot, was now extremely drunk and intoxicated but was into me for a cool $1,000.00.He had run out of beer-money so I invoiced him another $300.00 just in waiting time. Nevertheless I was kind enough to buy him more cases, just so he could drink in my cab and yes I did tack that all onto his now running tab. It was around midnight that next morning of November 12^th, 1986 that we finally arrived in Edmonton. I am happier than “A Pig in the Mud” as I strongly felt we would most certainly get this cheque cashed.

       “Maybe if we’re lucky, at one of these all night 24 hr “Money Marts” I am thinking.

         At this period, I had made myself another $500.00 cash profit towards this fare, which went in my pocket. Shad suddenly woke up now from his drunken comatose state, and handed me previously written directions on a bar napkin.

      “Wow, I thought to myself, imagine that”

      “His brother’s residence is actually not on a reservation but in fact is located in downtown Edmonton” I surmised.

        I drove to the downtown area and when I pulled up to the address where Shad’s brother presumably lives; no one is home, as there is no vehicle parked in the driveway. However I had to admit to myself for an “Alberta Native Indian” to live in a house such as the one I saw at that time, it did come off as a very luxurious residence.

       Unfortunately nobody was home at this address, “so now what was I going to do, to fill in some time?” I thought to myself.