Horrors! 14 scary scam stories

By Bankrate.com

In the spirit of Halloween, we found the spookiest reader stories that have crept their way into our editor's inbox. From Nigerian scams to evil customer-service tricks, the tales that follow have happened before and will happen again.

Take a lesson from these dreadful experiences. Promptly file a complaint with any company that has mistreated you and report the business to a regulatory authority if necessary.

Company names have been changed in case angry business entities with lawyers haunt this article. The tales of woe are otherwise in the writers' own words.

1. Tax refund rip-off

Within the last three weeks, I received an e-mail stating I had an IRS refund that had three cents in change. The e-mail directed me to click on a link whereby I should complete the form sending them my Social Security number, debit card number and the security code on the back of the debit card.

I knew immediately it was a scam. First, if the IRS owed me money, they would mail me a check. But most of all, we do not deal in change on our tax returns.

After reading the e-mail, you were directed to click and go to the form. That next page was in the format of the real IRS Web site. They had various links you could press to go to other segments of the site, just like the genuine IRS site.

• Talk back: Spotted a rip-off, scam or financial horror story?

I forget just how it read, but I clicked on something that would take me to my local IRS offices -- I just had to put in my ZIP code -- and a selection of addresses in my county of Pinellas, Fla., came up. This list included phone numbers. After selecting one of the numbers and dialing it, I got an automated voice telling me to put in my Social Security number.

I know how to override an automated message to speak to an operator so I proceeded to do this. Then, again, an automated voice told me that I could not speak to a live person at that phone number. I then hung up, logged in to the official IRS Web site -- www.irs.gov -- and on the entry page there was a story about the recent scam that I had experienced.

2. Eerie employment offer

I received an e-mail soliciting me to collect money for a company outside the United States and all I would need to do when the checks and money orders came was deposit them in my account, keep 10 percent for myself, and forward the rest of the money, minus the wire transfer, to someone overseas.

But my bank placed a hold on the money orders for 12 days. Then the bank let me know they weren't good. I turned everything over to the post office to handle the situation because the bank couldn't do anything. Luckily, I waited to see if they were good.

3. Web of worthless checks

On two separate occasions, I have received checks, in good faith, from popular banks, each with a letter encouraging me to cash the check and forward money. I would then receive additional funds.

For the first one I received, I took it to the bank printed on the check and asked if it was (real) -- the whole situation was very suspicious. I subsequently ripped up both checks, knowing it was too good to be true. I also remembered some articles where something similar happened to a lady who was not as suspicious and was taken for thousands of dollars. It pays to advertise these scams. It certainly helped me.

4. Insane logic

In the past year I have received several dozen of what have to be considered scam e-mails from the United Kingdom and Nigeria. These are usually variations on . . . "I am stuck in a hospital dying and have to find somebody to help me get $50 million out of the country; will you help me?"

They never ask for money up front and the scam offers me 20 percent to help.

5. Frightfully sweet justice

Not long ago, I was ripped off by two employees of "Macabre" Department Store. I charged a $5.37 purchase to my account and three weeks later my Macabre bill totaled $704.

Only the sales clerk and I had access to my card. Three weeks later, my bill arrived with the enormous total coming from four separate Macabre stores. I immediately called the store, closed my account and reported the theft to the Houston Police Department.

I later learned that two sales clerks were stealing customers' account numbers and were running the scam because no other sales clerks had any reason to question them. Four police officers and the manager of the store I had visited marched into the store and arrested the sales clerks. The sales clerks were tried, convicted and sent to the Texas State Penitentiary, Women's Unit, in Huntsville, Texas.

Continued: The rotten recording trick

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