Horrors! 14 scary scam stories

6. Rotten recording trick

A while back, "Goblins" or "Ghouls" representatives called us. They said they were checking to see if we were satisfied with their telephone service. (Goblins was the long distance service; Ghouls was the local service at the time.) They asked many questions, some of which I said yes to.

Later in the year, I found on my phone bill that I had signed up for something I did not ask for. When I called them about it, they replayed the recording of my saying yes. That was all I said. It had been cut.

I know I did not sign up for this, as I had been scammed before and am very careful, but this was a company I had dealt with for years. I was not leery -- but now I am of anyone.

I practice never saying yes to anything on the phone. When they say, "Is this Sharon?" I repeat back to them not yes, but, "This is Sharon." You can be taken so easily without knowing what is happening -- even with groups you have trusted for years. They are only hiring outside groups that get paid for everyone they recruit to their product.

7. Phantom puppy

I was online trying to buy my autistic son an English bulldog. He loves them. Two scammers tried to get me to send them $150 for the dogs to Nigeria and Cameroon. I talked them down to $100. Luckily my boyfriend said he saw that online scams came from those areas, and we picked up on it before it was too late. Now my son is brokenhearted.

I'm a single parent of four, so $100 was a lot for me. I will not look at or buy a dog online again -- it broke our hearts. Someone needs to stop them now!

8. Lifeless interest rate

It didn't curdle my blood but it curled my toes . . .

On Feb. 2, 2007, I had a little over $2,100 (I'm glad that was all) on deposit in a "Werewolf Bank Online Money Market Plus" account with an APR of 4.5 percent. Shortly thereafter, "Vampire Bank" acquired Werewolf Bank. On Feb. 12, I checked online to see what new benefits accrued to depositors with this financial giant at the helm.

I found that my new High Performance Money Market account now paid a whopping APR of 0.04 percent, less than one-hundredth of the previous yield -- and with no notice of the change, of course. Boo! Their representative said they were sorry to lose me as a customer.

(Of course it wasn't technically a scam, because money market accounts are subject to rate changes without notice, but it was rather sleazy.)

9. Taken for a magic carpet ride

We were building a house in Massachusetts and we gave a rug company, a reputable business that we had worked with before, a $2,000 deposit for carpet for the entire house.

The owner proceeded to call me for a couple of weeks asking for more money up front, as the carpet manufacturer was requesting more money. A red flag went up after about the third call. We refused to give him any more money before the carpet was delivered and installed. Much to our surprise, we never got our carpet.

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While we were waiting for the carpet, we picked up the local newspaper one morning to discover that the owner had overdosed on drugs and died. There went our $2,000 deposit, and, luckily, we had not given him more, despite his attempts.

In addition, we had stored an oriental rug at his place of business that had been in the family for years. Luckily, we found our oriental rug still in storage. That in itself was a miracle, as he had liquidated most of his carpets and the ones in storage also. But we were still out our $2,000 deposit.

10. Undead debt collector

I don't know if you would consider this a scam or not. I had a tobacco shop in Selbyville, Del., that I had to close on Feb. 12, 2007. I called "Haunted Home Security" to discontinue service. I paid my bill for January, February and March of 2007. Now they are telling me I owe for April, May and June.

I was not there and requested them to stop service. They do not even have a contract with my name on it. I had been taking care of the store for two years. By the way, they now have a collection agent after me. I wrote him and told him exactly what I told you and he still continues.

11. Wallet weight loss

Prior to the mass hysteria caused by many elaborate scams today, about 15 years ago or so, I practically lived in the weight room of the gym. One day, a bogus vitamin company called me and said I qualified for a discount of mega vitamins, making the price basically free. The cost was $29.99, but I had to mail them $685 for shipping and handling for a two-month supply.

Fortunately, I saw right through this scam. But I could have been a victim under different circumstances because vitamins and supplements aimed toward body building can be costly.

12. Fake sports memorabilia

A few years ago my son and I went to a fundraiser for cats in Stamford, Conn. They had a silent auction of sports memorabilia. My son took the two (autographed) baseballs he won to a local store and (the store owner) said he did not believe that they were authentic.

I wrote a letter at the time to the organization and they forwarded it to the seller. The seller's response was that they were real, yet he never provided the certificate of authenticity and was quite insulted that we questioned his integrity.

Then, a year or so ago, I purchased a basketball signed by Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson through "Shadowy" Auctions. It was a gift for my son, so months later I gave it to him and he said, "This does not look authentic, you should get your money back."

So I write an e-mail to the auction house -- this is the second bad dealing with them -- and they said they would contact the seller. The seller contacts me and said she bought them at a flea market and the certificate was sent, and refused to refund my money. I forwarded the e-mails to the auction house and their response was that there was nothing they could do.

Recently the sports shop had an authentication service come to the store to authenticate items for a fee, and I paid $250 to be told that all of them are frauds. What is worse, I have no recourse to get my money back. What is even more sad is that the fundraiser was (sponsored by) a sports memorabilia company.

Continued: Poof! The company that vanished

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