The sad fact is that as long as people are facing financial problems like big debts and poor credit history, or need money for educational purposes or investments, they will always be targets for people bent on scamming them out of their money. These scammers know that people who need money are those who are willing to spend the tiny amounts in their scams that ultimately end up as a rather large amount when pooled into one fund. These small amounts are usually paid for things like loans processing, to help arrange financing or to help look for those who would be willing to give them credit. These scammers promise the sky and everything else to get your money. There has been a recent study by the FTC that there are some scammers that promise to help people out of their financial woes and charging each of them a few hundred dollars. What happens instead is that they walk away with millions in their pockets without delivering anything to their clients. You have to give them credit for knowing when to strike and you also have to do our part in staying ahead of these scammers so that you can protect yourself better.
One scam that you should beware of is the Advance-Free Loan Scam. This is what happens when people who need financial aid answer ads that can be found in the classifieds part of magazines of the newspapers. These ads promise those people loans as well as credit cards; never mind if the applicant's financial situation or credit history is up for it. A telemarketer bent on fraud then tells them that in order to avail of the offer; they would have to pay a certain fee beforehand. This amount ranges from $25 to almost several hundred just for the credit cards and the loans. They will then be told by the telemarketer that their money will get refunded in the event that they get rejected. But the real scenario is that the consumers will get nothing, no credit card, no loan and certainly no refunds. There are times that the consumers who have been scammed will be directed to other companies that will also scam them.