The website Scam Victims United warned its readers about last week’s arrested ponzi schemer, Nick Cosmo, nearly four months ago, based on a visit one of its forum members made to Cosmo’s office. Reuters points out that this site and others like it—Fraud Aid and Scam Warners, for example—are enjoying healthy traffic spikes right now, which is great news in the fight against fraud.

Sadly, no amount of warning will alert everyone, and this is a great economy to be a scammer:

“There is massive ignorance out there. People who are coming to us are already starting to feel the pressure from the economy when they get involved with one of these scams,” said Annie McGuire, who founded [www.fraudaid.com] in 1999.

“We don’t see the people who think it can’t happen to me.”

Another nonprofit site, http://www.scamwarners, is seeing a jump in reports of a fast-growing and sophisticated international version of a classic check-fraud scam, along with loan scams and false offerings of employment.

“People are definitely targeting the desperate,” said Jillian Gerard, who runs the site.

All three sites have useful content to help protect you or someone you know from scammers, like ScamWarners’ “Is this a scam?” topic area, or FraudAid’s detailed overview of advance-fee fraud and how to protect yourself from it.

“Ponzi scam victims fight back online” [Reuters]

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ScamVictimsUnited.com
FraudAid.com
ScamWarners.com
(Photo: ricardo.martins)

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