UNKNOWN TRANSACTIONS

A scam is a clever and dishonest plan for making money (a fraudulent business looking scheme solely designed for extorting another participant in the business). A scam is designed to trick you into giving away your money or your private details. Scams succeed because they look real and appeal to your needs and desires. The people who run these scam schemes are very manipulative; knowing the right buttons to push to produce the response they want. They are also masters in faking personalities, identities and documents. A scammer is a person who perpetrates a scam. A scammer is a swindler, a trickster, a con artist, a confidence man, a con man and a deceiver. A scam target is someone the scammer aims to deceive; a person the scammer hopes to lure into a scam by sending a proposal. A scam victim will be regarded as one who has already lost money in a scam business, has made payments to the scammer or has made payments following the scammer’s directives. A person who is still a target, already involved in the business process, dealing with the scammer, but has not yet made payments to the scammer will be regarded as a prospective scam victim. Scammers and con artists are like people you see and interact with everyday. It is therefore important to understand certain observations, processes, patterns, and some features common to scam businesses. An in depth understanding of the how and why the scam victims fell for the scams and the grand design of the scammers or conmen is the best education in avoiding scams. The majority of the processes scammers adopt are derived from genuine business processes. The world is a global village; the modern business persons must do business locally as well as internationally. They must now use different mechanisms to carry out their operations; meeting their business partners physically or not, but ensuring that mutually beneficial relationships ensue. This is one problem the global business has had to face. Theft is getting obsolete; the new trend adopted by thieves is to induce their would-be victims into giving them what they would have stolen from them. The scammers’ primary objective is for you to release your money or property into their hands. To make their unsuspecting victims do this, the scammers will adopt many strategies, pretences to lure their scam targets, prospective victims or victims to comply accordingly. In most cases these strategies resemble genuine business processes. THE FACTS • ‘A good lie is based in truth’ • Scams are on the increase and the scammers are getting more sophisticated. • The modern business person must still do business globally irrespective of scams rampancy. • Scam schemes are now being set-up like genuine businesses worldwide. • A single scam can take on different forms, so there is no way to define the shape or form the offer or presentation will take. • Certain features are common in scam business transactions. • Many individuals are presently in ongoing scams without their knowledge. • The confident way to avoid scams is by understanding scam business processes Thorough analyses of successful scams will show that each and every scam was unique to the scammed victim and the scammer. Each scam victim-scammer relationship is unique and cannot be easily imitated in another scam business. No two successful scams were exactly the same in process, psychology and execution. The majority of the discussions in this book are not only unknown to the many scam victims but also unknown to the many scammers who might never understand why one victim willingly released what others in same situation refused to release. Only thorough analyses of successful scam stories can you gain awareness and avoid scams. At the outset of any business, any participant in that business can be a prospective scam victim. It should be that prospective scam victim’s decision not to make the scam victims’ list. This book will assist anyone in not becoming that next scam victim. As the world globalizes further, many business transactions will become more unknown transactions. These locally and internationally acclaimed scam schemes are now being operated worldwide. Africans, Americans, Asians, Australians, Caribbean’s, Europeans, etc., are all involved: Why? It makes profit and everyone likes profit. Huge profits, as a matter of fact, because in most scam businesses, the scammers' investments are very small compared to the profit to be made, should a victim fall for the scam. Same cost–profit ratio is directly proportionate to the investments in most scams. Whenever the scammer invests heavily in a scam scheme, the expected gain from the scam victim(s) is also very high. In Part 1 of this book, we look at certain gaming mechanisms scams have incorporated or rather certain misconceptions, basics, so many people have completely misunderstood that has encouraged the thriving of scam businesses. Part 2 is how one gets into scam businesses, the introduction mediums, different types of scams, scamming processes, extortion, victims’ naivety, types of scam payments, the scammers manipulations, and the meaning of actions. Part 2 also gives detailed insight on commitments and their roles in making scams successful. In Part 3, we look at some common features of scam businesses everyone should look out for. Many persons come across these features in their business transactions but they are unable to decipher the meaning of the information. Part 3 will help to decipher these features in old or present business dealings to know if they were, or are scams or not. We will also look at the adamant progressives in Part 3 who refuse to leave unproductive business ventures alone, upon all the signals, symptoms and warnings to desist from such scam businesses by loved ones and the authorities. Finally, we look at scams as serious crimes they ought to be in Part 4. Why scams are serious and not serious for some authorities. Why some scammers go free. Why many call scams ‘white collar crimes’. Why the blind justice cannot clamp down on scam businesses and eradicate these menaces. We also look at why some scams are conveniently prosecuted while others are not. Part 5 will deal with some dangerous myths and assumptions people have that lead them into scams. We also look at what these assumptions should be in the bid to avoid scams. Scams are full of unknown transactions; where you cannot accurately predict the intentions of your unknown business partner nor can you completely verify all that is said, agreed and promised. Unknown transactions, as business might work out well, they might also not work out, and they can also be scams from origin. As the world globalizes further, more businesses will get unknown and transactions in such unknown businesses more unknown. Therefore, the need to understand the scam business processes, the commitments, victims’ naivety, scammers’ ideology, emotional involvements, the participants’ preliminary psychology, the advantages and disadvantages of actions, are very important. A strong awareness, understanding, and prevention of the schemes, offers, methods, processes developed by a person, persons, group and companies to use to extort or take money you have worked so hard for, is the beginning of real financial freedom.