Jail Bail Money

Relative in Jail Need Bail Money: How Scams Work:

There are many ways in which fraud gets done these days and one of the most used is the phone fraud. A thief calls you and “sells” you a good story before asking for money. If you believe the story you’ll probably send him the money and after that there’s nothing you can do to get your money back. One scam that seams to work a lot is the “relative in jail need bail money”.

Maybe one day you’ll be called by somebody that pretends to be a lawyer or a federal agent and informs you that a relative of yours in is jail and you need to send bail money as soon as possible. You’ll probably be in shock and you’ll send the money without asking for additional information or verifying what the person from the other end of the line is telling you. By the time you’ll realize that you’ve been robbed there will be nothing left to do in order to recover your money or to catch the one who robbed you.

If you ask for details, you have a very big chance of noticing that the “relative in jail need bail money” call is a fraud, because the thieves wouldn’t take any risks if you don’t seem a hundred percent convinced of what they’re saying. If you seem affected and shocked by the “news”, it’s also possible to ask for your Social Security Number during the conversation, this way stealing your identity as well. This situation can cause more harm than the money stealing because your social security number can get the thieves access to all your personal information. It’s best to keep in mind the existence of tools such as freecreditreport.com or Lifelock.com, for a periodical account check.

It’s very difficult to react in a rational and, all in all, normal manner when you get a message like the ones spread through the ‘relative in jail need bail money’ fraud attempts. But if you are aware of the threats you might be facing, you’ll surely keep your feet on the ground and manage to protect yourself by making it clear that the person that breaks such news is truly who he pretends to be and that one of your relatives really needs your help.