Watch Out for These Scams! |
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Scams Often Used to Trick the Elderly |
| Inspection Sales |
| Roof repair, Under floor repair, termite control, down comforters, etc |
| This method involves a person showing up at your door and offering to inspect your roof or under floor etc., for free or at low cost. The person tries to scare you by saying something like, "If things remain the way they are now, your valuable house will be ruined." They prey on your insecurities and get you to sign a contract for repair work that is overly expensive and often not necessary. |
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| Pressure Sales |
| Down comforters, magnetic mattresses, health foods, etc. |
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This method involves luring people to a location by giving away free daily necessities. Then, pressure tactics are used to make people think they can't miss the chance to buy something, such as an expensive down comforter or health foods. In some cases, they might heavily pressure you by saying: "You're just going to take something for free, and leave without buying anything?" |
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Scams Often Used to Trick Young People |
| Confidence Game |
| Beauty treatments, cosmetics, accessories, paintings, etc. |
| A person stops you around a train station or on the street and asks you to answer a questionnaire. The person takes you to a coffee shop or to their office and gets you to sign a contract for beauty treatments, cosmetics, or other goods or services. They are persistent, keeping you for a long time, and often create a mood that makes you feel that it is impossible to leave without signing a contract. |
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| Appointment Sales |
| Beauty treatments, accessories, paintings, leisure club memberships |
| A person calls you on the phone or sends you e-mail saying "You've won a gift". They will try to get you to sign a contract for accessories, beauty treatments or other gifts. In a different situation a salesperson of the opposite sex will contact you by phone or e-mail to go out on a date. The salesperson creates a boyfriend/girlfriend atmosphere and then they will try to sell you accessories or a leisure club membership. |
| Multilevel Marketing |
| Health foods, water purifiers, cosmetics, women’s undergarments, etc. |
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This is the system that you buy items to become a member first, then you receive rebates when your friends or acquaintances become members as your affiliations. The more you get your member, the more you make a profit. This sales technique is controversial as that high-pressure sales may destroy friendships, or you may be forced to hold onto items that you are unable to sell out. |
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Scams Used to Trick People of All Ages |
| Imposter/Test Sales |
| Water purifiers, fire extinguishers, telephones, security equipment, disaster prevention equipment, etc. |
| A salesperson disguised as a local government officer introduces himself saying, “I'm from the Water Bureau.” . His appearance makes you think he is a real local government officer. He pushes you into buying an expensive water purifier, telling you that the water from your place does not clear the sanitation requirement. In order to prove his quote, he conducts a counterfeit test for water from your house with putting some chemical into it. He shows you that color of the water changes and says something like: "You'll get sick if you continue to drink water like this." Under the guise of offering to "test" the water, the person creates uncertainty in your mind as a technique to sell an expensive water purifier. |
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| Home-working Scam |
| Data entry, flier distribution, beauty products, water purifiers, etc. |
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Through advertisements or phone calls, you are offered a business opportunity to "earn high income at home," and are lured into to purchasing expensive items or materials that you are told these are necessaries for the business. |
| Educational Course Sales |
| Textbooks and Educational Courses. |
| A salesperson falsely claims something like, "You will be exempt from the national examination by taking our educational course," and will try to lure you into signing a contract for expensive textbooks. If your answer is vague, they just send you the materials and bill you for them, saying that you said "yes" to their offer, forcing you into a contract. Sometimes they might approach the same victim repeatedly saying, "You did not finish the previous course, so you have to take another one." |
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| Phony (False) Payment Demand |
| Sites showing pornography and dating sites via e-mail or cell phones |
Phony Payment Demand: by sending e-mail or postcard, a business pretending a debt collector who have been assigned to collect a claim charges you a bill for browsing a fee-based site, which you have no personal knowledge.
False Payment Demand: only by opening e-mails or accessing web sites, you are unreasonably charged.
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| The Internet related Trouble |
| Internet shopping and auction. |
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When shopping and auctioning on the Internet, there are some cases where troubles such as “the item doesn't arrive”, “it's fake”, or “it’s broken” occurs even though you have already paid for them. Even if you are trying to access the website because of these reasons, sometimes the sites have already closed and you are not be able to reach them anymore. |
| Negative Option (Unsolicited Product Delivery) |
| Books, newspapers, videotapes, etc. |
| Unsolicited products are sent to you one
after another, making you believe that you must pay for them.
In fact, there is no need to either pay for the goods or to
return them. After 14 days, you are free to do with the merchandise
as you please. |
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