ScamVictimsUnited.com

Hello, everyone!

My name is Ashley Porter. I'm a student reporter at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. After receiving a 419 scam on Facebook, it became apparent to me that scammers are frequently targeting social networks.

Because of this, I feel it's necessary to do a television news story for Emerson (a college where almost everyone uses Facebook) to make sure students and other Facebook users know what they may be exposed to.

I'm wondering if there's anyone in the Boston area who could talk to us on-camera (you can remain anonymous in the story) about being faced with a 419 scam, or if you could direct us to an organization that could talk to us. You may e-mail me through the link below.

Thank you so much!

Ashley,
Thank you for your interest in wanting to get the word out to the people on your campus. I was recently thinking that an awareness campaign on college campuses would be a good way to warn people about these scams.

Could you tell me, what is the name of your on campus news show that this would air on?

Thanks for your encouragement, Shawn!

The news show is called EIV News--it, along with the entire Emerson Independent Video organization, is entirely student-run. When the school year starts, shows and news segments (like this one about 419 scams) will be streaming live online, so feel free to visit the website: eivtv.com

To effectively warn students about these scams, I think it would be really beneficial to talk to someone like yourself who has experienced these scams firsthand and created a forum to help other people avoid them. Would it be possible to record an interview with you over the phone about this, or do you know anyone in the Boston-area who could speak to us about this horrifying trend?

I would be happy to do an interview with you. The next couple of days will be very busy for me . . . I will send you a private message with my contact information, and any other victims in your area that have told me that they would be willing to speak with the media.

Ashley,

I commend you for all of your efforts to bring awareness at your campus of these scams. Scammers will use any and all means available to them to gain information, spam and scam their way to riches. These people are low life sub human wastes who have no aparent life other than to con innocent people out of hard earned money. The very thought of a legitimate job would probably be laughed at by these freaks.

There are many dangers that college students face, facebook is just one means that scammers target students, fake Credit Card offers is another, 419 letters through mail or email is yet another way they target victims, and of course the new trend... Work at home jobs that require victims to process payments for a foreign company for a commission cut.

College students have to be made aware of all of these scams they must be educated and walk vigilant. If one can learn to spot a scam and prevent becoming a victim it is worth all of the hard work we all do to fight these crimes.

Best of luck to you with your project

Karyn