Five of the World's Biggest and Successful Scams

5. Fraudulent online transactions

There’s a reason people get sketched out by sites like Craigslist and Ebay — they’re rife with scam artists and con men. Have you ever won an item in an Ebay auction, then instructed by the seller to send a money order to Romania? That’s the kind of thing you need to look out for.

4. Email scams

You probably see these so often that you don’t even think about it anymore. The most famous, perhaps, is the ‘Nigerian prince‘ scam that we mentioned previously. You may find yourself on the receiving end of an email from someone who apparently needs your bank account to store some funds — and they’re willing to give you a cut. Obviously, it’s nonsense. But people fall for it. And that’s why you keep seeing those emails come in.

3. Ponzi schemes

Ponzi schemes may seem like a modern invention, but they go back nearly a century by now — to when Charles Ponzi devised the very first one. A lot of Americans are wary of them these days as well, as names like Bernie Madoff have made the news for pillaging tens of billions from investors. Ponzi schemes basically work by taking in investments, promising big returns, and then keeping the money. Investors do see some return, as new money comes in from new investors and gets shuffled around.

2. Phone scams

While these seem to be less common today, phone scams have been very successful over the years. You occasionally still hear about them on the news — typically preying on the elderly. And they take many different forms: some involve tricking unsuspecting people into calling 900-numbers, others prey upon people’s gullibility or curiosity, and trick them into parlaying over personal information, or even bank account or credit card information. Again, this all seems like pretty tame stuff, but for a few decades, these kinds of scams were rampant.

1. 16.6m people

Nuff said!!!