Top 20 Hilarious and Creative Internet Scams

Lonelygirl15: One of the most popular Internet hoaxes in recent years, the lonelygirl15 teenager named Bree turned out to be nothing more than an actress named Jessica Rose. The YouTube sensation assuredly broke many lonely hearts who thought they shared a special connection with the web cam princess, the show is still going strong with an average of 70 million viewers, all of whom (hopefully) now know that lonelygirl15 isn’t real.

Disney Hoax: Could you imagine receiving a real live e-mail from Walt Disney, Jr. himself? Well, we couldn’t either, but enough people did to make this Disney hoax a real problem. The fraudulent e-mail claims to work with Bill Gates and Microsoft to try out a new e-mail tracing program. The e-mail asks people to forward the e-mail to as many people as possible, and “if it reaches 13,000 people, 1,300 of the people on the list will receive $5,000, and the rest will receive a free trip for two to Disney World for one week during the summer of 1999 at our expense.” We wish.

Show Your Bum Joke: According to Hoax-Slayer.com, this hoax “warns that a man supposedly conducting a survey may come to your door and ask to see your bum.” While this hoax is more of a spoof of a hoax, we just had to include it on our list.

Internet Wedding Scam: Irish and Scottish folk singer Marc Gunn posts on his website a warning for other musicians about the Internet Wedding scam. A person claiming to be a soon-to-be married man named Pitt Andre wanted to book Gunn’s band at their wedding. Agreeing to pay the 50% deposit upfront, the scammer instead sent a check for nearly double the amount, and then asked for a refund making up the difference. A couple of days later, the man e-mailed Gunn to tell him the wedding was off, and that he wanted all of the money back. According to Gunn, the first check “seemed to have cleared” after three days, and his group sent back the $2500. Of course, the original check inevitably bounced, leaving Gunn and his group “miserable…and $2500 poorer.”

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