Wire Fraud

If you’re about to wire someone money, stop. It could be wire fraud. Maybe. Ask Chicken Little.

Wire fraud happens when some sneaky SOB has tricked another person into wiring them money based on lies and/or false promises. Not a trusted party. Like the Prince of Nigeria.

You’ve heard them before: someone pretending to be a grandchild to the grandma (which is also identity fraud, assuming the grandchild actually exists out there in real life), or an internet relationship turns damsel-in-distress who needs money (but won’t ever visit you, for various reasons, of course). That email you got that said you have a super-rich great uncle who was actually a prince in a faraway land that left you millions of dollars? Uh...no.

So even if you think you know who you’re wiring money to, double check with them through another form of communication to make sure it’s really them. Or, you know, make sure they’re a real person you’ve spent a lot of time with, and not some hairy fat dude pretending to be a blonde princess in a high castle.