How to Understand and Avoid Email Scams21 Apr
Most people today have one or more email addresses and somewhere or the other there are databases of email addresses – this is the information that scammers use and send generic emails, knowing that a small percentage will get ‘hooked’.
While a lot of email providers now have spam filters, they don’t always work. That is why a person with an email address tends to get a lot of emails which take them to porn sites, or freeware, free stuff, phishing and more which then open the door to scammers who may be hacking into your accounts or taking your money one way or the other.
Different email scams
There are innumerable email scams – we are not even discussing email hoaxes which don’t ask for money but are simple hoaxes or chain letters.
These are some of them:
- Free offers of goods or coupons for discounted products
- Dire warnings of virus/Trojan attacks
- Emails purportedly from banks which are actually fake emails
- Fake appeals for various charities or charitable causes
- ‘Too good to be true” job offers (specially if you have posted your resume on a job site)
- Lottery scams
- Nigerian scams
- Dating/marriage scams
- Wire payment scams
- Cheque over-payment scams
- Tax refund scams
- Work from home scams
- Telemarketing scams (using the computer instead)
- Insurance scams
- Letter of credit scams
- Ponzi scams
- Pyramid or franchise scams
- Cheap medicines scam
- Jury duty scams
- Timeshares
- So-called ‘free calls’ which are exorbitantly priced
How to determine if the email is real
Occasionally you may get a real email and may actually lose out by thinking that it is fake. While this is rare, it does happen. If you receive an email from a company it should have the company’s email and not some common and untraceable email like yahoo, gmail, live or hotmail.
The email should provide a reachable address and contact number. If it is in some of the Slav countries, third world countries or Africa, it is more likely to be a scam.
If the email uses strange and/or flowery language, incorrect language and grammar, links which don’t work (though you should be wary of clicking on links from emails anyway), uses pressure tactics like ‘offer is for a limited period’ and you should ‘act now’ it is probably a scam. If it offers you highly discounted prices for goods or services, you should be wary.
Information you should never provide on email
If any email you get asks you for identification numbers like your social security number, passport number, personal details, bank account numbers, IDs, or asks for wire transfers, western union transfers, be very careful. It can lead to identity theft, money taken from your accounts and worse.
Try never to give out credit card information on websites and never on emails. Even if you are using credit cards on the net try and use the virtual or netsafe ones which either have a limited ceiling or expire when unused and use the virtual keyboard provided so that if you are the victim of a keylogging hacking software you have some protection. If you do a lot of credit card transactions on the net you should try and get credit card insurance and also contact the credit card issuer if you want to put a ceiling on the amount that you want charged on each transaction. This will protect you to a great extent.
If You Have Been Scammed
If you have been scammed or suspect that you have been a victim of an email hoax there are some things you can do. In another country check with the local law enforcement agencies or police as to how and whether you can proceed in the matter.
In the U.K. you can contact the local police for more help on how to proceed. If it is a consumer complaint you can call Consumer Direct which is available on a single national telephone number – 08454 04 05 06 – from 0800 – 1830 Monday to Friday, and 0900 – 1300 Saturday, excluding bank holidays and public holidays. Their site is http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/about/how-we-help/
Another site: http://www.nafn.gov.uk/index.asp?BodyContent=ReportFraud
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/UKgovernment/index.htm
In the U.S.A. the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) accepts online internet crime complaints from either the person who believes they were defrauded or from a third party to the complainant. You can go to their site: http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx
This site has a lits of links where you can file complaints: http://www.elsop.com/wrc/complain.htm
Other sites:
http://www.revengeofthescammed.com/
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/313051.stm
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