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How You Can Spot Email Scams
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We've all received spam trying to sell us things such as prescription medications, cheap mortgages and internet gambling. Most people just hit delete and move on, but there are some scams that are a little more serious.
One of the most common ones has been around for many years - the Nigerian bank scam. The person sending the email pretends to be the wife, brother, lawyer, banker or have some other relationship with some kind of government official in Nigeria. They tell the sad story of money that was deposited in a bank account but can't be accessed because the person has died. They offer to give you a share of the wealth in return for accepting a transfer of the money to your bank account. The catch is, you need to give them your bank account information and transfer several thousand dollars to them first for "expenses". Naturally, you never see any of the money that is promised after sending the expense funds. It sounds obvious, but people fall for this scam year after year, even though it has been going on for so long.
Other scams offer investments with huge paybacks. They always claim to be risk-free naturally, but once you've sent them your money it's highly unlikely you'll ever see any of it again, let alone profit. A similar scam involves credit cards for people with poor credit ratings. You send them a security deposit and processing charge and they send you a credit card. Unfortunately, once they have your fees you'll never hear from them again.
These fake offers are particularly bad for legitimate businesses who use email for doing business. Because so much email is spam, the internet service providers and email hosting companies work hard to filter it out. But these filters can sometimes stop legitimate email from businesses you want to hear from.
How To Sidestep These Scams
Never reply to spam. Doing so simply indicates to the spammer that your e-mail address is valid, and you'll receive more spam than before. Some spam contains a message offering to remove your e-mail address from their mailing list. Don't use even this service - it's nothing but another method for verifying e-mail addresses.
Above all, never give your credit card number, bank account details or private data to anyone unknown over the Internet. PayPal, for example, and other legitimate online businesses will never ask for your password in an email. One common scam is to fake return addresses and tailor subject lines and content so the message appears to be from them or another financial institution 'confirming' your information. Don't fall for them.
What is spam to one person may be a welcomed advertisement to another, so it isn't a simple thing to stop. But in general, if you don't recognize the person sending you the message, it's probably not someone you wanted to hear from. After all, how many former dictators can there really be in Nigeria?
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Are you wonder how to fully protect yourself from email scams and other online security threats? Find out how to stop spam and other threats on the Online Security Toolkit website. Visit http://www.onlinesecuritytoolkit.com for more information.
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