I thought today would be the same as every morning but when I checked my inbox I found that I have won 2 international lotteries that I had no idea I entered and the family of a dead prince in Nigeria wants me to perform. as next of kin and they will let me keep 10% of their net worth. With all this money coming in I’m going to live on an easy street and never have to work again.
Anyone with an email address could become a victim of the growing outbreak of identity theft, Nigerian scams, phishing scams, etc. People fall for scams because we are always looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. . These scammers would make great salespeople because they realize it’s all a numbers game. I get so many emails from all these different banks asking me to click here and update my information. Scammers know that most recipients of these emails will never respond, but if they send one that appears to be from CitiBank, they know that anyone with a CitiBank account will likely respond.
I received an email asking me to update my eBay account, Paypal account, and Chase Manhattan account. I know for a fact that I don’t have an eBay or Chase account. You’d think sites like Ebay, which has 120 million registered users, would send out an email to educate their registered users, but eBay says they don’t want any liability, so they just let their users get scammed. Most of these people will only lose money, while others will spend jail time or have their credit damaged beyond repair.
If you only check the local news, you should see a lot of stories about the scams that are currently out there. If you’re selling an item through eBay or the classifieds and a buyer sends you a check in excess of the payment price, this is likely part of a scam, especially if they want you to wire the excess funds via Western Union. If you get an email about working from home collecting payments for a company and they say you can keep 10%, then chances are you’re involved in a processing scam. If you get an email about someone dying without a next of kin and you want them to act like the next of kin, do you remember the old saying “if it seems too good to be true then chances are it is”.
Earthlink has created a web browser that will help you identify these phishing sites and I’m sure other companies have created something as well. Many sites have sprung up in the past few months to help educate you on what’s going on, and some of them will even offer support if you’ve become a victim. there’s one called ScamSafe, another one called Fraudaid, and my wife has one called idtheftnightmare. I can’t include the extensions because people think I’m promoting these sites and I’m not.
Just keep in mind that there are no shortcuts in life. If you receive a questionable email, ask someone else’s opinion so you don’t fall victim to a scam. Also remember that most banks and credit card companies will not send your information via email and if they want you to verify something, they may ask you to call them.