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What You Can Do To Avoid Email Scams |
By:
Paul Wilcox |
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What You Can Do To Avoid Email Scams
Paul Wilcox
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.
Another fairly common scam is investments with extraordinary returns. They'll claim to be risk-free but this is obviously not the case. Once you send them your initial investment, it's highly unlikely you'll ever hear from them again, unless it's to ask for more money.
Remember these offers are worse than even ordinary spam. Legitimate businesses do not promote their products by spamming. They e-mail selected groups, generally those who have purchased from them before or voluntarily offered an e-mail address. Other offers should usually be ignored. Simply hit your delete button. However, even highlighting the e-mail in order to delete it can signal a spammer that you received one.
How To Avoid Getting Scammed
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.
Never send any private information like credit card numbers or username & passwords by email. Legitimate companies like Paypal or your bank will never ask for these things directly through email.
How do you know whether it's spam? Since, one man's spam is sometimes another's welcomed advertisement, there's no perfect answer. But there is one good rule of thumb: if you don't recognize the sender, it's probably not someone you want to hear from. After all, how many former dictators in Nigeria are you likely to know?
Are you wonder how to safely avoid email scams and other internet security threats? Find out how to http://www.onlinesecuritytoolkit.com/ stop spam and other security attacks on the Online Security Toolkit website. Visit http://www.onlinesecuritytoolkit.com for more information. Don't reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free http://www.uberarticles.com/?id=36663&b=79 unique content version of this same article.
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Article Source: http://www.statssheet.com/articles/article63728.html |
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