Millions of scams are sent via email every day. How do you recognize them so as not to waste time? Here are some specially designed schemes to persuade you to part with your personal identity information or money.
Domain name renewals
Many domain name owners receive what appears to be a bill for their domain name renewal at several times the normal price three months before the renewal date. These are not invoices. They are offered to renew the name through another company. Sometimes they can be to register a name slightly different from yours. Compare the prices with your current registrar and you will see that they are scams.
Domain name registrations in foreign countries
Domain name owners are currently receiving offers to register their name with a foreign country’s extension, with the story that someone else has applied for that name. And that? Only if you want to appear to be located in that country, you’ll want to register a name there. Find out what your current registrar charges.
world directories
Every year, companies receive what appear to be bills for a listing in some worldwide directory. These are not invoices. They are offered to list it. Unfortunately, some companies pay them. If you’ve never seen a copy of such a directory, how do you know it was ever published? If there is a website, see if someone you know is on the list.
who’s who directories
We were once flattered by a nomination for inclusion in a Who’s Who. However, another contact from that organization requested a large fee for inclusion in the directory. Our answer is that if someone wants to include us in some Who’s Who, they can pay.
Offers to work from home
Everyone gets offers to get rich for working just a few hours a week. Of course, personal identification data is requested. Many of these offers are to facilitate money laundering through your bank account. If you want to work from home, decide on the type of business you want to work for. Find it or start it yourself. If it’s good, you shouldn’t wait for it to find you.
surveys
You are congratulated on the opportunity to win something from a wide range of prizes if you agree to complete some surveys. Why do they need your personally identifiable information? So they can steal your identity and use your bank account, of course.
promotional prizes
We fell in love once and agreed to accept a promotional prize from a well-known department store. They didn’t ask for our personal information, just our name and email address. No prizes came in, but hundreds of promotional offers came in from other big companies that now had our email address.
lottery prizes
You get a notice that you won a big prize in a lottery you never entered. To claim the prize, you must pay a fee and provide certain personally identifiable information. Of course! It is another plan to steal your money.
miracle cures
A survey identifies that you have a certain medical condition that can only be cured if you purchase a certain drug from a certain website. This is the only place in the whole world where you can get the medicine. Of course it is a miracle cure, but there are no guarantees!
bank account phishing
You are prompted to go to a screen and update your personal bank details, otherwise your bank will freeze your account. If you pass the mouse over the link you will see that it does not go to your bank, nor to any bank. You will go to a website where you can reveal your identity so they can steal your bank account. Most real banks caution that they never ask customers to log in via email.
nigerian letters
This generic heading covers letters from anywhere in the world with the common theme that a portion of a large sum of money, which the sender wishes to secretly remove from a country, is offered to the recipient in exchange for some personal identity information and the payment of some fees.
These came to the attention of the authorities in the 1960s when letters produced on old typewriters were received from Nigeria. The reasons for the offers differed and were quite creative, but the method was always the same.
Surprisingly, these schemes caught a number of unsuspecting people back then and have continued to catch people for almost fifty years, now by email. Every day a potential victim is born.
What is common to all scams?
Scams are designed to appeal to some human trait: greed, fear, ego, etc. Scams have always existed. The Internet simply allows them to reach more people faster.
Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! Use common sense. Get independent advice. Only provide your personal identity or credit card information to people you know and trust.
The scams will continue as long as there are naive people.
Our web host has a good spam filter on their email server that filters out all the scam categories we identify. We frequently add to that filter as scammers rephrase their emails. But the number of scams that get past our filter is shrinking.
Be alert, recognize scams and save time by filtering them out before they reach you.
