Email scammers are getting craftier by the minute. Until recently, almost all of the email scams bombarding our inboxes were obviously just blatant lies. Some classic examples of prehistoric email scams include the following…
- A Sob story begging you to send money for someone that you have never heard of, who is in dire straits. In actuality, these are more than likely just con artists who know how to tug at heartstrings.
- An email from your friend who went on a trip to a faraway place and got stuck without any money because their wallet was stolen or lost. These scam emails always include a request not to try to get in touch with anyone else that knows the sender because of some phony baloney another. By now, everyone knows not to send money, but rather to call up your friend, and tell him or her that someone has hijacked their email account and is trying to rip off his or her loved ones.
- Your long lost relative whom you have never heard of, and is from a country that you didn’t know existed, has died and left you their whole trillion dollar estate, and you just need to send a small fraction of the value of the inheritance in order to receive it.
The list goes on and on, but everyone has gotten wise to these crude and old-fashioned schemes since the first time they opened up their inbox and wondered if that email might really be true.
I have to give it to them, the con artists have gotten much better since the olden days of email scams. Today there is a new, and much more slippery, trick that the scammers have invented, and it’s called “Phishing.”
A phishing email claims to be from a well-respected company such as PayPal, your bank, or the IRS, and it often includes a realistic looking logo and professional background to boot. A phishing email is much less noticeable than most scam emails because it never asks you to actually send any money.
The claimed goal of a phishing email is either to inform you of something that is urgent about your account, to perform a routine check-up for record keeping purposes, to inform you that someone was trying to sign into your account, or something of the like. The phishing email will then request, in a professional and dry manner, that you either sign into your account or provide certain details about yourself “for verification purposes.” Of course, within the text of the phishing email a link to another website is provided, seemingly for your convenience. Clicking on the link will send you strait to a sight that looks very similar, or identical, to the site that it claims to be. If you sign into that site with your sign-in information, or provide any other sensitive financial information, you will have, in effect, given the con artist access to your account.
If you do receive a phishing email the next step is to immediately report it to the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission, or your states attorney generals office.
Scott Hersh is a business blogger for BCAblog.com the official blog of BusinessCashAdvance.com, leaders in merchant financing.
This post has been contributed by a guest poster. Their details, if any, appear at the end of the above article.
Twitter: harpreet4564
says:
Thanks to share a good information about email scammers.
piracetam’s recent post ..Nanogen Daily Volume Conditioner
Twitter: freedommmc
says:
Very sharp website good post.
I am shocked at how many issues there are with our information security even in 2012.
Who knows what is going on these days.
Jacko’s recent post ..Make a splash online
Twitter: ithauphy
says:
Thank you,,I always receive an email that contains a business with huge income. those businesses offer that can get the highest millions of dollars in a short time. It is difficult to distinguish which one an affiliate program and which one is a scam
aufa’s recent post ..Learn Google Adsense to Monetize a Blog
Twitter: elliepowell1912
says:
Enjoyed your article on phishing and email scams. I am not into internet marketing; but, merely looking for ways to popularize my new site on anxiety attacks. I intend to be in email contact with visitors to my site but want to do so in a manner not abtrusive or ‘scammy’. Thank you
Ellie
Ellie’s recent post ..Symptoms of Panic
Twitter: BreakTheSec
says:
Most of peoples believe these type of emails are real one and become victim. This article will help them to understand about scam mails.
You can report spam/scam mails at @ehackingnews.com .
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Twitter: hmezacom
says:
yes i see what are you talking about, i also suffer of this email scamers and my users ,
i do my best to stop it on my site,
thanks sharing this informations
Hey Scott,
Email scammers are definitely getting more craftier in how they scam people. I haven’t fell victim to a phishing email as of yet but it’s good to know the steps I can take to handle the situation. This is the reason why I don’t even open emails if you’re not a family or friend. Thanks for sharing.
John@Beginner Guitar Lessons’s recent post ..Fundamental Classical Guitar Lessons For Beginners
Thanks for all these advice. When I saw your title, I could help but reading it! And honestly how can be such email scammers….we are not safe anywhere we go, especially in the internet space:(
Anna’s recent post ..dentists in london
Twitter: ForteProperties
says:
Google warns you anytime an email sender is suspected of phishing. Pretty cool feature. This scamming method is becoming more popular i’ve noticed and email providers are doing a lot to help prevent it which is good.
Chris @ Homes For Sale Austin’s recent post ..How To Purchase Owner Financed Homes in Austin Texas
wholly cow! that is kinda scary. Thank for the post.
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Thanks for the help and the warning you gave us here…
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Twitter: techsparx1
says:
hello
thnx for sharing it with us really to prevent urself frm these scams we need to read this post thnx for share nice post
vishvast’s recent post ..Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
Thanks a lot for sharing this inspiring post..I really appreciate it..
joyce’s recent post ..Student Insurance Advice
I’m still so surprised that people can still fall for any email phishing scams in this day in age.
However it’s nice to see people out there still willing to arm people with the knowledge they need to avoid such scams! Keep up the good work.
Thought i’d link you to a related article I wrote myself. The scams mentioned therein still screw people out of millions every year so hopefully people visiting this page can benefit, or maybe some of the tips therein can feature in one of your future pieces?
http://euromillions.com/lottery-email-scams
Let me know your opinion
!
Twitter: AmandaBlogger
says:
Thanks a lot for sharing this post, I think that all people who will read it, will have an opportunity to prevent themselves from scams
BuySellWordPress’s recent post ..WordPress Themes
Quite familiar emails. I even laughed at the email stating that I received an inheritance and that I have to send some dollars to someone immediately. Right now I just don’t read emails that are obviously spams and scams.
Thanks for sharing, now it’s easier to me to avoid scams
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i agrre on that, there are manyy scam on internet and people should be aware of such scam on internet and should be safe while making any transaction, nice post…
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If you have any sort of concern for your account or think that there may actually be something wrong with it, don’t be afraid to check. Instead of clicking on the link in the email, though, just open your web browser and go to the real website and log in from there. If there are any issues, they will generally have some sort of alert for you once you are actually logged in.
Hi,
Nice that you share this article. A fried of me was a victim of such a e-mail. He ist no good with Computer and so he click an such an e-mail and than the problem was big. We had to reinstall the windows. After may friend was attackt by hacker i’m very carefully with mails from a sender i dont now.
Twitter: com_howtoguide
says:
Yeah I received a few of these emails before but I never bothered to even open them, I deleted them straight away!
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Good post. I think everyone that gets these things needs to send them to the right people so we can hopefully get ride of these. I doubt we will but I like to try. I get probably 3-5 every day and I have gone so far as to add the IRS and FBI emails to my contacts so I can just forward them when I get them.
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Not just that these days there are fake emails targeting banking accounts. A typical email goes something like – “suspicious activity seen on your account. For security reasons change the password”. And of course, the destination site is not the real bank but a phishing site which captures username and password.
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Twitter: 2009Taxes
says:
I clicked on the first phishing email in a long time today when I got an email from Google Adsense that wanted me to login to keep my account active. I didn’t login, but the email was fairly authenticate for someone that skims most emails.
Steve @ 2011 Taxes’s recent post ..Important News On The 2012 Tax Deadline
Thanks for sharing this information. once i was a sufferer of this scams. i paid in alertpay but the link identified as scam. my 20$ gone to water
I think that all people who will read it, will have an opportunity to prevent themselves from scams..Nice sharing of post..
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Phishing scams aren’t always noticeable, especially if the sender claims to be from a website you’re used to visitng, like AdSense, Blogger, WoW wtc. Good post!
This is really scary! A friend of mine recently received an email like this, but thankfully he was suspicious enough to call his bank to confirm – of course, they knew nothing about this. Good on you for spreading the word!
I often receive email from my friend. Similar contents as you write. But strangely, my friend did not feel sending the email. Is there a chance my friend’s email have been hacked?
masita’s recent post ..Top 5 Free Apps Android Market on February 2012
Thanks for posting this information, the more people that are aware of these scams the better. The best rule of thumb in my opinion is simply to never give any personal info over email. If you think about it, why would anyone legitimately need you to do this? The answer is they wouldn’t. The only people who would ask for your passwords or credit cards are trying to scam you.
Trevor