Here are just a few scams and hoaxes going around RIGHT
NOW
Any email you receive that is NOT from a personal friend
or relative is a potential SCAM! I use Outlook for my
email and have a “Rules Wizard” set up to move
any mail that is from someone NOT in my address book to a
special SPAM folder. Be VERY weary of any unsolicited
email as you would any regular mail.
The BASIC RULES:
1. Never open an attachment.
If it is from a friend, ask them in a reply email if it is
ok FIRST.
2. Never give out personal information.
3. Never give out ANY banking or financial
information.
4. Never send money!
5. Never delete files from your computer
without checking first.
6. DON’T SEND chain emails.
They clog up and slow down the internet.
Here are just a few scams and hoaxes going around RIGHT NOW:
“ You’ve won!” No you didn’t!
This may be an attempt to get you to pay a ‘small’
charge for delivery of something that is worth less than the
delivery charge.
“ Bank Security Update & PayPal” These
schemes try and get you to enter your account user-id and
password. NEVER do that for ANY reason!
“ Spywarenuker” Never download ANY program
unless you have verified that it is OK
“ Nigerian Free” No you won’t be saving
anyone’s life and you won’t be repaid.
“ You have a virus” No you don’t.
Don’t start searching for and then deleting files.
Check one of the links below first!
“ Phone Or Pager” You get a message that asks
you to return the call to an 809 area code or some other area
code. Watch out, it could cost you US$50/minute
A few more from the US Government’s FTC site (http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/doznalrt.htm):
Business opportunities.. Bulk
email..
Chain letters.. Work-at-home
schemes..
Health and diet scams.. Effortless
income
Free goods Investment
opportunities
Guaranteed loans or credit, on easy terms
Vacation prize promotions
Credit repair Etc,
etc, etc!
A new Internet job scam has swept the world and has got U.S.
authorities in a jam. Apparently many job seekers unknowingly
signed up for a job that was posted on-line but ended up becoming
part of a ‘postal forwarding’ (AKA ‘reshipping
fraud’) scam. To find out how so many law-abiding citizens
fell for this scam that has turned them into criminals, surf
over to: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3730401/
One more, from http://www.fraudbureau.com/articles/consumer.html
International Telephone Fraud. In this scam you receive an
email message stating that a large order of goods
has been billed to your credit card and you must call
an international number to cancel
the order. Once you call the
number, you are later billed for the international long-distance
call.
Favorite LINK – CHECK THESE SITES OUT FIRST!:
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html
A HUGE list of hoaxes found on the internet and thru emails.
http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/ Hoax Busters. Great
site with a search form. Enter your category (like PayPal)
and see what it says!
And just for fun: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/ Hoaxes
through history (non computer).
You can report all email scams to:
The Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) https://www.ifccfbi.gov/cf1.asp
and
List of places to file complaints for different types of email
Scams and SPAM: http://www.elsop.com/wrc/complain.htm
Lastly: Internet privacy concerns in early 2000
caused a cookie debate that still rages to this day. Most
Internet cookies are incredibly simple and safe, but they
have received a lot of bad and erroneous press. Cookies allow
a Web site to store information on a user’s machine
and later retrieve it. In simple terms, cookies provide capabilities
that make the Web much easier to navigate. For more information
on what cookies do and to clear up what they don’t do,
check out:
http://datadr.com/redir.cfm/Histology_8/
