We interrupt this column again to bring you special coverage
of even more SCAMS, SPAMS, RIP OFFS, and SWINDLES. And other
ways people all over the world (with too much time on their
hands) have of parting you from your money.
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.
Her are just a few scams and hoaxes going around RIGHT NOW:
“Problem with your account” This email talks about
a problem with your account. This type of SCAM is known as
PHISHING. Yes, they are ‘fishing’, for fools to
give them their PIN numbers and other information so they
can take all your money. It’s so sick because the emails
look like they came from your bank or PayPal or some other
company you do business with (I get them for banks I’ve
never heard of). You just click on the included link and fill
in the blanks. Yes, the link URL looks ligit and the site
looks good. NEVER do this. No bank or PayPal or others will
ask you to do this. If you are not sure, TYPE the URL into
your browser and go to the real site and investigate for yourself
or send the company an email.
You might also want to pop in to http://www.antiphishing.org/
from time to time. This site is constantly up dated and tells
you about the latest phishing scams http://www.antiphishing.org/phishing_archive.html.
What should you do if you think you’ve fallen prey to
a phishing scheme? Just hop on over to http://www.antiphishing.org/consumer_recs2.html
for a list of things you should do and law enforcement agencies
you need to contact. As far as software solutions to the phishing
problem, I’ve heard a couple people recommend a free
browser plug-in called SpoofStick at http://www.corestreet.com/spoofstick/
SpoofStick works with both Internet Explorer and Mozilla on
a PC [sorry Mac users] and it helps you detect spoofed web
sites. I’m kind of hesitant to add yet another bar to
my web browser, but don’t let my hesitation stop you.
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’s userid 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.
For a few more from the US Government’s FTC site (http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/doznalrt.htm):
And 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 LINKS – CHECK THESE SITES OUT FIRST!:
http://www.scam.com/ a great site where ordinary folks post
scams they have received. It’s organized by topic.
http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/security_response/threatexplorer/threats.jsp
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:
List of places to file complaints for different types of email
Scams and SPAM: http://www.elsop.com/wrc/complain.htm
