Internet scammers prey on curiosity, financial need during an economic turndown, and generosity. Victims of these Internet scams often end up devastated and penniless, an outcome conveniently ignored by the scammers who justify their criminal activities by blaming greed and stupidity for people being hooked in. The permutations of online fraud are legion, but the bottom line is this: the originators are criminals and are attempting to obtain money by fraudulent means.
Anyone who has lost a friend or family member to suicide, their having been defrauded of their life savings for what they thought was a genuine lottery win, or a charity, will understand first hand the absolute necessity to do everything possible to combat internet scams.
Asking for personal details in money scams
One of the biggest giveaways in identifying internet scams is the request for personal details such as name, date of birth, address, telephone numbers, and sometimes even passport numbers or scans of ID. No legitimate organisation would dream of asking for ID across the internet or ask for contact details. Internet criminals use such ID scans on other unsuspecting victims to add credibility to their scams, and once in possession of enough stolen details this will progress to identity theft, bank accounts being opened and fake cheques generated.
To double check that something is a scam, copy and paste the “from” address, the name of the sender or the email address, and paste it into a search engine. More likely than not, up will come several references to it in scam watch sites and forums.
The most obvious thing to do with scams is to delete them. However, having identified that this is a scam, or if there is any uncertainty at all, link up with and report fraud emails to the police-backed National Fraud Authority at Action Fraud in the UK, and use sites such as Scamwarners.org which offer advice and support to anyone who has been caught up in these scams. These sites regularly post scam emails so that they can be crawled by Google and found in an engine search, to enable other people to find them and confirm that their emails are fraudulent.
What they will need is the header, which gives the route the email has taken together with the trail of IP addresses it has come through, and the full email. Help is always available for new members to find their feet, how to find the information they need in the email, and start posting.
Safeguard against Internet fraudsters
- Do not send scans of passports, driving licences or any other form of ID: scammers will use these to try to establish themselves as bona fide officials of various companies and organisations.
- Post scam emails with their headers at a site such as Scamwarners where help and advice is always available for those who need advice or support.
- If payments have already been made to them, stop. Do not send any more money, ignore their subsequent emails and visit a support site for help, support and advice.
- Do not reply to their email or be tempted to tackle these scammers alone. Sites like 419Eater.com have experienced people who deliberately bait scammers with anonymous emails and they bait safely and legitimately. Join them and learn the techniques to prevent any dangerous consequences of using personal or identifiable details.
Protect personal emails and computer equipment from scammers
- Never open an unexpected email that has an attachment as these will often contain malware.
- Anti-virus software is crucial, as is having a good firewall in place to flag up and prevent any intrusion attempts when receiving mail.
- When signing guestbooks do not leave your email address if it is going to show up publicly, otherwise it will be harvested by scammers. Similarly, when applying for membership of online sites, use an email address dedicated for that purpose unless the site is secure. Vast lists of emails are sold on throughout the scamming community, usually gathered from unsecured websites.
- Double check the spam settings on personal email addresses and delete any spam on a regular basis.
Internet crime prevention is evolving and the detection of scammers is becoming easier. However, until all internet fraudsters have been put out of business, it is down to everyone to be cautious of what slips uninvited into the inbox. The old saying holds good and bears repeating many times: if it sounds too good to be true, it most probably is.
Suzanne Bosworth - Suzanne Bosworth BA (Hons) - a professional writer published in magazines, journals and websites, specialising in arts, history and ...
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