Avoiding Internet Crime: Don't Become A Victim To Scams


by Alastair Harris - Date: 2007-02-03 - Word Count: 755 Share This!

Internet crime continues to be on the rise. As knowledge is power this article seeks to educate you about some of the more common scams and how to protect yourself and your family. Unfortunately everyone on line will eventually have their e-mail bombarded with this evil stuff. This article is my art of revenge against such people who seek to rip us off and waste my time by stuffing my inbox. The more people who are aware of the scams and avoid them the less success they will have.

Firstly not every email you get is what is seems. In fact the problems has become so bad that my 'ebay' 'paypal' and bank fraud emails out number the genuine ones.

The biggest scam ever is the NIGERIAN scam. This fraud named after the country where it originated and where most of the material was sent out. Originally letters sent by post they play on peoples greed and go along the line of - "I am a government official (or rich businessman) who is seeking to deposit millions out of the country - please help me and I will give you a percentages" blah blah blah. The rest is just icing to make the cake look pretty. Basically if you are stupid enough to reply the crook will then devote even more time to scamming you. The internet has given these pieces of human refuse the opportunity to save on the postage stamps and use email and autoresponders instead. They then claim they need money to clear the deposit through various banks, agencies, etc - they may even send you an official looking cheque, bank draft or whatever will keep you in the 'game'. Seeing this cheque for millions plays on the victims greed to pay the 'clearance fees' which can be thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. The Nigerian scam has taken on many new forms - the Russian variant - "We are a company seeking business partners to deposit money in your country" - NO legitimate company requires this, they have banks and numerous other agencies willing to do this for very small service fees so why would someone pay you a thousand dollars plus to do this?! I recently even received a BHP variant. BHP is the largest company in Australia and a huge miner. The email says the same deal - we are looking for partners to ....

If you used common sense you would avoid this problem - why would a multi-billion company need you to handle money on its behalf - IT DOESN'T. The easiest way to avoid this scam is simply delete the email immediately. Don't bother replying they are sent automatically and the scamming it hoping you click on the provided link.

The ebay and paypal type of scam. This involves receiving an email that appears to come from ebay or paypal. Normally stating your account is under attack, or being subject to fraudulent activity and you must immediately click this link to change your password and protect your account. Of course the link goes to the crook who gains your password and immediately will start clearing your account. With paypal consider this a BANK ACCOUNT and never communicate via email for banking purposes. With ebay its easy to check if you have received genuine communication. Delete the email, then log on using YOUR link via your favourites menu checking the URL looks right. Go into the your message inbox - any real ebay email will also appear in your message inbox in your ebay account.

A similiar type of scam is identical but it comes from a bank. I laugh at the fact I weekly received 'alarming' emails from banks I don't even have an account with - Total frauds. Have a look so you can become familiar with this evil and then delete it.

Simple rules:

1) If it looks too good to be true - IT PROBABLY IS.
2) Only deal with companies through your own accounts and proper log ins
3) NEVER click a link on a email to get to your accounts
4) Delete any email you think is suspicious
5) Before acting contact the company direct
6) Never give out your passwords
7) Consider a SPAM filter

To those evil people who might read this - why spend hours on ripping people off when there are thousands of legitimate opportunities on the internet. If you spend half the time you spend of spreading harm on a legitimate business or MLM you would probably be millionaires by now. Plus by helping others in business you might actually feel good about yourself as well!


Related Tags: ebay, fraud, scams, crime, paypal, internet scams, internet crime, e-mail frauds, nigerian scam

For genuine internet opportunities visit - http://getfinancialfreedom4u.ws

This article is the property of Alastair HARRIS and his immediate family. It may be freely republished over the internet but must include original links.

Alastair HARRIS is the main promoter for article-gems.com article directory (visit http://www.article-gems.com) and the getfinancialfreedom4u family of websites, blogs and projects (visit http://getfinancialfreedom4u.ws) specializing in online business opportunities and education, income being generated by affiliate marketing, google, GDI, eBay, ebooks, clip flipping and more. Alastair is rated as an expert author on numerous article directories and is very open to assisting others on the internet

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