All spam emails we receive every day
in tens
or hundreds are annoying and disgusting.
But the worst
of them are scams,
hoaxes, and illegal
schemes aimed at defrauding
you of
your money, private information, and even
your life. Being aware of how the spam scams work
you will be able
to protect yourself against the spammers-fraudsters and not
to become a victim of their fraudulent schemes.
A lot of spam scams arrive in the form of a
great investment offer. It usually works as a Pyramid scheme. Spammers ask you to pay money for a membership, goods, or simply to
"invest" promising you much money as revenue. Your revenue
will come
from those people who will invest after you. Your investment
is distributed to those who joined before you. At some point the pyramid ruins because
there are not enough new
investors to keep the money flowing. The spammer
is at the top of the pyramid and he is the only one who benefits. The scan may not always look like
an investment offer. The spammers can ask you to distribute some advertising letters to a
list of email
addresses, for remuneration. Although they will tell you that the list
contains only opt-in email addresses, its not true, and you will be sending spam directly
from your computer.
Another fraudulent scheme you may meet
looks like a letter coming from a company that you do business with. Usually the spammer asks you to follow a link within the message supposedly to update your account. But actually this is done to worm you out your personal and
financial information. If you click on that link, you will be brought to a page that will look like a companys web site. While you are
logging in or filling the form in, the program is recording your keystrokes and
all your private information account number, user
name, password, social security number is disclosed. Never click on the links
included in such emails. Just open a companys web site in a separate window and
check your account details out.
Nigerian spam is one of the most dangerous email scams. The mechanism of the scam is simple. The spammer sends you a
badly spelled letter on behalf of a government official,
deposed ruler, or relative of a ruling family asking you for help. They have some goods, money, or jewels that they cannot access due to political
reasons. They ask you to allow them transfer large sums of money into your bank account. They promise to remunerate you for your kindness, or even leave
all money to you. Attractive offer, isnt it? Dont be a dolt, dont believe them. They tempt you into a trap. Their object is to obtain your account number and bank transfer information. They also may ask you to send them a fee to bribe some corrupt government
officials. Further you may receive additional officially looking letters where you will be asked to provide further documents, private information, and
money. When they have
played with you
long enough, or believe that you may
suspect to be led on, they will rob you and quite.
Take care! Dont react upon any spam message whatever tempting offer it contains. Delete it at once, or
let an anti-spam filter delete all spam before you download it into your inbox.
Julia Gulevich is a technical expert associated with
development of computer software like
AATools, Advanced
Email Verifier, G-Lock EasyMail, Spam and Junk Email
Filter http://www.glocksoft.com/sc/ More information can be found at Anti Spam Filter
Resources http://www.glocksoft.net/sc/.