There are many email scams going around. I have recently searched and documented top ten of them currently hovering around. Please find time to read what experts have to say which you may have already observed.
It can really get your blood pressure depending on how you want to see it, going.
You log into your email box, hoping to do a honest spot of work or just catch up on your fun mail, and what do you think you see?
Your mailbox is clogged with mails by scammers who have nothing better to do, other than waste your time and see how they can make a quick buck in the process.
1. The Great Nigerian Scam, also simply known as 419
2. Pay up, get a guaranteed loan or credit card
3. Have you won a lottery?
4. Phished!
5. Hey, you're hired!
6. It's a disaster!
7. Time to travel?
8. Money can't be minted. . . or can it?
9. Join a chain?
10. Instant cures? Naah!
1. The Great Nigerian Scam, also simply known as 419
It's been going on for over a decade, and it's amazing how successful it continues to be. And that, probably, is because it appeals to two of the strongest aspects of human nature: kindness and greed.
Dearly Beloved, it will begin, or with a salutation to Respected or Kind Sir/ Madam. This will be followed by a heartfelt plea for help. You see, the person writing the mail either has tons of money with no way of getting it out of the country or has tons of money and wants to donate it.
In either case, they can't do it without your help because they are stuck in an obscure African nation that has either just faced a coup or is in the grip of an evil dictator.
(There are many variations to this theme. Sometimes it's a widow giving away her millions, or an Arab billionaire feeling altruistic and picking you to give his fortune. . . but all these are nothing but scams.)
They'll promise you a huge sum of money in return for your help, even though they know your motive is truly altruistic. You'll need to send money to a few selfish souls in order to prod them into releasing the said funds, or transferring it in your name, but person writing you the anguished mail promises to reimburse every penny and then some!
The more money you send, the more they wheedle out of you. Of course, you can be sure you aren't going to get a penny -- after all, they aren't going to share their ill-gotten wealth with you, are they?
Remedy: Hit the delete button immediately.
2. Pay up, get a guaranteed loan or credit card
You have to hand it to these scamsters; they are great students of human nature. And the biggest problem most of us mortal souls face is money.
Even as we juggle to satisfy our needs -- it could be that additional night out at an expensive new joint or the desire to buy an iPhone -- we just never seem to have enough money.
So, if someone promises you a 'pre-approved' loan or a credit card if you pay a small fee upfront, how can you not grab the offer?
You wouldn't actually, if you stopped to think for a moment. Why would you randomly be offered a pre-approved loan without a creditworthiness check? After all, the banks would like their money returned with interest, so they would like to know if you have the capacity to pay them back.
A credit card begs the same question -- why would any bank give you one without checking if you are capable of paying the bill every month? And why would they charge you a fee upfront?
Remedy: Pause to think; you'll automatically hit the delete button.
3. Have you won a lottery?
Almost everyone you know would have had this fantasy: of winning tons of money so that you never have to work again, never have to juggle your wants, go for expensive holidays and super-expensive shopping sprees and, in general, spend the rest of their lives wallowing in luxury's luxurious lap.
So, when an email pops up, boldly titled WINNING NOTIFICATION, and tells you that you are the lucky soul to have won a huge pile of cash, you have no reason to disbelieve it. Except for the fact that you
never entered any such sweepstake or lottery.
But that's taken care of as well -- you are either a randomly selected winner, or your email has been entered automatically. How? You don't know and we are sure you don't really care -- your attention is focussed on that never-ending series of zeroes after that initial number.
You're already writing your resignation and dreaming of all the exciting things you can do with the money when. . . Hold your horses! You need to send them a small processing fee (it's generally a small amount compared to the millions you've won, but it large enough to have one happy scamster scampering all the way to the bank).
If you've fallen for this trap, and are waiting for the moolah, it's an expensive lesson learnt. If not. . .
Remedy: Delete! Delete! Delete!
4. Phished!
There's no doubt about the fact that technology can make life much easier. For example, instead of going to the bank, standing in a long queue and dealing with a bored clerk, or even going to an ATM to check your balance, transfer funds or pay bills, you can just as easily do it over the Internet.
It's convenient, and it saves time! But those Internet hackers, the ones who want to make money ripping you off, have such activities firmly in their radar. The result? One of the most widespread scams to have hit mail in-boxes in recent times.
You'll get a rather official looking, and a rather frightening, mail that tells you that you urgently need to verify your identity with the bank/ shopping site because your account has been hacked.
The implied threat is that your personal details could be misused and you could lose money.
If you click on the re-verification link they provide you, that's exactly what's going to happen. As you key in your login name and password, it is captured by a computer programme.
You innocently heave a sigh of relief, thanking the stars for the quick alert from your bank. But your troubles are just beginning. The hackers now know your login and password and can easily skim all your money from your account.
Remedy: Be suspicious! If in doubt, delete. If you think the email is legitimate, call the bank before divulging any details on the Net.
5. Hey, you're hired!
You've been looking for a job, or a change of job -- something that will leave you with some free time so that you can have a life!
Then, like unexpected manna from heaven, such a job actually falls in your lap. You get mail from an impressive sounding company offering you the grand-sounding post in the finance or marketing department.
The company, the mail explains in professional sounding terms, is doing very well in its home country and is now expanding across the globe/ in Asia, including India. They need people and you seem the right fit. They have Indian customers; all you have to do is collect money from them and send it to the company (pretty much like a post box they assure you, you're not a recovery agent and don't have to run after their customers).
Your commission will be somewhere between 5 per cent and 15 per cent; all you need to do is drop the cheques/ money orders into your account and send the money, minus your percentage, to them.
Of course, you'll need to share some personal information, such as your contact details bank account details. It all sounds simple and aboveboard, doesn't it?
Soon, you'll actually receive cheques and money orders. You'll deposit it in your account and send money to your employers. Then, you'll discover the cheques and money orders are fraudulent. Which leaves you. . . yup, conned, having sent your hard-earned savings to a scamster. If you try to trace them, you find they've vanished into the Internet. . . oops, ether!
Remedy: Remember, nothing comes free. Take a moment to verify the mail's details; you may find what you actually need is the delete button.
6. It's a disaster!
Every time disaster strikes, in the midst of heart-wrenching human tragedy, there will be a few hard-hearted enough to make a quick buck.
When tragedy takes place on a large scale, help is needed from multiple sources on an even larger scale. Many of us pitch in. But be careful if you get an email asking you to help financially with disaster relief. It could be a scamster on the prowl.
Do not give out your financial details until you thoroughly verify the source is genuine.
Remedy: Make sure your aid goes to the right source; ideally, approach an NGO (non-governmental organisation). As for these scamsters, relegate them to where they belong -- in the trash!
7. Time to travel?
You're planning a much looked forward to holiday and -- stroke of luck! -- some interesting emails land in your mail in-box, offering you bargain holidays to these really exotic locations. It may even be a reasonably priced, decent sounding time share arrangement.
You click, send in your requirement, get a positive reply and even sign on the dotted line.
And then discover. . .
· That, quite simply, the whole thing was a scam and the money you've already paid is lost forever.
· There are certain rather expensive charges you have to pay that you were told nothing about.
· That the time-share is on, but the dates that are available to you are the ones that no one else wants because they are not convenient.
These scams peak just before, or during, the holiday season, so beware!
Remedy: Ignore these guys and book through a real travel agent, a state-run travel agency, or a reputed Web site.
8. Money can't be minted. . . or can it?
It's the classic scam and there are so many versions of it going on, both online and offline.
At first reading, or hearing as the case may be, it all sounds pretty plausible. The email will contain a list of people. You will be asked to send a certain amount of money to the person whose name tops the list. You will also be asked to forward the list to a certain number of people you trust.
The opportunity to make a good deal money, with minimal investment, will be impressively detailed. There will be quotes given, along with email addresses, of happily satisfied people who've already made their bundle. There are repeated guarantees and double reassurances that nothing, absolutely nothing, can go wrong.
If things go according the method listed, you may actually stand to make some money. But this, remember, is a scam. Most of the time, the mail is manipulated in such a way that the name of the scamster, or his friends, is always on top.
Even if the scheme is genuine, it works only if more people get added to the list and if they send money. And all such schemes have a strange tendency of fizzling out; only those who get in early make some money. This is the much prevalent Ponzi scheme. . . and sometimes even multi-level marketing schemes fall into this category.
Remedy: There's no easy way to make money. The easier way out is to aim for the delete button.
9. Join a chain?
It's tough but you still have to believe it! Chain emails, where you are asked to forward the mail to a certain number of people, either in peril because something horrible will happen to you otherwise or because Bill Gates will give you a substantial chunk of his wealth, is nothing but -- sigh! -- a scam.
Bill Gates, Mukesh Ambani, Jack Welch, Richard Branson, Warren Buffett and all the other super-rich people are NOT interested in sharing their wealth with gullible people who forward chain mail with the celebrity's name in it. Yes, forwarding mails will not get you a Nokia cell phone or an iPhone.
You are NOT going dogged by bad luck if you delete a chain mail instead of forwarding it. Your friends are NOT going to desert you. NEITHER you nor your family is going to fall seriously ill. NOR will unexpected good luck come your way just because you did forwarded the mail.
Remember, you are not doing anyone a favour by forwarding these mails. All you are doing is cluttering some else's email box. And, probably, allowing some malicious virus to track the email addresses -- and infect the computers -- of the people you've sent the mail to.
Remedy: Trash the mail. Pronto!
10. Instant cures? Naah!
This one is horrible, because it preys on your fear.
It will either outline a surefire cure for a deadly disease. Or it will tell you about how heating water in the microwave could lead to cancer. Or how talking on your cell phone when you are charging it will lead to the phone blasting into pieces in your hand. Or some such other stuff that sounds plausible, and possible, but is unfortunately not true. Like enhancing your manhood, or making you a better lover, etc. . .
Do not forward! It is just a blatant attempt to collect as many genuine email addresses as possible, so that they can then be used in other email scams!
Remedy: Destroy that mail.
NOTE: Never reply, even in anger, to any such email!
Housekeeping for the local volumes
