So recently I’ve been getting scam emails. For anyone who accepts clientele online, or for that matter, anyone who corresponds with anyone else online, watch out for scams and frauds.
I’m going to talk about some signs of a scam or fraud, and also post an email that I’ve gotten recently that is a scam, but looks very business-like and serious. Read on!
An immediate thing to look for is foreign checks or money orders. If someone mentions using a foreign check, a money order, or even being from some other state, providence, or country and wanting to pay for services using a check, this might be a scam. And the reality is that even if it isn’t a scam, you just never know with foreign checks and money orders when dealing with people that you can’t see.
A great alternative for accepting payments from people in other geographical locations is PayPal. All bank accounts and credit cards are verified through PayPal and you don’t even deal with that kind of thing directly, just a user’s PayPal account.
There are other telltale signs of a scam, for example:
Being asked to receive items shipped from somewhere else, perform a service, and then ship items somewhere else usually means stolen goods are involved and when things heat up, the FBI or your local law enforcement agency comes looking, you’re going to be in between them and the true scammers.
There are also phishing attempts that can make a fraudulent website look like your local bank or cedit union website, and entering any personal information into this new website will open up your account to the scammer.
All of this sounds like doom and gloom, but there’s a bottom line to all this.
Aside from auction scams, most scams arrive to you in the form of email, and consequently, are easy to sidestep. So, if you aren’t expecting an email, be cautious, even if it looks like it came from your bank or credit union. Your bank or credit union is much more likely to call you, write you, or act first and ask questions later, because they’re in the business of keeping your money safe.
Another important thing to remember about phishing scams is that the phishy website will be linked from the email you received. Accessing your bank/credit union website directly, not through any email you’ve received is the safest bet.
Check out these websites for more information:
PC World – Top Five Online Scams
Internet Fraud: How to Avoid Internet Investment Scams
Online Scams: A Message from the Federal Trade Commission
And here is the text of one of the many scam emails that I’ve been getting:
Hello,
How you doing?
My name is Natasha Williams. Originally, from Bronx, New York. I work in Germany presently. I read your description and am interested in your services,I will be importing some computers into the states soon. The PC are laptops Pentium 3 dell & hp Computers…i want you to Install softwares, clean inner & outer computer components and update softwares to current status. They are about 10;10 computers. I have a shipping company that will ship them to and from you . So no worries about that . I will be providing the softwares to be installed . Installation of softwares; anti virus,Microsoft excel,powerpoint,adobe pagemaker,microsoft office,coral draw and dvd player. These are the softwares I will provide and will provide each drivers/license keys for this softwares .Get back to me with a price for 20 computers . I will like you to know this wont be an end to our transaction as I will be able to introduce you to more of my friends in this field depending on charges as we recently lost our engineer for as regards. I might have more work for you in the near future. Let me know.
Let me know if you’ll accept money order or check as mode of payment. I await your urgent response so that i can put arrangements in order.Thanks
Natasha.
natwilly03@gmail.com
One last telltale sign of scammers: Very poor grammar.
Farewell and may the interwebs grant you safe emailing and browsing.
