This month in the UK, the Office of Fair Trade is promoting their annual Scams Awareness Month. In support of their efforts, I’ve posted some scam avoidance tips on the UK Mail Blog. Since they apply just as much across the pond as they do State-side, I wanted to share them with you too. The first step in helping you to stay scam-free is to recognize the types of scams that are out there. Here are the three most common types that come in email form (which I’m sure some of you have seen before):
- Phishing scams – These are email scams that claim to be from an organization, like a bank, and they ask you click on a link which takes you to a Website that looks real but is, in fact, fake. When you log in with your account details and password on this fake site, the bad guys gain access to your private information.
- Lottery Scams – These are emails that tell you have won a local or foreign lottery and to get the money you have to pay processing fees and send personal details.
- Advance fee or fund transfer schemes – These are also called Nigerian ‘419’ scams where you receive an email, often times from someone claiming to be in Africa or Asia, and claiming that they have access to huge sums of cash but need your help getting it out of the country. In this scam, the criminal offers to send you a check for $100,000 and you send him back a personal check for $90,000 and keep the difference. The scam is, of course, that the initial check is bogus but may take several weeks to clear, by which point the criminal is long gone with your money.
You know what? Your bank will NEVER ask you for a password in an email, you have NOT won the lottery and all you end up with for those huge sums is a ZERO balance in your bank account. I’ve been collaborating with our Spam Czar, Mark, and we’ve come up with these tips to help you avoid the scammers:
- If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is – If someone stopped you on the street and said he needed your help smuggling millions of dollars out of the country, you’d be pretty suspicious. We recommend the same type of skepticism when you’re online. If you didn’t enter that Sweepstakes or Lottery, there’s no way that you won. Be extra suspicious if someone offers to send you money up front — as honest as I’m sure you are, that wealthy prince who offers to buy your iPod for 10 times its value isn’t as gullible as he seems.
- Check the FROM line – One big giveaway is when a seemingly official message originates from a generic e-mail address. If your bank has something to say to you, it won’t come from “security_services_293@freemail.com,” and when the IRS discovers a tax error in your favor, they won’t write to you from a personal account like “charlotte.magnolia@internetonline.gr” Check the return address and make sure it looks legit (including looking for spelling errors!)
Beware if someone requests personal information or any payment over e-mail – Yahoo! and other respected Internet companies will never request your username or password over e-mail, and neither will your bank, credit card company, or insurance agency. If a message is asking you to e-mail your sensitive information, that’s an immediate red flag. Likewise, legitimate companies will not request money up front for you to claim a prize you’ve won.
For good measure I’m including some of the choicest scam emails we’ve seen in the recent past. By arming with yourselves with the knowledge of what scams are out there and how to avoid them, you’ll be much safer online. As always, if you do see one of these scams, please do your part and click the “Spam” button inside Yahoo! Mail – it’s the single strongest way to let us know so that we can block these terrible messages.
Scammers Cupidlover, AKA Dave_scott45@yahoo.com and Mark_Terry002@yahoo.com are Nigerian scammers looking to give you a sad story…. using pics from Russian websites AND young boys as their “sons” to lure you into marriage or needing money to get to your state. They do their homework … know sites and street names of prominent locations in your town.. Cupidlover claimed to be the owner of WALGREEN’S
BEWARE.. notify date site and FBI IC3 …… date site is hesitant to remove their profile… letting them SCAM more women and men
Hi, I have been in the feild of computer programing, designing web sites and tech support for over 25 years. I have had so very many people ask me about emails that they have received just like the ones you speak about here. Many of them ignored my advice to ignore the mail, block the address, add it to email filters, report it as spam, and instead fall for the scam. But, the biggest question I get of late from people is this “how do I set up my filters on Yahoo mail?” Most people find it incredibly complicated and to put it mildly, for most of the users out there it is very complicated. Perhaps yahoo could devise a more user friendly version for the novice users to set up filters. But other than this, I mostly answer questions by giving them “common sense” answers. But I am glad to see it in print again, maybe now people will listen….OK they won’t until they get scammed that is. But here is my question, with all of the technology out there, the scammers have found a way to get in, why then can a way not be found to trace and catch them and get them out of the picture? For this matter, this is to all of you out there that come up with viruses, why!!!! Do you get some sort of thrill out of making the lives of people difficult? If you do you need to get a life, go outside, get off your fat butts and do something useful with your life. Don’t spend your day making it hard on the rest of the world just for your own jollies. All you are doing is making the manufacturers of anti virus software rich. But those of us that have to buy it do so because of you. Granted there are companies out there that actually hire people to write viruses so they can sell more software, but this is not only immoral for them but for you too, I hope you all burn in hell for it.
In my inbox I used to keep getting these emails from those random people talking about inheriting large sums of money and then needed my help getting it. I just deleted them and I haven’t gotten another one in like a month. But I keep getting these emails with the title “prayers from a friend” or “fanbox wants to be your friend” or it might even make up a name saying “___ wants to add you”
I looked it up online and its some kind of scam but i have nooo idea how to get rid of it.. I used to get like 20 emails a day from them, but the numbers have gotten smaller… but it’s still pretty annoying
Weird. I find the Yahoo spam filter works too good, and I have to “not-spam” a few thing no ‘n’ again. Then again, you may be getting spams that are actually individually mailed letters as those are the only ones coming thru to my inbox.
I have received numerous scam mails such as these.Best way I found to handle this is to respond and mention that this solicitation has been reported to FBI.
Trust me you will never hear from them again.
Yes, there is something you can do. First, complain to your mail provider (aol, hotmail, yahoo etc) that their spam filtering is not working properly. Second, do not fill out any online offers for a fee pc etc. Third, do not unsubscribe or reply to the spammer’s messages. That just lets them know they have a live email address that can be sold. Finally, if nothing else orks, change your email address.
Report to the authorities? Yes, a possibility. http://www.ftc.gov/spam/. Make sure that you include full headers with each spam report.
The issue you have with a trojan is NOT with your isp. Think about it logically. If your isp was infested, it would be a major news story. Thousands of people would be screaming. Your pc is infected, probably the hosts file. If you do not know what the hosts file is and how to clean it, see a local repair shop. Then get yourself protected with a good antivirus/antimalware program and scan on a regular basis.
I also always click the Spam button. I don’t even open these messages. But, I continue to get these over and over and over again. Is there anything you can do to stop them, or report them to the authorities?
I always click the Spam button whenever I get any spam messages but I always keep getting them again and again and again and it is very annoying!
If you could enhance your spam protection greatly it would be nice.
Thanks! Now I know what to do and not to do. You see I have seen many of these now and then and I wasn’t sure I could trust them.
ROCKY_0717@YAHOO.COM
Hi, Kaye: That does sound suspicious. Something called “Email Notifier Alerts” is asking you for your Yahoo! username and password? I think this program could be a virus trying to steal your password; have you tried running an anti-virus scan recently?
Hope that helps,
/m
I can spot them because I have so much experience moving dozens of them a day to my spam folder. You know, the folder where they should have gone in the first place. Maybe I should start forwarding all my yahoo mail through gmail’s spam filters. Nothing gets through their filter. Everything gets through yours.
I would like to see the RSS reader returned to yahoo mail as an application.
I make use of the status bar that is found at the bottom of the window of the browser. (IE or Firefox) If you hover your mouse over a suspicious link, it will show the web address the link points to. Keeping one eye on the accuracy of spelling of yahoo or ww3 instead of www will decrease the chance of getting scamed.
im reciving over 16 scam mail per day from people who claim i won a certain sum of money which of course its fake but is there any way to stop this…… its really anoying
yesterday I started getting Email Notifier Alerts in a small box at the bottom of my screen it says I have 55 unread emails in my yahoo mail I don’t have that many. I have clicked on the Go to inbox link in the alert but it always wants me to sign in and I don’t because I don’t need to do that normally. I have remember me on it. Is this something I should be concerned about? What should I do about it?
glad to hear from you i know things going ati like that but the trojan horse is not in my pc its in my ISP i connot connect to any URL IT ALWAYS COME OUT is no appropriate.the dean’s gaurdian sya i cnat remove it other wise i call and i forgot what it is.but confirmed the virus is in my ISP.PLEASE help me that.
thanks!
I know this is important stuff, but take a minute from the serious stuff and enjoy the new Yahoo! video celebrating 25 years of online communication. This is when online communication is at it’s best, illustrating our lives, too bad we have to deal with scammers, that’s the negative side of it. Communication Evolution