E-mail Scams: Electronic Con Games

If you have an e-mail account, you've probably received an email that goes something like this:

"This letter may come to you as a surprise as we have not met before; it is with trust and belief that I write to you. I am Barrister __, a Solicitor at Law, the personal attorney to General__, of Nigeria. In 2002, my client suffered a heart attack and died....  I have contacted you to assist in recovering the fund valued at U.S. $6.5 Million left behind by my client before it gets confiscated ... ."

The email sender then offers to put part of that money in your bank account for you to keep. All you have to do is provide your banking information, such as your account number. People who have fallen for this scam are shocked when they learn that money disappears from their account.

This ploy -- known as the "Nigerian Scam" -- is one of many that exploit basic human weakness and desires. Don't become a victim.

The FTC's Scam List
The "Nigerian Scam" is one of the newer email ploys designed to separate people from their money. Many scams were devised in the late 1990s and continue to thrive. The Federal Trade Commission developed a list of the most common scams. Your internal "red alert" should go off if you receive any of these:

• Emails that offer business opportunities that will generate between $150 to $1,500 a day
• Bulk email solicitations that offer to sell you lists of email addresses for your own bulk solicitations
• Chain emails that encourage you to send a small amount of money to receive a larger return
• Work-at-home schemes that include envelope stuffing and craft assembly
• Health and diet products that promise easy ways to lose fat, re-grow hair, cure impotence, etc.
• Easy-income opportunities or publications that offer "secrets" to instant wealth
• Free products offers
• Investment schemes that offer incredibly high rates of return with little or no risk
• Cable de-scrambler kits
• Guaranteed loans or credit, on easy terms, regardless of your credit history
• Credit repair offers that promise to erase negative information from your credit file
• Vacation prize giveaways

More Recent Scams
A more recent scam is something called "phishing." It works like this:

You receive an official looking email from someone claiming to be associated with large online organizations such as America Online (AOL) or Amazon.com. They inform you that there is a problem with your account and that you need to resend your computer passwords, credit card information, and social security number. Don't do it! Companies like AOL never ask for that kind of information. Such emails come from scammers out to abuse your personal information or even steal your identity.

Your best protection against email scams is common sense.  If something sounds too good to be true, most likely it is. It's as simple as that. That's the way it was when the con man worked the streets; and that's the way it is now, when he has gone online.