I love Dr. Gregory House. As a journalist, I can really appreciate his view that "Everybody lies." That may be too cynical for most people, but when it comes to dealing with your e-mail I'm not sure it's possible to be cynical enough.
Every day, and I mean every day, I get not only spam messages, but notes trying to trick me into going to a site that will infect my Windows PC with malware or con me into giving up my bank account or credit-card numbers. You simply can't trust anything you find in your e-mail box.
Here are some of the most common scams. Many of you might think, "How could anyone fall for these?" The sad truth is that people fall for them every day. That's why thieves use them. If you already know them, think about your friends and relatives who aren't as smart as you are and send the URL to this story to them. You might save them a lot of money or, at the least, a busted computer.
1) Money for Nothing. To knock off the obvious first, no one is going to send you a million dollars. Sorry, it's not going to happen. And, if by some weird chance, an unknown relative does die and leave you some cash, they're not going to let you know about it by an e-mail.
On a personal note, my dad really is dying of esophageal cancer, and I'm getting sick and tired of fraudsters trying to steal money by using this particular ailment. Oh, and by the way, if he did have a million dollars, he'd be spending it on medical care.
2) Phishing. Who hasn't got a message that purports to be from your bank or credit-card company saying that-Oh No!--something has happened to your account and that you have to login at the Web address below to set things right.
Oh yeah, sure it has. First, if something does go wrong with yo ur online financial account, chances are they're not going to let you know about it. For example, after Albert Gonzalez, swiped millions from TJX and Heartland Payment Systems, the 130-million credit card users who had their information stolen found out about it the old-fashioned way: by postal mail.
Never, and I mean never, respond to any e-mail telling you that one of your account is in trouble and that you need to login to the supplied link in the message. The chances are 99.9999% you're being set-up to be robbed.
3) Spear-phishing. Phishing, rhymes with fishing, is pretty easy to spot once you know what you're looking for. Spear-phishing attacks, in which the messages look like they're coming from a friend or it sounds like the writer actually knows something about you, are harder to spot. In the first place, they may appear harmless.
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My 70-year-old father needed this article a week ago
I wish my dad could have read this a week ago. Last week he fell victim to some email claiming to have his bank account information. He BELIEVED the email that claimed somebody in another country had accessed all his bank information and stolen it off of his computer. Apparently the email also included "instructions" on how to download a "free program" that would fix it. Instead of calling me, he panicked, clicked on the link, and it downloaded and installed some virus that basically wiped out his hard drive. He then called Verizon (his ISP) who informed him that his computer was ruined and that he needed to "destroy" it because it somehow still had sensitive information on it. So he did. (I wasn't able to get the details from him on what this "destroying" meant.) And then, still frightened, my dad called his bank and had all his accounts closed and new accounts opened. Now he has to contact all his utilities and everything set up for recurring billing with the new information, all while he waits for his new debit card to come ("5-10 business days"), etc. In the end, it was a disaster -- AND he's now without a computer and can't afford a new one!If he had simply called me before opening the email, I could have stopped him and none of this would have occurred.
Great article!
My favorite
My all time favorite email is the hot princess who's father is persecuting her or is a king that's being overthrown. They need to use your account to hold their vast fortunes until they can flee the country. She's always cute and always in Africa for some reason. It's like "Pretty Woman pt2: guy in trailer home and hot nubian queen"HAving had the same email
HAving had the same email address for 9 years now, I too, get a ton of spam- now I let Gmail deal with it.A couple of comments though- the emails where the trojan/bot/whatever isn't configured correctly are priceless- dear{*&^%name} or somesuch.
I must admit though- as I page through the spam (and every now and then get a real email that was caught)- I find myself scanning the headings..... yeah- ed drugs, diet drugs, western union million dollar transfer... hang on- a $2,000 Lowes gift card? Heck, I can use one of those.....
Then my brain kicks in to gear :).