The abundance of scam artists on the internet is almost sickening. Actually it is sickening, to be honest. Most of these scammers are praying on the ignorance people have of the internet. A lot of people do not quite understand how it works or why it works. They see a pop up that says “your computer has been compromised” and they think its real. These are just coding skills people have implemented in sites to trick you into eventually paying them money. Now this is no different with “Email Scams”.
How DO I know If It’s An Email Scam?
OK, So let’s get down to the basics.
- First off, Do you KNOW the sender of the email?
- Is the “Subject” sound too good to be true?
- In the “Body” of the email its all words but the sentences do not make any sense at all
- There’s some sort of attachment (DANGEROUS!!!!)
- Email looks like your bank or another institution asking you to login (Also Very Dangerous!! Known as “Phishing”)
Now that I have wrote down a few basics lets talk about each individual one and what to look for.
Random Sender….
This one is quite obvious to some and can easily fool others. Look at the sender. Could be random letters and numbers from some unknown domain. Eg. “cfecqmebigmyc@mclabels.com” Another trick I noticed in my spam folder is they have whom ever their name is in the email as their domain name. Here’s some examples: amy_strickler@amy-strickler.us, HARRY CHAMBERS <info@harrychamber.org>, sam_leung@financier.com via secureserver.net and there’s many many more.
Key thing to remember here folks. Is anyone can create a domain, anyone can make up any email they want and you can also make up emails at any free service like “Gmail” and “Hotmail”. Now these two services have built in spam services. But none the less a few emails will slip through the cracks into your inbox. If they can trick the computers, they surely will trick a few of you. This is why I want to help people become aware of whats really out there. Help them differentiate what’s real and what’s fake.
Wow That Subject Line Sounds Appealing!
“Run Forest, RUN!” Not even joking here. Have you seen some of these subject lines?
“Wanna know how he earned $34,173.80 in the 1st 3 days?” OR “So and So SENT YOU A FRIEND REQUEST” OR “PAYMENT AUTHENTICA
I mean the subject heading list is almost endless with garbage. “Hey I’ll show you how to make 10 grand in a month/week/day/hour…But just pay me money first off your credit card.” Yeah…No THANKS PAL. Also maybe not all these sites are trying to get you to buy something right away. Rather they are trying to get you to click a link to a website that has MALWARE or VIRUS’ embedded into the webpage code. Its usually done by implementing “Invisible Frames” with in the code of the website. With out proper virus protection you and your computer can become victim to whats commonly known as “Identity Theft“.
Identity theft is not cool by any means and far worse than just simply loosing your wallet at the local super market. From opening credit cards and loans in your name and just ruining your credit. A quick google search can uncover some of the most crafty and horrific identity theft stories.
“Hughes to look like an arm around”….Gibberish Email Body
Here’s an example of a recent email I got.
“them that reminded herself.
Smiling in your people who is here. White people who were no use some.
Hughes to look like an arm around.
Asked cora looked at least they. For anyone who is this. 1∴6 Ͻ L İ Є Ϗ Ȟ ËWRE
Said his attention to leave and george.
Me your own pa and watched josiah. Saw josiah said looking forward with.
Emma before leaving the ground.
Said nothing to set aside his hair.
Maybe we may not hurt her husband. Saw the lodge for very well.”
So as you can see there’s something that says “click here”. DANGEROUS. I removed the link so no one can see what or where it goes to. But this is just an example of the gibberish someone will send with catchy subject line.
Attachments – DO NOT Download These….PLEASE!
A lot of attachments that slip by the email scanning programs we have out there. Contain one or more of the following: malware, virus’, worms or trojans
All these have their severity. Each individual type can range in severity as well. Not only .EXE programs can be run. But there’s many types of file extensions that can be executed on your computer. Some of the potentially dangerous extensions can include any of the following .msi, .bat, .com, .cmd, .hta, .scr, .pif, .reg, .js, .vbs, .wsf, .cpl, .jar and more.
I’ve noticed lately .JAR files have been circulating around. I got a “phishing” email recently. From a site that I am a part of. The attachment was “invoice.jar”. Well I knew that I didn’t purchase anything recently and I checked the guts of the email to see where it originated from. Needless to say I deleted it and let the company know.
A lot of other times it will say something like “Download and watch this funny video”. Its all a bunch of hoopla.
Phishing
Phishing is not old. Its a way these thieves lure in unsuspecting people to give up their sensitive information. Including but not limited to usernames, passwords, credit card details, SIN/SSN. They do this by simply pretending to be a trustworthy entity in an email that looks and almost feels like the actual site they are masquerading to be.
Keep in mind that they will pretend to be any site on the internet. Auction sites, social media sites, online banking sites, online payment gateways (such as PayPal), cryptocurrency trading sites (Eg. CEX.IO or 1BTCXE) and pretty much any other site you can imagine with a login.
Nigerian 419 Scam
I just want to touch base on this subject. Its a common scam and has a multitude of ways that it is presented. So on this particular scam the way the person contacted me was not through email but LinkedIn. I cover social media scams here. I found this rather amusing so I went along with it to see which avenue this person wanted to take. If you Click on the txt image you can see the initial email she wrote to me after LinkedIn contact. Then later on in the scam to gain my trust she sends me what looks to be a scan of her passport.
So as the scam goes on and on. She wanted to see a piece of my ID. Sure. But with everything covered up! I wanted to see what was the next step. So finally I have to get these documents to the bank filled out she sends me this email I am to scan and send them to. Immediately I do a whois. So the subdomain of the link she sends me is named like the bank and the actual domain is free domain at a free webpage hosting service.
So after I got the falsified bank document. It was not like a real bank document at all. There’s little codes on them and extensive disclaimers and they usually don’t come in Microsoft word format! Have a look at the pic for the fake document.
This here is just an example of the length some people will go to just to get a hold of your personal information. Now i should have put down some bogus information and see just exactly how the scam keeps going. I can imagine somewhere along the line I would have had to pay for “bank fees” or some other transaction fee. Anything to get more information and money out of me.
Simple Rules For Email Scams
If you do not know who or what it is. Delete it. Has weird attachments. Delete it. Your gut feeling says delete it, DELETE IT. Some emails are pretty straight forward and you can see its just spam. Delete it.
Be safe out there. If you’re unsure ask me or do a simple search in google!
Darn, and I thought I really did win the East African lottery. Thanks for pulling me aside and talking some sense into me. Lol
Email scams seem to be in everyones gmmial, hotmail, yahoo mail, or whatever else mail that exists. I started getting a lot of scammy emails like this years ago. I just flagged them as spam and eventually after doing this enough they eventually stopped.
I don’t know if they got busted or just gave up on me because I was a lost cause. Either way, I never opened any attachments. I liked your approach to playing that scammer. I wouldn’t do that because I know I would forget to cover something important up and they would have me. lol
So, like you said, don’t ever open any Email attachments that you don’t trust. To many people have learned the expensive way.
Randall
I appreciate your humour! Lol
Spam filters are indeed important. I still like to go through my spam folder time and time again to see what the scam artists are coming up with next. Got to keep up with these guys cause they still manage to get money out of some innocent person.
I like playing with them. I love when they call me…it’s always a fun time. Lol (telephone scams)
Email attachments are always a no no if you do not trust or know the source,
Thanks for reading.
Pete
It truly is ridiculous how many scammers there are out there. For the most part, scams are typically pretty obvious, but sometimes they can be subtle. The worst ones I’ve come across are when the scam artist sending the email steals the logo of an existing, legitimate company and tries to act like they lost your personal information and need you to supply it to them again. The logo legitimizes it in the victim’s mind, but in reality, it’s a scam. Have you heard of instances like this happening? I almost fell for one a little while back.
Matthew,
That type of scam falls under phishing email scams as well. They are variations of phishing attempts. They are trying to get more and more clever but if we continue to be alert and share the shadiness with our friends, family and post it on the web we can slowly help everyone!
Usually most emails asking for information is some sort of scam. Although there are times where a company website and serves have been breached and they will tell you via email. The best thing then is to confirm by going to the company website and checking press release’s and sometimes it’s on the news as well.
Thanks for the response!
Pete
This internet scamming is getting to be a real pain. I keep having a problem where my computer freezes and a message comes up that my iMac has been infiltrated but don’t worry we can fix it for you. Getting rid of this message is a pain. The whole computer is frozen, I can’t even shut down so I have to resort to pressing the power button. When I come back in, it’s still there. I then found out it was a ‘safari’ based problem and once safari was shut down completely it did go away. I have had it return 4 times now.
I really feel sorry for the older generation. They were not brought up with computers and often find them alien and confusing. Older people are often much more trusting. They are usually honest and think everyone is going to be as nice and honest and them. Not so. It is these senior citizens that really get seriously scammed. I know of cases where all their savings have been taken by these toerags. Thanks for enlightening us to the different types of scams out there. Great article. Ches
Ches,
I too feel for the older generation. I have to consult my grandmother regularly and mom as well. Let them know what is and what is not a scam/honest. It can be very costly and sometimes hard to do a charge back to your credit card when you have been scammed.
I will do my best to keep updated here.
Thanks,
Pete
I don’t know how people have the heart to fool the innocent and take there money! I’m a victim of a scam and I know how it feels. I put myself in that position because I didn’t have the protection plan on my computer and I clicked on a link and it froze my computer and it said to call a number to fix it. of course I called and they wanted $300 dollars to fix and clean my laptop and of course I did it… they made a fool out of me because nothing happened they took my money and just unfroze my computer and I had to buy the McAfee LifeSafe to protect it from happening again. My nerves are up to the roof right now! haha. Just like you said its sickening. Keep alerting everyone Petey!
Hey,
My mom had that similar scam tried on her. But she told them that she was going to call and ask me. Magically her computer was unlocked. Then I proceeded to clean up her computer and let her know of some other ones out there and to read my website!
Its certainly horrible the lengths people will go to for money.
I’m certainly glad you are all protected now!!
I will do my best and keep things up to date!
Petey
First off any spam usually goes to my Spam folder in my email account. So that is the first step. I can’t recall having any spam go to my usual Inbox. I then will check my Spam folder just in can anything has gone in their by mistake. I am tired of seeing spam get in there. Is there anyway to stop this? How have they got my email address?
Owain,
The tricksters always have ways of getting or buying your email address from someone. I would say that you make a “junk” email account. Use it to sign up to blogs and other things that do not have a good privacy policy or use it for sites that you don’t want to read their newsletter but you have to sign up. That’s what I do. Keeps my main personal email inbox clear of the trash and unwanted, unnecessary emails!
Petey
Hello Peter
thanks so much for a well-written and easy to understand post.
Email scams have been around for a while now but many are still ignorant to them or think they can never be affected.It starts so easy with a simple and maybe even innocent sounding email.
I think what really draw people in are the headlines,sounding too good and easy to achieve whatever one is being asked to do.
But as you point out in your post,more people should be aware of such emails.
I find the email scams are still active because affected people are too humiliated to go public,they keep asking themselves how so stupid they could be and decide to suffer in silence.
I hope people will find the courage to just ignore these emails,but most of the time,they sound all so innocent and this is what draws people in.
Thanks for you input Roamy!
It’s up to us to keep spreading the word. Keep in mind. New people join the internet everyday! So awareness is key and always needs to be spread.
Petey
Hi there. This is such a great post on scam. In fact my email is full of scam since I started my online marketing. I grew up seeing this a lot because in the past they did not have a good scam email filter like what they have nowaday. I’m glad that you gave example on how they look like. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Kien!