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?


emailscams

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 AUTHENTICATION.” OR “Transfer up to 100% Credits toward a US & British Degree!”

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. Nigerian 419 Scam

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. Grace_New_Passport

 

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.

bankScam

 

 

 

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!

 

 

 

 If you feel I have missed something or know of some other clever scams in the email world. Please feel free to comment below! Thank you!