Spam Scams: How Not To Become A Victim
Author: Julia Gulevich

All spam emails we receive every day in tens or hundreds are
annoying and disgusting. But the worst of them are scams,
hoaxes, and illegal schemes aimed at defrauding you of your
money, private information, and even your life. Being aware of
how the spam scams work you will be able to protect yourself
against the spammers-fraudsters and not to become a victim of
their fraudulent schemes.

A lot of spam scams arrive in the form of a great investment
offer. It usually works as a Pyramid scheme. Spammers ask you
to pay money for a membership, goods, or simply to "invest"
promising you much money as revenue. Your revenue will come
from those people who will invest after you. Your investment is
distributed to those who joined before you. At some point the
pyramid ruins because there are not enough new investors to
keep the money flowing. The spammer is at the top of the
pyramid and he is the only one who benefits. The scan may not
always look like an investment offer. The spammers can ask you
to distribute some advertising letters to a list of email
addresses, for remuneration. Although they will tell you that
the list contains only opt-in email addresses, it's not true,
and you will be sending spam directly from your computer.

Another fraudulent scheme you may meet looks like a letter
coming from a company that you do business with. Usually the
spammer asks you to follow a link within the message supposedly
to update your account. But actually this is done to worm you
out your personal and financial information. If you click on
that link, you will be brought to a page that will look like a
company's web site. While you are logging in or filling the
form in, the program is recording your keystrokes and all your
private information – account number, user name, password,
social security number – is disclosed. Never click on the links
included in such emails. Just open a company's web site in a
separate window and check your account details out.

Nigerian spam is one of the most dangerous email scams. The
mechanism of the scam is simple. The spammer sends you a badly
spelled letter on behalf of a government official, deposed
ruler, or relative of a ruling family asking you for help. They
have some goods, money, or jewels that they cannot access due to
political reasons. They ask you to allow them transfer large
sums of money into your bank account. They promise to
remunerate you for your kindness, or even leave all money to
you. Attractive offer, isn't it? Don't be a dolt, don't believe
them. They tempt you into a trap. Their object is to obtain your
account number and bank transfer information. They also may ask
you to send them a fee to bribe some corrupt government
officials. Further you may receive additional officially
looking letters where you will be asked to provide further
documents, private information, and money. When they have
"played" with you long enough, or believe that you may suspect
to be led on, they will rob you and quite.

Take care! Don't react upon any spam message whatever tempting
offer it contains. Delete it at once, or let an anti-spam
filter delete all spam before you download it into your inbox.


About The Author: Author is a technical expert associated with
development of computer software like AATools, Advanced Email
Verifier, G-Lock EasyMail, Spam and Junk Email Filter
http://www.glocksoft.com/sc/ More information can be found at
Anti Spam Filter Resources http://www.glocksoft.net/sc/