subject: Secrets You Should Know To Protect Yourself From Online Scams [print this page] If prostitution is the worlds oldest profession, then confidence art is the second oldest. Confidence art is the occupation of the con artist.
The internet has opened a whole new avenue for scam artists. Online scams are projects designed to steal your money via the interenet. One good way to protect yourself is to get acquainted with as many scams as you can, so that you dont fall prey.
In one popular scam, the con hacks into your email through a chain letter or a suspect attachment. An email is sent to you, prompting you to open a certain attachment, download free software like smileys, or forward mail.
The mild version of this scam is that the con uses your email to send spam to everyone in your address book. It is usually something benign, like an advert for a service or product. The email addresses your contacts by name, then claims that you, the sender, are providing or endorsing the item or product.
Your contact, seeing your name, will assume the product comes from you and may unwittingly purchase it. Because the email addresses them by their name or nickname, which the hacker has obtained from your address book, the recipient will think the mail is genuine.
In a more malicious version of this scam, the con will send a distress call to everyone in your contact list. The will claim that you, the sender, are in some kind of trouble. It may say that you are stuck in airport and have lost all your money.
The scam mail will then ask your acquaintances to send some money to bail you out of your fix. It will usually give a bank account, phone number, or some other method of receiving the money.
Your friends, relatives and colleagues will probably be very worried about you and will send the money to the said account. It may be days, weeks, or even months before they bump into you and ask you about the money.
The main way to beat this scam is to change your password often, so that even if crooks access your mailbox, they will not be able to use it for very long. Also, you should regularly check your Sent mail folder to be sure that all the mails going out are mails that have been sent by you.
Finally. Never open attachments from strangers. And if you receive a distress call, before you send any money, phone the person to make sure they are the ones who sent it.
by: Rajiv Kumar
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