BEWARE OF ON LINE SCAMS

Internet makes it easier for scammers, con artists, and other online miscreants to carry out their virtual crimes, impacting our real-life finances, security, and peace of mind.

Online scams are constantly evolving, but here are the most common ones today. If you discover you need to remove spyware, be sure to use the best free spyware removal tools.

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• Nigerian 419 Scams.

 Nigerian 419 scams (aka Advanced Fee Fraud) date back to the days when fax machines and snail mail were the primary business communication tools. Today, email is the preferred method of these scammers and there are more Nigerian 419 Advanced Fee Fraud scams and victims than ever before.

• Phishing Scams

 Phishing emails try to trick the intended victim into visiting a fraudulent website disguised to look like a valid eCommerce or banking site. Victims think they are logging into their real account, but instead, everything they enter on the fake site is being sent to the scammers. Armed with this information, the scammer can wipe out the victim's accounts, run up their credit cards, or even steal their identity.

 

• Greeting Card Scams 

Greeting card scams arrive in email pretending to be from a friend or family member. Clicking the link to view the card typically leads to a booby-trapped web page that downloads Trojans and other malicious software onto the systems of the unsuspecting.

 

• Shopper-Needed Check Fraud Scam.

 The shopper-needed scam sends the 'new hire' a check for a few hundred dollars, instructing them to cash the check and take their portion, then forward on the remaining funds to the "employer." Of course, the check is bogus, it will bounce eventually, and you — the victim — will be liable for the funds you spent from the check, plus any service fees or fines that result.

 

 

• Reshipping and Payment Processing Fraud 

The ad should read: Help Wanted to illegally launder money on behalf of criminals. But it doesn't. Instead, it couches the crime in soft terms like 'payment processing' and 'reshipping transactions.' Don't be fooled — victims not only find themselves engaged in illegal activity, but they will also be on the legal hook for the entire amount transferred and any fees that result.

 

 

• Lottery Winning Scams 

 Lottery winner scams attempt to trick recipients into believing they have won large sums of cash, and then bilks them out of their own dough in a similar fashion to the Nigerian 419 scam.

 

• Pump and Dump Stock Scams.

 Pump and dump scams send large volumes of email that pretend to disclose confidential information about a particular stock in an attempt to inflate the price.

• Fraudulent Link Scams.

 Scams, in general, are the new malware delivery method. Social engineering is the norm. Falsifying a link is the hallmark of phishing scams, seeded down loader Trojans, and other web-based malware. And it's all trivially easy to do, using basic HTML.

 

• Killer Spam: Hitman Email Threatens Recipients

 Imagine opening your email inbox and reading a message from an alleged assassin claiming you're the target. It sounds like something out of a horror movie, but it's been happening in real life to hundreds of people. The gist of the email is pay the hitman thousands of dollars or die.

• Scare ware Scams.

 Scareware erroneously claims the system is infected and instructs the user to purchase a 'full version' in order to clean the bogus infections. Sometimes, fake antivirus software gets installed by the user who fell victim to an advertising scam. Other times, a rogue antispyware scanner may be installed by exploit, a so-called 'drive-by install.' Regardless of how the rogue software gets installed, the user is often left with a hijacked, crippled system.

 To avoid becoming a victim, before installing any software over the Internet, search on the name of the product online. Don't skip this step and you'll go a long way towards a safer online experience.