Identifying Internet Scams

Although the internet may seem like a god send, there are also a large number of unscrupulous people who use it to target unsuspecting victims. Internet scammers tend to be quite intellectual and for this reason it may not be sufficient to just be smart. One has to take extra precautions to ensure that you do not fall prey to this growing phenomenon. However, how does one identify internet scams? The most widely distributed internet scams tend to be in form of spam. There is even an establishment known as the Internet Crime Complaint Centre that enables people to send in the various complaints that they may have. This Internet Crime Complaint Centre is a joint partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National White Collar Crime Center. In a past report, the number of internet scams was quite shocking. The highest complaint that The Internet Crime Complaint Centre received concerned Internet Auction fraud. This was a whopping fifty percent of all the complaints. Other complaints that were in the report included non delivered goods, which stood at twenty percent, and check fraud which made up five percent. Several other complaints lodged by the majority of internet users included computer fraud, financial institutions fraud and confidence fraud. With such a rampant rise in internet scamming, it is needless to say that one should always take measures to protect oneself. Here are a few ways that one can ensure that they are aware of internet scams.

The first would be to always look out for lending scams. These are instances where one gets a communication from a lender. The lenders tend to offer proposals that promise quick and efficient processing. One should always think twice when it comes to these instances. Another thing to look out for when it comes to internet scams is the gadget scam. Most of these try to bait an individual by promising the latest gadgets at throw away prices. These gadgets could range from cell phones to television sets. Some of these electronics may not even be currently available in the market. Another popular internet scam is one of the “proposed heirs”. This happens when one gets an email from a stranger talking about how they are in a terrible jam and need your help and they are sure to pay you back because they are an heir to some fortune or come from a wealthy family. Another version of this scam is where hackers get into someone’s account and then email all their contacts soliciting for money because they are in a tough situation. One should never send any money to these strangers and should always get in touch with one’s friends in case their email account has been hacked. Other forms of internet scamming include spam emails. The way spam emails work is that an individual receives a ton of emails from something they never subscribed to. The senders of these emails use an email extractor as well as spiders to extract several emails and send them all at once. One should never respond to spam emails, especially if one had never subscribed to them.

Yours Sincerely,
Annetta Powell
Your Professional Success Coach