Since the world is now becoming
more and more connected with the advent of the Internet, plenty of scammers and
online scams have also appeared, and it’s completely up to you to be wary of people
you meet on the Web. A scam is usually a term that is used for any sort of fake
scheme or business, whose main goal is to steal money or other possessions from innocent victims.
At least a billion consumers
online receive and send in emails every day. Out of that one billion, 80,000
become victims of scam activities daily, and 4M end up falling for a scammer’s other
dirty tricks. It’s highly important for people to learn, what the difference is between a possible online scam and an email from a legitimate company. That’s
because opening up an attachment or message from these fraudulent senders could
result in identity theft, not to mention massive financial losses.
- Online Scam Mails To Watch Out For
1.)
A huge chunk of employment opportunities online
belong to work from home jobs. All of them promise to provide you with an
income, just for doing a small amount of work. The more seasoned individuals
will often recognize these scams through the pictures that they use: Luxury
vehicles, piles of money, fake ‘testimonials’ from employees, payment fees, and
bold text. You will notice that a lot of these home-based jobs seem too good to
be true. Always use your common sense, and keep a close eye on job email scams,
that swear to give you a huge salary for mundane work, or even no work at all.
Do not give out your personal details to thieves that have sent you unexpected work-from-home
job opportunities through email. You should never respond to these messages
either – Just delete them from your inbox before the online thieves get the
chance to snatch your email address.
2.)
Competition-based scams and lotteries also make
promise to give their participants a big monetary reward, or something valuable,
if they apply. These scams are delivered in many different ways – Through phone
calls, email, conventional mail, or even face to face. The scammer will tell
you that you have won a huge amount of cash, and the only thing you are
required to do to claim that prize is to send in a bit of cash to pay for fees, like taxes, customs duty, or shipping.
Fake emails will also request that you send in your confidential information,
like your name or credit card number. They often have an urgent tone, and will
even threaten to suspend your social media accounts, if you don’t send in your
information immediately.
Nowadays, it’s
very hard to tell if the home-based business you are applying for is
legitimate, or if it’s an opportunity scam. A lot of these online scams are
created to look highly dependable to the average consumer.
