Recognizing Scams
There are several ways to recognize scams. I'll discuss three of them here. The first is what I'd like to call "Something for nothing". This one has plagued our country, but it continues because of a natural desire for instant wealth. The "Something for nothing" type scam involves someone emailing you, usually from another country, desiring to give you a large sum of money for cashing a check that they send to you and sending them some of the money back. The same goes for lottery winning notices. Newsflash: You haven't won anything. If you cash a check from them and send them the portion they want back, when the bank discovers it was a fake, you owe the bank the whole amount.
Number two: Misspelling. I'm no English language expert, but 99% of the emails I have received that were scam related had a whole lot of misspelling. If I were a con artist going to another country, I would have a lot of trouble getting the language and spelling right too. That's another good way to recognize scams.
The last way I'll give to recognize scams is when the sender asks for personal information such as account numbers, or if they ask you to click on a link to go to their website. Sometimes, the link will show one thing, but the website it actually goes to is a fake site to steal your information. As my mom says, there's nothing wrong with asking if you don't know. If you're suspicious about an email or physicial mail that you get, ask me or another professional about it. It's better to be safe than sorry.
Ways to report scams
There are several ways to report scams. One of which is to contact the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Here you can fill out a form to report internet crimes and on the FBI's website, you can sign up to receive updates when new scams and warnings are reported.
Another way to report internet scams is to contact the company whose name may have been involved. For instance, if you received a suspicious email from someone claiming to be Wells Fargo, there is a page on the Wells Fargo website to report it. The same goes for other companies such as Citi, Best Buy, Ebay, Paypal, etc.
Lastly, there are usually email addresses that you can forward suspicious emails to. One of which is the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The email address is spam@uce.gov. Your email provider may also list an address to forward suspected fraud emails as well.
Protecting Yourself
It's a shame that I even have to cover something like this, but internet scams and identity theft are increasing at alarming rates. Here are several ways to protect yourself.
1) Don't reply to any email that seems suspicious.
2) Never give any personal information out to someone you don't know.
3) Don't click any links if you're unsure about the sender of the email.
4) Sign up for an identity theft service such as LifeLock.
Devin Dabney is a computer consultant, author, speaker, and entrepreneur who is the founder and CEO of DabneyWorks Computer Consulting. DabneyWorks provides remote and in-person computer assistance , website design and auditing, and business consultation.
For more information, visit http://www.dabneyworks.com
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