Don't Become A Victim of Online Fraud

When it comes to online fraud, I take it personalout, please continue reading for how to determine
because I was almost a victim. Looking back, I wasthat.Below are two real emails that I received within
very susceptible because I did not have thethe past month:Hello,
knowledge that I do now. It is not necessarilyMy name THOMAS BACON i`m interested in
"knowledge", but more along the lines of "cautionarypurchasing your advertised car and the price $500 is
measures"; however, if I never took these, I wouldokay with me,And i will like you not to worry about
have been scammed again. It is not that I fall forthe shipping, I contact a friend in the states so he
anything, it is that scams are getting better andsaid he can organize an agent in the Europe who
much harder to identify. This article is intended towould be on ground to pick up the car as soon as
prevent you from becoming scammed.The story iswe seal this transaction and i will like you to know
very similar to many others who have gottenthat my mode of payment is by cashier's cheque
scammed. I had a car to sell, so posted on manydrawn from a US bank . It is a
classified ad sites (mostly all free) and put the askingvery good car.I Iook forward to hear from you
price, with some room to negotiate. Within the nextsoon. Respond asap if this is ok by you.
two days or so, I received an email from a guyThanks
named Prince Muhammad in United Arab EmiratesThomas
who wanted to buy my car for his son. AfterGood day, I am Paul woodward,the sales/purchase
sending a few pictures of the car, he emailed backmanager for OASIS AUTOMOBILE
with intenseCORPORATION.We are specialised in the sales
interest. He wanted to get it for his son's birthdaypurhcase of vehicles.A client of ours came accross
and was willing to pay $500 more than my askingyour vehicle & informed us of his interest in your
price of $5,000. During those couple days ofvehicle we will like to know if it is still available.Please
corresponding with Prince Muhammad, I receivedcontact us,the price of the vehicle&send the pictures
another four or five emails from others in outsideof the vehicle along with the reply to indicate your
countries very "interested" in buying the car. Eachwillingness.
person hadPaul WoodwardPhishing Scams
a different story, mostly "auto dealers" or "agents"The latest scam threat is something known as
who had clients interested in the car and willing toPhishing. Phishing is a real problem because the emails
pay the asking price, sometimes a little more. In theappear authentic to those who receive them. Phishing
end I decided to sell to Prince Muhammad because heemails are usually from bank companies, eBay, Paypal,
was the first to contact me and it would be nice toand other institutions that have personal information.
help him get his son a birthday gift likeA phishing email is not very obvious because they will
this.be addressed to your full name and the email will look
like emails you have received from these companies.
Prince Muhammad was currently working on an oilAlthough many say it is hard to spot a phishing email,
field and was unable to travel to the US to get theit
car, so he proposed something else. He had a client inreally isn't if you know how to do a few things.
the US who owed him $11,615, so just have thatBelow are some strategies to prevent yourself from
client send me a cashier's check with the full amountbeing scammed.NEVER Click on a link or log in to
and I would send the remainder via Western Union,something through your email
after deducting the price of the car. PrinceA good example would be an email from eBay
Muhammad even called me two times to set this up,asking you to update your account. The email will
although I could not really him very well over thehave your full name and have the logos, etc.. It will
phone.look legit. Think about it this way: How long have you
been a member of eBay or your bank, and how
After three days, I received a BankOne check sentoften have you received emails from them? I have
from somewhere in New York for the amount ofnever received an email from my bank and only one
$11,615 endorsedfrom eBay after using it. These companies know of
to me. The check looked very real. Wow, I thought,these scams and will purposely avoid sending emails
this is really going to happen. So I deposited theto you like this. What is the real need to update
check and waited for it to clear before I would sendanything? Most sites do that for you automatically. If
the money via Western Union. My bank usually clearsyou have not used eBay in 2 years, what are you
a check in three days max. A day after depositinggoing to update?NEVER Click a link without knowing
the check, Prince Muhammad wanted me to send thewhere it really goes
remaining money. I told him not until the check clears,This is a little example to show you how easy it is
which he reinforced to send the money as soon as itto scam someone who never looks at this. When
does.After four days, I called my bank to see whyyou put your mouse
the checkover a link, the path will be displayed on the bottom
had not cleared yet and they informed me that itleft corner of your browser (above Start button).
was possibly fraudulent. So I contacted MuhammadThis is for internet explorer/Outlook, etc.., but other
to let him know about the check but he wasbrowsers might show it elsewhere. I want you to try
nowhere to be found. I received the check back init. Put your mouse over this link (don't click it): EBAY.
the mail with a big fraudulent stamp on itNow you should see show up on the bottom left of
and a $50 fee from my bank. Thankfully I did notyour browser.
have to pay the $50 fee, but even more thankfully, I
did not have to pay back $6,115.I am now going to do the same thing again, and this
time I am going to show you what a phishing link will
When reading this story, most people will probablylook like:
be thinking, how could anyone fall for this? Well it isEBAY. When you highlight over that, you should
quite easy, especially if you had never heard of thishave seen I just made this link up so it will not go to
scam before. This happened back in 2003, whenthe login page, but a real phishing
people started to report that they lost thousands oflink would. When you log in to a phishing link, you
dollars after selling cars and items overseas. I mighthave just sent your personal information to the scam
have read a small blurb in a local paper before thisartist. They can then do what they want with it, like
happened, but never really saw any real mediadraining your bank account.
coverage on the issue. It was not until I did moreWHERE is the person sending you an email really
extensive research by reading forum posts andfrom?
listservs from others who experienced this. There isYou can find out where someone is from by looking
now a little more awarenessup their IP address. When you get an email, you can
of this scam; yet, it is still happening on a daily basis.view something known as headers and footers. I use
To this day, I still receive emails from scam artistsOutlook Express, but other
trying to buy my car.programs will have this information. I am going to
just explain this for Outlook users, but the principles
In order to prevent being scammed yourself, youare the same.
must be able to identify a scam on the spot. ThingsIn Outlook, right click on a received email and select
to watch outProperties at the Bottom. Next click Details.
for:1. Proper grammar, English, and sentenceYou should have a Return Path, with an email
structureaddress in it, and below a Received from with an IP
2. Proper name stuctures (i.e., Pierce Edward vsaddress [numbers]. You may have a couple Return
Edward Pierce; Woodward Stuartpaths because of exchange servers, but you can get
vs Stuart Woodward)the gist of where they are from by checking
3. Obvious copy and pasteboth. To check go to WHOIS and copy and paste
4. Outside buyers that are clients, agents, carthe IP into the box and hit enter. The server should
companies that have ties to thecome up. Now, this is not the exact address, but you
UScan get the country pretty accurately. When it
5. Emails from yahoo.com, excite.com, and othercomes
free servicesto free email systems like yahoo and hotmail, tracing
6. The word cashier's checkis virtually impossible, but you can still get some sort
7. Willingness to send more than the car is worth forof information. That is why scammers like them
you to return theso much.
remainder. If you think about it, who would be soIn the end, I hope you learned something and can
trusting?become a more cautious web user. Please send this
8. NEVER send something until you have the moneyarticle to all you know so that we can stop
in your possession. ALWAYS waitsupporting terrorists and scam artists.Chris Theberge
for funds to clear.is the founder of the Nutrition and Food Web
9. Are these people really from where they sayArchive, NutriWeb Designs, and Dietitian Designs. Visit
they are? In order to find thisfor free nutrition and food-related resources.