Top 20 Internet and email Scams to Watch Out
For
Find out how to protect your self from phishing
scams, internet fraud and nigerian email scams
1. Password & Credit Card Fishing Scams
These scam e-mails appear to originate
from your Internet Service Provider or web company that you
might have an account with (such as eBay or PayPal) and states
that your account needs to be updated, or that your credit card
is invalid or has expired. These "phishing"
scams have targeted AOL users, as well as Earthlink and Juno.
These scams usually provide a link to a conterfite
web site where they will have you provide your credit card
information. There are several variations of this scam which include
phony contests, sweepstakes or "installs" notifications
which will request your screenname and password. In addition,
these types of scam attacks have targeted other on-line businesses
such as PayPal, infact, PayPal users have been hit several times
in recent months with versions of this scam. Here is a News story
from ABCNews: , Story
Highlights: "Users of the online payment service PayPal have
been hit with two scams to steal passwords, and ultimately cash..."
"PayPal has taken steps to fight the scams, but critics say
the company should have warned its users more thoroughly to never
release password information..."More on this story at:http://abcnews.go.com/sections/
(We have a number of links to news stories about this in our News Archives & Security Alerts)1.
2. Nigerian e-mail Scam
Help me smuggle my money out of my oppressive country!
This is an oldie, and a real baddie. The basic line goes like
this: "I represent some high mucky muck who wants to get
a lot of suspicious money out of my country, and we need help
from you to do it. We'll pay you stupid amounts of cash to be
a front person." The system escalates until you've got money
sunk into the scam, and they want you to visit the country in
question in person. There have been people who played along with
this and never made it home alive. Originally this was focused
through Nigeria, but with recent events, you may hear about Taliban
leaders wanting help, or people from other war-torn countries.
Don't respond to these people in any way. People die falling for
this one. For more info on this scam here is
a recent news story which also includes links to even more
information:
Story Highlights: "Ann Marie Poet's new business partner
called himself Dr. Mbuso Nelson, and said he was an official with
the Ministry of Mining in South Africa..." "Nelson popped
into Poet's life out of nowhere one day, offering to pay $4.5
million to the 59-year-old secretary for her assistance in transferring
$18 million from a bank in South Africa to the United States..."More
on this story at:http://www.wired.com/news/
There is a special task force to track down the
Nigerian e-mail fraud. These e-mails claim to be from an "important"
person in Nigeria (or some other country) who needs YOUR help
to assist them in getting a large amount of money out of their
country. If you get any e-mails like these forward them to: 419.fcd@usss.treas.gov
Copy this e- mail address in your on-line address book!
(We have a number of links to news stories about this in our News Archives)
3. Business opportunities
These business opportunities make it sound easy to start a business
that will bring lots of income without much work or cash outlay.
The solicitations trumpet unbelievable earnings claims of $140
a day, $1,000 a day, or more, and claim that the business doesn't
involve selling, meetings, or personal contact with others, or
that someone else will do all the work. Many business opportunity
solicitations claim to offer a way to make money in an Internet-related
business. Short on details but long on promises, these messages
usually offer a telephone number to call for more information.
In many cases, you'll be told to leave your name and telephone
number so that a salesperson can call you back with the sales
pitch. Many of these are illegal pyramid schemes masquerading
as legitimate opportunities to earn money. To report any type
of suspected e-mail fraud forward the entire
e-mail to: FTC at uce@ftc.gov, and/or Internet
Fraud Watch E-Mail (NFIC) at: nfic@internetmci.com
or Investment Fraud & Stock Offers - Securities and Exchange
Commission at:enforcement@sec.gov.
Keep a copies of these e-mail addresses in your on-line address
book!
4. Investment Fraud
Investment schemes promise outrageously high rates of
return with no risk. One version seeks investors to help form
an offshore bank. Others are vague about the nature of the investment,
stressing the rates of return. Many are Ponzi
schemes, in which early investors are paid off with money
contributed by later investors. This makes the early investors
believe that the system actually works, and encourages them to
invest even more. You've probably gotten these. The subject line
or first part of the email says that this is "Highly confidential
information." This scam is based on touting "advance
information" on specific stocks in an attempt to drive up
the price past its true worth, so the promoters can sell at the
higher price. They pump it up, and then dump it. Hence the name.
This is generally illegal. And certainly a bad way to get investment
advice... Ask yourself: If it's so confidential, why are they
spamming it to millions of people? Promoters
of fraudulent investments often operate a particular scam
for a short time, quickly spend the money they take in, then close
down before they can be detected. Often, they reopen under another
name, selling another investment scam. In their sales pitch, they'll
say that they have high-level financial connections; that they're
privy to inside information; that they'll guarantee the investment;
or that they'll buy back the investment after a certain time.
To close the deal, they often serve up phony statistics, misrepresent
the significance of a current event, or stress the unique quality
of their offering-anything to deter you from verifying their story.
Ponzi schemes eventually collapse because there isn't enough money
coming in to continue simulating earnings. Other schemes are a
good investment for the promoters, but not for participants. To
report any type of suspected e-mail fraud forward the entire e-mail
to: FTC at uce@ftc.gov, and/or
Internet Fraud Watch E-Mail (NFIC) at: nfic@internetmci.com
or Investment Fraud & Stock Offers - Securities and Exchange
Commission at:enforcement@sec.gov.
Keep a copies of these e-mail addresses in your on-line address
book!
5. World Trade Center Scams
The spams relating to the World Trade Center began
within an hour of the attacks. They range from appeals for aid
to the victims, usually sent through the spammers' web sites,
to fake news items concerning reported attacks. There's nothing
funny to be said about these. Don't pass them along, and don't
contribute through any site that doesn't belong to a recognizable
charity, such as the Red Cross or the United Way.
6. Work-at-home schemes
Envelope-stuffing and other work at home schemes and
solicitations promise steady income for minimal labor-for example,
you'll earn $2 each time you fold a brochure and seal it in
an envelope. Craft assembly work schemes often require an investment
of hundreds of dollars in equipment or supplies, and many hours
of your time producing goods for a company that has promised
to buy them. You'll pay a small fee to get started in the envelope-stuffing
business. Then, you'll learn that the email sender never had
real employment to offer. Instead, you'll get instructions on
how to send the same envelope-stuffing ad in your own bulk emailings.
If you earn any money, it will be from others who fall for the
scheme you're perpetuating. And after spending the money and
putting in the time on the craft assembly work, you are likely
to find promoters who refuse to pay you, claiming that your
work isn't up to their "quality standards."
7. Effortless income & get rich quick
schemes
The trendiest get-rich-quick schemes offer unlimited
profits exchanging money on world currency markets; newsletters
describing a variety of easy-money opportunities; the perfect
sales letter; and the secret to making $4,000 in one day. If
these systems worked, wouldn't everyone be using them? The thought
of easy money may be appealing, but success generally requires
hard work.
8. Health and diet scams
This is really a whole category of scams, relating to
the sale of medical or "alternative" medical treatments
online. The scams target everything from Diet Pills to
Herbal Viagra Scams. Usually using spam to get to the "customer."
If you're lucky, these products will do nothing at all. Some of
them are seriously dangerous by themselves. They promise cures
for life threatening illnesses, causing those who buy the promise
to delay proper medical treatment, sometimes past the point where
it would have helped.The claim is that items not sold through
traditional suppliers are "proven" to cure serious and
even fatal health problems. Claims for "miracle" products
and treatments convince consumers that their health problems can
be cured. But people with serious illnesses who put their hopes
in these offers might delay getting the health care they need.
Consult a health care professional before buying any "cure-all"
that claims to treat a wide range of ailments or offers quick
cures and easy solutions to serious illnesses.Talk to your doctor
or pharmacist before buying into any of these nostrums. It'll
save you a lot of headaches and heartache later. Pills that let
you lose weight without exercising or changing your diet, herbal
formulas that liquefy your fat cells so that they are absorbed
by your body, and cures for impotence and hair loss are among
the scams flooding email boxes. These gimmicks don't work. The
fact is that successful weight loss requires a reduction in calories
and an increase in physical activity. Beware of case histories
from "cured" consumers claiming amazing results; testimonials
from "famous" medical experts you've never heard of;
claims that the product is available from only one source or for
a limited time; and ads that use phrases like "scientific
breakthrough," "miraculous cure," "exclusive
product," "secret formula," and "ancient ingredient."
9. Bulk email
Bulk email solicitations offer to sell you lists of
email addresses, by the millions, to which you can send your
own bulk solicitations. Some offer software that automates the
sending of email messages to thousands or millions of recipients.
Others offer the service of sending bulk email solicitations
on your behalf. Some of these offers say, or imply, that you
can make a lot of money using this marketing method. The problem:
Sending bulk email violates the terms of service of most Internet
service providers. If you use one of the automated email programs,
your ISP may shut you down. In addition, inserting a false return
address into your solicitations, as some of the automated programs
allow you to do, may land you in legal hot water with the owner
of the address's domain name. Several states have laws regulating
the sending of unsolicited commercial email, which you may unwittingly
violate by sending bulk email. Few legitimate businesses, if
any, engage in bulk email marketing for fear of offending potential
customers.
10. Chain letters
You're asked to send a small amount of money ($5 to
$20) to each of four or five names on a list, replace one of
the names on the list with your own, and then forward the revised
message via bulk email. The letter may claim that the scheme
is legal, that it's been reviewed or approved by the government;
or it may refer to sections of U.S. law that legitimize the
scheme. Don't believe it. Chain letters-traditional or high-tech-are
almost always illegal, and nearly all of the people who participate
in them lose their money. The fact that a "product"
such as a report on how to make money fast, a mailing list,
or a recipe may be changing hands in the transaction does not
change the legality of these schemes. Another concern with chain
letters is the spread of viruses they might include deceptive
subject lines, hidden code that causes you to spread them to
your friends, and almost always appealing to the most common
desires.
11. Guaranteed loans or credit, on easy
terms
Some email messages offer home-equity loans that don't
require equity in your home, as well as solicitations for guaranteed,
unsecured credit cards, regardless of your credit history. Usually,
these are said to be offered by offshore banks. Sometimes they
are combined with pyramid schemes, which offer you an opportunity
to make money by attracting new participants to the scheme.
The home equity loans turn out to be useless lists of lenders
who will turn you down if you don't meet their qualifications.
The promised credit cards never come through, and the pyramid
money-making schemes always collapse. As far as easy credit,
guaranteed approval credit cards, and home equity loans that
don't require equity in your home... forget it. Easy credit
is very expensive, with rates far over the norm. "Services"
selling "access to the lenders that will approve your loan"
don't guarantee anything. You're going to have to go through
the same approval process with these lenders as with your local
bank. This one should be obvious: Cheap money? From a BANK???
12. Credit repair
offer
to erase accurate negative information from your credit file so
you can qualify for a credit card, auto loan, home mortgage, or
a job. The scam artists who promote these services can't deliver.
Only time, a deliberate effort, and a personal debt repayment
plan will improve your credit. The companies that advertise credit
repair services appeal to consumers with poor credit histories.
Not only can't they provide you with a clean credit record, but
they also may be encouraging you to violate federal law. If you
follow their advice by lying on a loan or credit application,
misrepresenting your Social Security number, or getting an Employer
Identification Number from the Internal Revenue Service under
false pretenses, you will be committing fraud. There are all sorts
of these that prey on the desires of people to repair or establish
credit. The worst are the alleged credit repair services. They
promise to help you to remove accurate but negative information
from your credit record, or to show you how to get a federal Employer
ID Number, usually in very questionable fashion. Not only do these
techniques not work, they can get you in deep trouble for committing
fraud. You're not going to fix your credit while you're in jail.
13. Fraudulent Credit Card Loss Protection
Insurance
This scam offers credit card loss
insurance by contacting consumers and using scare tactics
or misrepresentations offering low cost protection. They use a
variety of ruses to get consumers to respond and provide their
card numbers. They purport to protect you from financial loss
resulting from the loss or theft of your credit cards. Plans like
what they offer are both grossly overpriced and not necessary
in the first place. In fact, federal law limits consumers' liability
for unauthorized charges to $50 per credit card, and there is
no time limit for reporting loss, theft, or unauthorized use of
a credit card. Similar is the Fraudulent Fraud Protection scam
that The New York State Consumer Protection Board says it has
uncovered in which a telemarketing organization is selling questionable
and overpriced protection against telemarketing fraud to "previous
victims" of telemarketing fraud.
14. Vacation prize promotions
Electronic certificates congratulating you on "winning"
a fabulous vacation for a very attractive price are among the
scams arriving in your email. Some say you have been "specially
selected" for this opportunity or you are offered a luxurious
trip with lots of "extras" at a bargain-basement price.
Consumers say some companies deliver lower-quality accommodations
and services than they’ve advertised or no trip at all.
The "deluxe cruise ship" may well be more like a tugboat,
upgrades can be very expensive, and hotel accommodations are
likely to be very shabby. Most unsolicited commercial email
goes to thousands or millions of recipients at a time. In addition,
you may be required to pay more for an upgrade or scheduling
the vacation at the time you want it also may require an additional
fee. Others have been hit with hidden charges or additional
requirements after they’ve paid. Get references on any
travel company you’re planning to do business with. Then,
get details of the trip in writing, including the cancellation
policy, before signing on.
15. OnLine Auctions
You can get a lot of terrific deals through online
auctions, but you need to be careful. Before buying anything
that seems too cheap, or that shouldn't be on an auction site
at all, ask questions. Look at the seller's feedback rating
and comments. You'll get a lot of clues from that. Check the
retail price of the merchandise. If it's new merchandise, you
can probably expect to pay 1/2 to 2/3 of retail, even at auction.
Avoid sellers with email addresses at free services like Hotmail
or Yahoo unless they have really extensive positive feedback.
And check out some of that feedback to make sure it's real...Whenever
possible, pay with a credit card, and check the merchandise
carefully as soon as it comes in. If it's not as represented,
or it doesn't arrive, contact your credit card company to correct
the problem. Remember the old story of the fellow who raffled
off a brand new Lincoln at a small town carnival? Tickets were
$1 each, and everyone figured they had a good chance. He sold
a lot of tickets, and, as promised, he delivered a brand new
Lincoln... penny. For more on auction fraud, you can check out
the issue of Internet ScamBusters called "Online Auctions:
Deals or Steals.
16. Internet Investigator - spy on anyone
"Be the first kid on your block to know all the
dirty secrets your neighbors are hiding! Find out what your
prospective mate has hidden in his past! Find the lost city
of Atlantis! Find your lost remote!" This one is more an
annoyance than a real problem. It serves as a great example
of the pure hype that you should watch out for in online advertising.
Filled with promises of secret knowledge that's not available
to anyone else, it delivers nothing more than a list of places
you can pay to search for information. It's the perfect example
of a pitch that's not quite a scam -- but clearly misleads in
its promise. There is also a new software program being spammed
across the internet which claims to be able to access hugh databases
of information and gather information on any one. At this writing
we don't know how effective.
17. Free goods
Some email messages offer valuable goods-for example,
computers, other electronic items, and long-distance phone cards-for
free. You're asked to pay a fee to join a club, then told that
to earn the offered goods, you have to bring in a certain number
of participants. You're paying for the right to earn income
by recruiting other participants, but your payoff is in goods,
not money. Most of these messages are covering up pyramid schemes,
operations that inevitably collapse. Almost all of the payoff
goes to the promoters and little or none to consumers who pay
to participate.
18. Cable descrambler kits
For a small sum of money, you can buy a kit to assemble
a cable descrambler that supposedly allows you to receive cable
television transmissions without paying any subscription fee.
The device that you build probably won't work. Most of the cable
TV systems in the U.S. use technology that these devices can't
crack. What's more, even if it worked, stealing service from
a cable television company is illegal.
19. Porn sites & 900 numbers.
Beware of registering or providing credit card or other
information to Porn sites. Many times you are told you can surf
the Internet and view adult images online for free, just for sharing
your credit card number to prove you’re over 18. have used their credit card
numbers to run up charges on their cards. Share credit card information
only when buying from a company you trust. Dispute unauthorized
charges on your credit card bill by complaining to the bank that
issued the card. Federal law limits your liability to $50 in charges
if your card is misused. These are generally fly by night organizations.
The FTC has already settled several cases where Porn sites &
900 number companies had fraudulently billed
consumers credit cards and telephone numbers (many of whom
had never purchased or subscribed to services). Telephone/pay-per-call
solicitation fraud "Free" access to adult material and
pornography by downloading a "viewer" or "dialer"
program is cause for concern. Through the program, consumers reported
their modem being disconnected, then reconnected to the Internet
through an international long-distance number. FTC advice: Read
phone bills carefully and don't download any program to access
a "free" service without reading all disclosures.
20. Web site design/promotions -- Web
cramming
Getting a custom-designed Web site for a 30-trial period
could be more than what was bargained for. Get a free custom-designed
website for a 30-day trial period, with no obligation to continue.
Targeting small businesses and non-profit organizations, the
perpetrators of this scheme offer to build a Web page for free,
only to start placing unauthorized charges on phone bills of
their victims. Consumers say they’ve been charged on their
telephone bills or received a separate invoice, even if they
never accepted the offer or agreed to continue the service after
the trial period. Review your telephone bills and challenge
any charges you don’t recognize. Also Internet service
provider scams where consumers reports of being trapped into
long-term contracts of ISPs with big penalties for cancellation.
21. Scholarship Scams
Unfortunately, in their efforts to pay the bills, many
students and their families are falling prey to scholarship
scams. Beware of offers claiming: "The scholarship is guaranteed
or your money back." "You can't get this information
anywhere else." "I just need your credit card or bank
account number to hold this scholarship." "You've
been selected by a 'national foundation' to receive a scholarship"
or "You're a finalist" in a contest you never entered.
File a comsumer fraud complaint with the FTC at
https://rn.ftc.gov/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01
Use this form to submit a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) Bureau of Consumer Protection about a particular company
or organization.
If you would like to forward unsolicited commercial
e-mail (spam) to the Commission, please send it directly to UCE@FTC.GOV without using
this form.
Please take a moment to
write to your congressmen about protecting your privacy and passing
stronger anti-spam laws!
There are number of new laws pending without your support they
will not get passed. Let your congressmen know that we want stronger
privacy protections. For more information see our legal
section.
Special
TopText & Surf+ UpDate 11/02/04
We have discovered that there are Contextual Advertising
Links which look very similar to TopText & Surf+ links
which are legitimate and sponsored by participating web
sites for more information
click here! |
| **
Spyware & Adware Test Scan **
If you are viewing this site with Internet
Explorer and see an alert displayed here then it is an indication
that your computer is infected with one or more spyware
programs that we can scan for. If you do not see any alert
displayed in the center of this notice then our scan did
not detect any of the 122 spyware programs we can scan for,
however, there are still many other programs out there that
we can not yet scan for.
Please note: Currently
we can scan for a 122 distinct spyware programs that can
effect PC users and the alert will only be display if a
specific targeted program is identified. Unfortunately,
we are limited to finding only certain types of spyware
and there are many other forms of spyware and adware that
we can not currently test for.
In addition, our test scan does not
work well with NetScape or other browsers, if you suspect
that you might have spyware on your computer please feel
free to check this page while using Internet Explorer.
Also, if you have a Personal FireWall installed it may
interfere with our ability to scan your computer for Parasite
Adware and Spyware. |
WebMasters & Web Site Owners
Many of these new forms of spyware have found
ways to steal your web traffic. Don't forget to check
out our WebMaster Info to find out
how to protect your web sites from these new advertising threats!
Please show your support by adding a link back to your
site on our Supporters page and help us
raise awareness by displaying one of our logo banners on
your site
