Many scammers are very cunning, so being smart is not enough to protect yourself. Are you frustrated and overwhelmed by of all of the scams, spam and other junk you see every day on the Internet and in your email box? Do you wish you had a way to know for sure what's real and what's not? The Internet Crime Complaint Center a partnership of the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, in 2007 released its latest annual report on victims' complaints received and referred to law enforcement. The shocking result is as follow- Internet auction fraud was by far the most reported offense, comprising 44.9% of referred complaints.
Non-delivered merchandise/payment accounted for 19.0% of complaints. Check fraud made up 4.9% of complaints. Credit/debit card fraud, computer fraud, confidence fraud, and financial institutions fraud round out the top seven categories of complaints referred to law enforcement during the year 2007. With these statistics there is the need to be not only be protected online but to find a way to check the scammers before they get you.
These are some ways to detects internet scams before you fall victim.
1.) Lending scams - when you get proposals from lenders that promise you a very fast processor.
2) Gadget scams - selling gadgets like television sets, and cell phones at very low and attractive price. Items that are not yet available in the market may even be offered for sale and you normally receive so many posts in one advertisement
3) Receiving a message from a propose heir- Most scams find this the most attractive way to milk unsuspecting victims. Always watch out for mails where people solicit for your help to claim certain millions of dollars they inherited in returns to compensate you.
4.) Unknowingly Buying scam wherein they post a message to an existing advertisement that they have a close relation residing in your country and they wanted to buy your item.
5) Spam Emails- Emails you receive without your subscriptions mostly turn out to be spam mails. Senders of such mail use email extractor and spiders to extract multiple emails and send. Never reply to mails that you don't subscribe to.
6) If the advertisement owner is asking you to pay through any wired service.
7) Always do a search for the company (Google search will come in handy here). If the company truly exists, more or less you can get some more information, just be more resourceful as some scams clone some website and use the name of existing companies for their trades. In any case before entering a site, first type (https://www instead of http://www) since https represents a secured site. Never enter a site without using the secured connection. If you find the company website, check if the advertisement product is on their product. Secured connections have some security features that scams find impossible to penetrate.
8.) Always Inquire personal or business information from any of your prospective clients by using the country's business directory or any personal verifiable means.
9) Try as much as possible to make a physical contact with the person, as most scams will take flight because they love to avoid physical contact.
10) Don't be too over excited about any offer-Most scams can be avoided if you take due diligence on your own part to do a proper research.
Article by Raymond Oseyomon of www.adinosworld.com
How would YOU deal with a scam? Leave your comments please.
