I can go on and on and show you hundreds of those emails but the common denominator of all those Emails is always:
- Great sums of money(turns to human greed)
- Secrecy(it’s a scam no one must find out)
- Urgency(if they don’t move fast some one will be on to them)
- Advanced fees (this stage only comes when you start to negotiate with them)
This class of con attempts was called by many names over the years: The Spanish Prisoner, Nigerian Letter, 419 frauds etc. but they all fall in a category of frauds called Advance fee fraud.
In those types of frauds a target is lured, by the promise of great riches, to pay money in order to receive a much greater sum in the near future.
Of course those fees are rarely mentioned in the beginning of the ordeal.
When it starts every thing seems very simple and straight forward:
You give your details; we transfer the money to you.
So how do you spot and protect yourself against such scam attempts?
Just follow a few simple guidelines:
- Always be very critical and suspicious of things you encounter over the internet, receive over the mail or even via unsolicited fax or phone messages.
- Always remember: A deal that seems too good to be true, is most probably too good to be true.
- Memorize the SUGSAF (Secrecy, Urgency, Great Sums and Advanced Fees) mantra.
- Accept the fact that money does not grow on trees (at least not on any internet trees) and realize that you would probably have to work to get rich.
And finally, if this post would help prevent, even a single person, from becoming another victim of the advanced fee fraud then we here at MyPcCenter would have done our job.
Watch yourselves out there.
DR. OOS
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