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Beware of Scams

There are a lot of high tech scams out there right now and its a situation that will most likely only get worse as time goes on. You can protect yourself against most by just using a little commonsense and guarding your personal information.

The internet is one of the single greatest inventions of all times. You can do an incredible amount of things. It can also be the perfect place for scammers to get your information and can lead to identity fraud. A large number of attempts to grab your information come from emails. Try and make sure you are running some sort of spam filter. If you don't know the person or company emailing you be cautious and be realistic!!!. You're not the first person to be told you have relative in Nigeria and he needs your information to send you millions in inheritance or some giant windfall. Its a Scam. You didn't win the United Kingdom lottery either. They just don't pull random American winners without you even entering. Don't be fooled by these.

Another internet scam which is sometimes harder to detect involves fake money orders. Sadly, it can be easier for a person to fall for this because the money orders look real. What happens is that regular people place an internet add selling something like a car, appliance or even looking to rent an apartment. They are then contacted by someone who claims something like they already have a money order written out and its accidentally more money than the asking price. They may ask that as soon as the money order is cashed to send the difference back. What happens then is the bank later declines the money order because its fake and the seller already has taken the money out of his account and the seller is out whatever was mailed to the scammer. A similar scam is a fake buyer may send an email saying he really want an item someone is selling. The item ships as soon as the money order is received. The Money order doesn't clear and once again the buyer is scammed. Many times the false buyers mail comes shipped internationally, but not always.

Phishing is another hard scam to detect. The reason this scam is hard to detect is because its done in a very professional manner. The person being duped may get an email from there bank, credit card or even Ebay or Paypal saying there log in is about to expire or there was suspicious activity on there account. The email contains a link for the person to click and enter their screen name and password. The email sometimes even contains your name or screen name making it more believable. When the person opens the email it brings them to a false site eerily similar to the exact site. In many ways there is no way to tell the difference. When they attempt to log in the username and password is now compromised and before the user realizes personal information is stolen unauthorized purchases are made. Many companies, such as Microsoft with Windows Defender, offer free phishing detection and some companies include it as part of their virus protection. An easy way to not fall for this is if you have doubts contact the company or simply just type in the sites web address instead of using the link contained in the email.

A newer type of scam is called smishing. A cell phone user gets a strange text claiming to be their bank advising them their identity may have been comprised and they need to call an 800 number. The caller does and is then asked for some personal information. If you get any strange text, never give out your personal information. Go on the official company web site or contact the company directly, but not through the 800 given in the text.

Make sure you don't pay any bills from companies you don't recognize which may seem obvious, but does happen. Make sure you call the company first for an explanation. Contact your credit card company regarding any mysterious charges. Also contact your phone company if other companies attached charges you don't recognize.