In a bit to live to our objectives this collection of frequently asked questions (FAQ) tries to answer questions about online scamming. Do well to ask any question when you are in doubt and we will do our best to research and post the answer for the benefit of all.
What are the most dangerous cities related to scamming?
International authorities consider that Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Lagos (Nigeria), Yamaussoukro (Ivory Coast)., Accra (Ghana), Frederiktown (Sierra Leone), London (United Kingdom), Amsterdam (Netherlands), and Toronto (Canada) are at the top of the list.
How many kinds of scamming e-mails are out there?
The scammers come out with something new every day, but the most common ones are:
1. Business proposals of any kind from Africa and Asia (especially oil related).
2. Emotions and romance
3. Fabulous inheritances after somebody died in a plane crash.
4. Lottery notifications.
5. Update your bank account.
6. Your e-mail has been selected as a winner of a big prize.
How can I recognize a scamming e-mail?
First of all, they have the title subjects similar to the ones below:
Oftentimes, the scammers use capital letters in their writing. Secondly, although they claim they are from a famous factory (business proposals) or a certain organization, usually their "official" letter doesn't even have a letterhead (as every respectable business would do). Some scammers create their own logos and letterheads but they look pathetic. They use yahoo and regular emails. Some of them fall in love without even knowing you and send pictures without request. They tell you how their betray their or died and how they trying to take care of the family and their business empire. Others use official logos (copied) but if you are in doubt, call the business/bank/association.
Finally, the easiest way to recognize a fake is that they refer to you as "Sir" or "Madame" without adding your name. If you are the winner of a $2,000,000 how come they don't know your name? Also, you could always find in their messages the following:
- a confidentiality request.
- a sense of emergency almost at all times.
- blank letterheads.
- all kinds of ties to government's officials.
How did they get my e-mail address?
Nowadays, there are softwares that are capturing every single e-mail address used in a certain period of time. Scammers find them or pay hackers to provide them and send bulk messages sometimes to even one million addresses at the time. Out of one million receivers, there is a chance that 3-4 are naive
Why did I receive this email?
Spammers send spam to make money. Scammers send spam to defraud people. To make as much money as possible, they hit as many email addresses as possible. If you received scam spam or any other type of spam, it usually means; your email address can be found on a website (try googling for it!) and that you are not using an effective spam filter.
Most email addresses targeted by spammers are listed as contact addresses on a website, in a link such as this one. Spammers use special address harvesting software to search websites for email addresses and for links. Harvesting addresses off websites is actually illegal under US Federal Law. The software adds all addresses to a file and then repeats the process for all pages mentioned in links. The initial page for the search is usually found via a search engine, in order to start off with pages that contain many addresses. Guestbooks are a prime target for address harvesters.
Effective spam filters, such as jwSpamSpy, which is use to track domains and emails addresses that identify spam, can recognize scam emails by looking for typical phrases, by analyzing sender addresses and by looking at source addresses in message headers. They can stop scam emails without harming legitimate mail.
Once your address has become public knowledge, it's impossible to put the cat back into the bag. You either need to change email addresses (which is about as painful as changing phone numbers).
I received an email telling me I won in a lottery. Is this a scam?
Yes. Fake lotteries are the most common type of "419" scam. Consider the following
1. Did you buy a lottery ticket from this company? Did you even hear about them before? If not, it is obviously a fraud. The primary purpose of lotteries is to raise money. Therefore they require people to buy tickets in order to have a chance to win. Lottery companies do not organize "promotional" lotteries, they advertise. A free "promotional" lottery that you only hear about if you win would only promote the lottery to a handful of customers. That doesn't make any sense.
2. What information can you find about the company? Perform a Google search for the name of the lottery, the "claims agent" or his/her company. Do the top hits mention "fake", "fraud", "scam" or "419" or are there no matches at all? Also search for the "winning numbers" listed in that email. Do you find several "winning notifications" that look a lot like the one you received? How would that be possible if it was a real lottery where numbers change every week?
3. In general, lotteries do not use email to notify winners. The normal procedure is for the winner to watch the media for the announced winning numbers and then to present his paper ticket to a lottery sales agent or to the lottery operator itself. Typically winners have six months to a year to come forward.
4. Was the email addressed to "none", to multiple recipients or even to the email address of the sender or did it say "Recipient list suppressed"? This indicates that the same email was sent to a large number of recipients. This would be highly unusual for a real lottery win notification.
5. Does the email tell you to contact a different email address or phone number for claiming your prize? Why would a real lottery do that? If the lottery claims to be based in the UK, the Netherlands, Malaysia or in Spain, does it use .co.uk, .my, .nl or .es email addresses and website names?
6. Is the contact telephone number a mobile phone or special service number that forwards calls worldwide? This includes any of the following:
UK: +44-70xx (call redirection)
Malaysia: +601xx(mobile)
Netherlands: +31-6xx (mobile)
Spain: +34-6xx (mobile)
Belgium: +32-4xx (mobile)
South Africa: +27-7x or +27-8x (mobile)
Nigeria: +234-80x (mobile)
Why would a major company give you a mobile phone as the first point of contact?
7. Are you being rushed? Is the claims deadline only a few weeks or even days away? Normal lotteries allow several months to a year for prizes to be claimed. In typical scams the claims deadline is only two to six weeks away, just enough time to extract money out of a "winner".
8. Does it mention a computer ballot of several tens of thousands of email addresses from America, Europa, Africa, Asia and Australia/New Zealand? There aren't any legitimate email lotteries of the kind described in such scam emails.
9. Does the email mention a "Sweepstakes International Program", an "International Claims Department", a "Fiduciary Agent" or a "Zonal Coordinator"? These terms are typical of fake lotteries.
10. Does the email mention a "mix up of some numbers" and a "security protocol", which requires you to keep all details secret until you've received your prize? This is so that other people won't point out that it's a fraud.
11. Are you being asked to pay hundreds of Euros or thousands of Pound before the money can be released? This usually happens after the second or third email you receive. Wake up and smell the rat! Real lotteries don't charge you for winning, they just write you a check. Any due taxes are either deducted at source or will be paid by you after you receive the money. If you supposedly won a lottery and you're asked to pay any amount of money towards receiving the prize then it's a scam and the prize isn't real.
12. Real lotteries don't send notifications by email, which is considered too unreliable to use for important financial information.ough to believe the stories.
