By now, most people who spend time on the Internet are aware of these occurring. A "cyber-scam" is no different from telephone scams or mail scams. They pry on those who believe in false advertisements and promises of a better life.
The goals of a cyber-scam fall into several regions:
-You've just been nominated into the Who's Who Directory
Emails promising rewards, prizes, or chance to be part of a publication are suspect. Many times, such messages are sent out in mass numbers. By replying, you are indicating to them that the address is valid and still used. In addition, if asked to supply them with personal information, such as name or address, they can easily look up other information about you. Remember, many banks and credit card companies use mailing address, mother's maiden name, or other personal information to verify the person they are speaking to.
A common cyber-scam is when an email promises some reward or a chance to win a prize or be part of a publication. From there, they request you email them back. By doing so, you have supplied them with a valid email account name to than duplicate the process again with someone else. Many times, those messages also ask for personal information that could gain them access to valuable things such as credit card and bank accounts. It's normally easy to tell if a message is a scam as there will appear no name in the "To:" field. Or the "To:" field will be filled in with someone else's address.
Other cyber-scams appear in the form of "chain-mail" messages. Recently in the news, a cyber-scam email message has been going around that for every time that particular email message got passed around, "Make a Wish" Foundation would contribute money to someone's dream. When the Foundation was asked, they had no idea this message was being distributed. Many people, with good intentions, passed this message around. The danger is that the Foundation loses creditability, the list of valid email addresses is now available to the person who receives the next message, and those "chain-mail" messages bog down eMail systems.
Similar messages have been distributed pertaining to money from Intel or Microsoft for distributing a message for them. One thing to keep in mind is that once the email is out of a person's hand, there is no way to tell who the next person will mail it to. Thus, technically, there is no way for "Make a Wish", Intel, or Microsoft to have paid anyone or known if anyone actually distributed the message.
Go To Page: 1 2
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Caroline Baker's Internet & Society topic, please visit the Discussions page.