I got an email today from a Nigerian king telling me I am the heir to his fortune. 10 minutes later I won a $1,000 Best Buy gift card and the IRS wanted me to update my information.
Ya, right.
There are certain types of emails, Facebook statuses and tweets that I have learned to ignore, and they are ones that you should too. As a general rule of thumb, unless you are truly related to a king in Nigeria or personally know a guy by the name of Dr. Hair, chances are these people would never contact you via email to give you a sack full of money or the cure for male pattern baldness.
In general, emails fall under 3 main types: Hoaxes, Nigerian scams, and phishing. I’m going to try and describe them for you, in hopes that next time you receive one you don’t click on any of the links inside the message or forward it to everyone in your contact list.
HOAXES
Email hoaxes prey on our sensitive sides. They ask us to forward an email about an Amber Alert, missing dog, petitions etc. They might even ask us to forward to everyone in our contact list so that someone can get $0.12 per message. They often contain viruses, and will usually say ‘Please send to everyone in your address book’.
Sample:
“Should you receive a message from [email protected], do NOT open it.
It is a virus that reformats your PC and, via your Contacts' List, will re-direct itself to them, as well... inviztor
SEND THIS TO EVERYONE!”
Or
Before forwarding, do a quick Google search for the subject of the email, or an identifying piece of the email. If it claims to be an amber alert, search for the name of the child. If it’s a petition, search for the cause to see if it’s real. When in doubt, do NOT forward the email.
NIGERIAN SCAMS (419 SCAMS)
These promise you money (and a lot of it) if you send them a down payment of some sort. Delete, and do not engage these people. In many cases there are actual people behind these scams. Aggressive, and smart people. They will find a way to reel you in if you engage them.
Sample:
Phishing emails are made to look official, using replicas of existing emails. They use words like ‘Credit score’, to try and trick you into giving up your personal information such as credit card numbers, bank account information, social insurance numbers, and passwords. All of this information can be used at a later date to commit fraud.
Here’s an example of an email I received that looks like it could be legit.
There are a few things wrong with this.
1) I’m not American, so the IRS wouldn’t be sending me anything
2) My 5 year old has better grammar
3) I’m pretty sure anyone doing collections wouldn’t be doing it by emailing my hotmail account
How do you know if they are real?
Here’s a trick I use to find out if links in these emails are legit. I hover over the link with my mouse then check the address bar below to see what the link is. You can see in this example, I hovered over ‘Click Here’ and the address for a spammer/virus/phishing website popped up below.
If the link went to a website I know and trust I would click on it. Otherwise, the email goes straight to the trash folder.
Remember - trust your gut. If it seems too good to be true it is.
For more information on current scams, you can go to The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (Phonebusters)
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