Email Scams - Do You Know What's In Your Emailbox? By Bernard Pragides At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Stealing from people is nothing new. Identity theft today is nothing new. But ways in which people are stealing and committing identity theft are ever increasing with technology and the Internet today, especially via email scams.

Popular email scams today cover a few major categories. In a nutshell, the emails try to lure recipients into clicking on the links inside the emails and entering private information into the website like access info for banking and other accounts. Then the thieves run with the info, heading into private accounts, accessing the funds and / or using them to charge items for themselves, stealing your credit and funds when possible.
Paypal is the most or one of the most widely use of all internet email scams. They are targeted by thieves because it is one of the most popular form of payment that people use to purchase just about anything online.

Here’s a classic paypal email scam – beware.

You've added an additional email address to your PayPal account.

If you don.t agree with this email email@address.remove and if you need assistance with your account,

please click here to login to your account.

Lottery Wins and Death Beneficiary

A couple of major categories of email scams fall under the heading of lottery winning scams and death beneficiary scams. In both cases, people are falsely emailed and told they have won lotteries and huge sums of money as a result of a death benefit from someone they may not know who lived far, far away. Wrong on both counts! Never trust any emails that say you have been awarded money in either case.

Fake lottery emails originally began arriving from Nigeria, and people of all ages, especially elderly recipients, believed the messages and paid large sums of money to fly there and collect their false winnings. Barrister messages flooded email in-boxes next, claiming that people died and had discovered (fake) connections far way and if you were one of the so-called lucky ones, you could simply launder money for them basically, or lend them cash, never getting anything back – ever.

Credit Cards and Business Opportunities

A couple of other major categories of email scams are credit card and business opportunity offers. With credit card email scams, emails arrive that look like they are really form legitimate credit card companies and issuing banks and other financial institutions. Once you click on the link to apply for your free account plus other freebies or special offers that come packaged with the deal, the thief gets your personal information like social security number, account number and access info at other institutions, etc. And B.I.N.G.O. – identity theft has occurred once again; the thief has all your confidential info to use for himself or herself.

Business opportunities are similar. An email arrives with a business opportunity offer you can’t refuse, so you click on the link inside and apply for the position or opportunity package, giving your credit card info and other confidential data to pay for the delivery of the package. And again, B.I.N.G.O. – identity theft has occurred.

So stay sharp! And stay smart!

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