Scams abound
In every society in recorded history, there have been rats willing to prey on the unsuspecting with legitimate sounding scams aimed at separating people from their money. Some don't even ask for money, but prey on sympathy by asking, for instance, that business cards be sent to a dying boy via Make-a-Wish foundation, or some bogus address in Australia. Others aim to place viruses on your computer. While most appear by email nowadays, the sympathy scams can also appear by snail mail or in person. I'm afraid there is nothing I can do to restore your faith in mankind after falling for one of the sympathy scams. But here are a few tips to keep your money in your bank account and keep your computer virus-free.
TRUST BUT VERIFY
Check out the validity of a plea for help or call to action before passing along an email. There are good resources to use such as:
HOAXBUSTERS: Oddly enough, from the US Department of Energy, Office of Cyber Security comes a great website to test hoaxes. The site also gives good practical advice.
SYMANTEC: The makers of Norton Disk Doctor offer free hoax and virus listings.
BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU: This is a great site to check out whether a charity is legitimate or whether a business offer is coming from a reputable source.
SOME BASIC RULES
If someone contacts you asking for information as opposed to you initiating the contact, don't give it to them unless you are POSITIVE they are who they say they are. This is true for phone calls, emails, mail or someone coming to you at your door or on the street. If an email is sent to you asking you to click on a link, DON'T DO IT unless you are POSITIVE about where that link is taking you. Pass your cursor over the link, don't just read what the link purports to say ... if the address is a bunch of random numbers or is an unfamiliar web address, don't click. If you click on something and get a dialog box asking you to load something onto your computer, DON'T DO IT unless you are positive about what you are doing.
SOME OF THE USUAL SUSPECTS (AND A FEW NEW ONES)
-- CRAIG SHERGOLD is dying and needs business cards to complete his collection - baloney. They haven't even changed the kid's name after this has circulated around the globe since the 1980's. Craig is alive and well and graduated from college.
-- BILL GATES is giving away $5 (or fill in the amount) to everyone who passes along an email. Get real.
-- YOU RECEIVE AN EMAIL GREETING CARD and when you click on the link, you are asked to load a new JAVA script reader so it can play. If viruses have sound and motion, I don't think you'll like what you will see and hear. First ask yourself, who is sending me a card and why?
-- MARS will be so close to earth it will appear larger than the moon on a particular night, and this astrological event won't be repeated for another 2 million years. Unless you are ingesting crack cocaine, Mars will not appear larger than the moon and the whole thing is a crock.
-- A BANK TRANSFER is urgently needed from Somalia, Nigeria, Uganda, Sudan or some foreign country from a trusting relative or attorney of someone who died and the government will take their (anywhere from) $1 to 500 million unless a kind soul will provide their bank account number, for which a 5-20% commission will be paid. Don't laugh ... this old chestnut, officially called the Nigerian 419 scam, still fleeced Americans out of an all time high of $183 million in 2005 alone, a rise of 169% from 2004. WOW !!!!
So I hate to be the one to break it to you, but there are loads of rats in the world looking to do you harm or prey on your sympathy. I used to give money to bums, hand out checks to loads of mailed charity solicitations, and pass along "worthy" emails asking for help. No more.
Now I choose a handful of local, national and international charities that have low administrative costs so that most of my donation goes where it's supposed to, and I look at every email as a potential scam unless proven otherwise.
Remember, the origin of the handshake was to prove to the person you were greeting that you had no weapon. We still live in a dangerous world, it's just that the weapons have been upgraded.
Chris Crawford
www.justiceserved.com