HOW TO RECOGNIZE AN EMAIL SCAM

If you`re like me, you routinely check your e-mail account at least twice a day. Chances are, no matter where you receive your e-mail, be it Yahoo or Hotmail or your ISP, you have received an e-mail notice that just seems too good to be true. If it seems that way, chances are, its not true. Microsoft is not conducting a lottery via e-mail addresses and randomly selecting winners. There are no abandoned accounts in foreign banks worth millions of dollars that you can stand in as next of kin and claim.

With the development of the Internet and its information superhighway, identity theft, fraud and scams via the cyber wires has become an increasing concern. Independent contractor positions that require you to cash checks or money orders, retain a percentage and forward the rest by Western Union or Money Gram are scams. In order to safeguard yourself online, you should take the necessary precautions when dealing with e-mail.

One of the first things you can do is edit the security settings on your e-mail account. Each program is different so you will have to refer to the directions for your specific account. If your account allows, set your spam filter settings to high. This will automatically sent e-mail that is recognized as spam to your spam or trash or possibly even delete it automatically if you desire. A word of advice on having e-mail automatically deleted is that you leave the discretion to the program. This means you may accidentally lose some e-mails that you did not want to delete simply because the program thought it was spam.

Another way to protect your privacy is to follow a simple rule of thumb: never provide any personal information such as social security number, telephone number, address, bank account, etc. in response to an e-mail request. I am not aware of any company, bank, or other business entity that will ask for your information in that manner. If you suspect that the request is not legitimate, contact your business by telephone and inquire about the e-mail. Some sophisticated hackers are capable of producing e-mails which have authentic-looking logo and even contact information in them.

If you receive an e-mail that seems to be a genuine opportunity, take the time to investigate it. There are many scam and fraud detection web pages that provide information on the scams that people have reported. Scambusters and the FBI both have web pages. A simple internet search using scam websites as the criteria will yield more than a few results of web pages that provide free information on scams.

The simplest way to recognize and handle an e-mail scam is to use common sense. When it doubt, delete it out!