BEWARE: IF YOU GOT SPAM MAIL

Received An Email From Someone Standard Abroad? Think Twice Before Sending Financial Help

As cases of email fraud rocket in India, with cheats trying to steal your money and hackers sending virus infected emails posing as personal messages from your loved ones, web security expert says quelling curiosity could be the most important weapon against email fraud. Some easy habits could save you from becoming a victim of email fraud.

Pick strong passwords and keep them absolutely private. Don’t warm up to the strangers, including that promising you millions bequeathed by heirless millionaires from Congo. DO not click on tempting links, even when you are invited to do sex sirens. These could infect your system or server with deadly virus.

SCAM 1: STANDARD ABROAD

* An email arrives, pretending to be from a webmail service provider Like Microsoft, saying that there are problems with your email account and your user name, password and country/territory are required to set matters straight.
* Thinking the mail genuine, you forward your details. (Something, the scamster can get these details by simply password hacking into your computer and or your email account.
* Soon, your friends receive emails from ’you’ through your account. They are told that you are stranded in some foreign country after having lost your wallet and documents and need money to return home.
* If you reply to the mail, you are likely to be given a postal address in some foreign country to where can be wired. Sometimes the original mail already has this address.
* Your friends and relatives living abroad are the prime targets of this scam, as money can’t be wired from India to a postal address abroad, only to a bank account transfer.


SCAM 2: NIGERIA 419

* An unsolicited email is received from someone claiming to work for the Nigerian Central Bank or the Nigerian government. In Mumbai, emails from Nigeria promising lottery winnings, proceed from the sales of ancestral property and so on are also clubbed as 419 cases for password hacking program.
* The mail says that help is needed in moving money from Nigeria to a foreign country and if you assist you can share in the spoils.
* However, first a certain amount of money must be deposited in the Nigerian sender’s bank account. The account is usually shut after funds are received.