Don’t respond – just hit delete
Spam are offers of wonderful physiques if we purchase any enhancing medication, or holidays of a lifetime if we complete the competition entry form. In other words, any form of advertising that is unsolicited.
Scams, on the other hand, are intended to defraud the recipient of cash and are often very dangerous. The most well known scam is Advance Fee Fraud or, as it has become known internationally, the “419” scam – the number being the section of the Nigerian criminal code having to do with financial fraud schemes.
The 419 has been around in snail mail, fax and e-mail form for over 10 years, and it’s been reported that up to $100 million is swindled from people annually. The letter has many variations; sometimes with an official’s name changed and sometimes even purporting to have been sent from a neighbouring country by someone’s widow who fled. Often, the letter is all in caps, and generally will include awful grammar and misspelled words.
If a person engages in communication with these fraudsters and seems willing to conduct the transactions of which they speak, they are looking for trouble. Requests for payment follow and some people have actually flown to Nigeria and ultimately been held hostage and otherwise harmed.
Another variation of the advance fee fraud is the “Lucky Lotto winner”. As one ad on TV goes, you have more chance of being elected president than winning a foreign lotto just because of your e-mail address!
Remember, if it appears too good to be true, it usually is. Don’t be taken in. Don’t respond! Don’t forward, just hit the delete key!
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