Page Menu

Internet Tips 5

Tips to Avoid Internet Fraud

Internet fraud is an unfortunate reality. It's a fact of life. If you're not mindful of the many dangers out there in cyberspace you can get taken for a costly ride. Cyber crooks, if given the chance can and will steal your credit card number, your identity and/or suck you into a Brooklyn bridge style scam which can, in some cases, leave you virtually penniless. My greatest concern about internet fraud is not the danger it poses, that can be remedied, but the possibility that it might turn otherwise enthusiastic internet surfers off of using the internet altogether. Internet fraud should not discourage us from using and getting the most out of the almost infinite tools and resources the internet provides. We have to assume risk(s) in everything we do. Driving a car is a risky proposition. So is air travel and home maintenance for that matter.The good news, I'm happy to say, is that if you take the time to acquaint yourself with the nature and signs of internet fraud and take some simple, routine security measures to protect yourself you will be able to surf and enjoy the internet with only a minimal risk of exposure to the seedy elements of the internet.The most important aspect of internet safety is learning how to recognize a fraudulent offer either received through your email or being pushed on a website.


Avoiding Email Fraud

Scammers also know as "phishers" troll the internet for email addresses. They send out email spiders to crawl through message boards, Web sites, and any online forum that might contain email addresses. Once the spiders collect enough email addresses they report back to their cybermasters with a (new) list of potential victims. These unscrupulous types, in addition, make deals with unscrupulous websites to buy their email lists. They then turn this email lists into mass email scam campaigns hoping for a success rate of something on the order of 1 or 2%. 1 or 2% doesn't sound like much but if you mail out ten thousand fraudulent emails each worth one hundred to potentially millions of dollars if successfully executed, the math soon makes it apparent how worth the crooks' time the email fraud is. It may sound lucrative, and it (sometimes)is but don't be intimidated. Proper precautions and common sense is all you need to protect yourself. Email fraud is easy to spot. It shouldn't spoil your enjoyment of the internet.
Look for these tell-tale clues:

• Impersonal and generic greetings. If your name is absent from the email, do not click on any links or follow any "instructions" in it. The email spoofers are playing a numbers game. They're banking on so many suckers per thousand fraudulent emails sent. They don't have time to address each email personally. It just doesn't pay them to do so.
  
  
• Time limited offers or requests for personal info. If you're being told you have to do something immediately, chances are you don't have to do it at all. Do not reply to any email requesting your personal information, or one that sends you personal information and asks you to update, confirm or provide it. Email scammers like to manipulate the unwary by creating a sense of excessive urgency in their email "offers" and "alerts". Phishers typically include upsetting or exciting (but false) statements in their emails. Don't fall for the "update your account ASAP" or "You have been chosen to..." or "You have just won...." or "Act now!" or "How To Make Big Money From Your Home Computer!!!" scams. Legitimate companies that want to give you a real prize don't ask you for extensive amounts of personal and financial information before you're entitled to receive it. Legitimate banks and financial institutions already have their customers' account numbers in their records. If you are genuinely concerned, upset or intrigued by an email, contact the company through an address or telephone number you know to be genuine.
  
  
• Fake links. This one's really simple. Don't click on links in suspicious emails. Copy/paste them into your browser and hit Search. You'll be able to get a sense of the link's validity just by cruising the links in the search results pages. Scammers use bogus links to send you to pages where (they hope) you will naively surrender personal info or unwittingly download a virus or trojan which will either disable your PC and/or collect your personal data and send it back to the crooks who designed it.
  
  
• Spelling mistakes and bad grammar. This is one of the easiest signs of fraud to spot. You'd think that the scammers would take the time to run a spell-check before they send out their bogus emails. For some reason they don't. I think it comes back to the numbers game for them.
  
  
• Attachments Don't open them. Email scammers love to send bogus attachments in their emails. They rig them to go off like mines unleashing viruses and trojans into your PC as soon as they are opened.
  
  
• The word Nigeria is mentioned. This one has become a virtual internet pandemic. In fact Microsoft has entered into an alliance with Nigeria to try to bust this scam which has done considerable harm to Nigeria's image. In this scam the recipient is typically asked to help the fraudsters transfer a large sum of money out of Nigeria and into the recipient's bank account. The scam's been so effective that just recently a Brazilian bank collapsed after a crooked employee was sucked into the scam.
  
  
• Never log in to any account from a link in an email message. Always open a window in your browser and enter the URL of your account log in manually
  
  
• Emails that appear to be websites. Scammers sometimes masquerade their emails as websites to make them look more attractive and credible to their victims in the hope that they will interact more readily with the bogus content of the email by clicking on fake links and/or giving out personal data.
  
  
• Be cautious about unsolicited emails. This one ties in with the other signs of email fraud. If you have not initiated contact with the sender of the email, you may be looking at a fraudulent email. The reason is simple. To maximize their chances of success, crooks have to start the interaction with their intended victims. Victims don't come looking for fraudsters.

One of the most common tricks of email fraudsters is to send out fake PayPal "notices" asking for personal data and asking victims to click on various booby trapped links. Pay Pal has responded by issuing this list of safety tips:

• Safe Log In: To log in to your PayPal account or access the PayPal website, open a new web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer or Netscape) and type in the following: https://www.
• Greeting: Emails from PayPal will address you by your first and last name or the business name associated with your PayPal account. Fraudulent emails often include the salutation "Dear PayPal User" or "Dear PayPal Member".
• Email Attachments: PayPal emails will never ask you to download an attachment or a software program. Attachments contained in fraudulent emails often contain viruses that may harm your computer or compromise your PayPal account.
• Request for Personal Information: If we require information from you, we will notify you in an email and request that you enter the information only after you have safely and securely logged in to your PayPal account.
  
  Often, fraudulent emails will request details such as your full name, account password, credit card number, bank account, PIN number, Social Security Number, or mother's maiden name.

If you think that you have received a fraudulent email (or fake website), please forward the email (or URL address) to spoof@paypal.com and then delete the email from your mailbox. Never click any links or attachments in a suspicious email.

To learn more about protecting your PayPal account, please review our Security Tips.

Page Menu

Avoiding Internet Auction Fraud

Buying and selling through internet auctions has become a popular and fun method of making money on the net. It has, I'm sorry to say, also become a popular means of defrauding the public. The Internet Crime Complaint Center or IC3 is a partnership of the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center. Its job is to collect analyze and assess complaints of internet criminality and refer these complaints to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies for investigation and any other purposes those agencies deem suitable. This year (2005)IC3 released its latest annual report on victims' complaints received and referred to law enforcement. The findings span January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2004. Among the results: "Internet auction fraud was by far the most reported offense, comprising 71.2% of referred complaints.
Source: FBI

• Understand as much as possible about how the auction works, what your obligations are as a buyer, and what the seller's obligations are before you bid.


• Find out what actions the web site/company takes if a problem occurs and consider insuring the transaction and shipment.


• Learn as much as possible about the seller, especially if the only information you have is an e-mail address. If it is a business, check the Better Business Bureau where the seller/business is located.


• Examine the feedback on the seller.


• Determine what method of payment the seller is asking from the buyer and where he/she is asking to send payment.


• If a problem occurs with the auction transaction, it could be much more difficult if the seller is located outside the US or the country you live in because of the difference in laws. If the seller is located in the US and negotiations don't work, file a complaint with your state attorney general's office and the FTC or call toll-free 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357).


• Use an online escrow service. (More on escrow services below) If the seller insists on using a particular escrow or online payment service you've never heard of, check it out. Visit its Web site and call its customer service line. If there isn't one, or you call and can't reach someone, don't use that service.
  **Note: Simply stated, escrow services are neutral third parties that hold funds, documents, securities, or other property in a business transaction, in this case an internet auction until the transaction and all its terms are completed. Escrow services are (ironically) a measure taken by internet auction buyers and sellers to prevent fraud. They hold both the buyers' money and the sellers' good(s) until each party are satisfied with the deal. An escrow service hold the goods purchased until the buyer gives the escrow service the money for the good(s)and then declares his/her satisfaction with the goods which the escrow service ships to the buyer once the buyer gives the service the purchase price for the good(s). Once the buyer says AOK , the escrow service then hands over the money for the good(s) to the seller.


• Save all transaction information. Ask the seller about when delivery can be expected and if there is a problem with the merchandise is it covered by a warranty or can you exchange it.


• Be aware of fee stacking. Don't let a seller secretly add in a whole bunch of illegitimate shipping (and other)costs to the purchase price. Find out if shipping and delivery are included in the auction price and whether additional costs included in the price so there are no unexpected costs/nasty surprises when you get the bill.


• Don't buy from sellers who ask you to mail payment to a P.O. box.


• There should be no reason to give out your social security number or drivers license number to the seller.


• Never buy anything from a seller who asks for payment to be mailed to a P.O. box.


• Use a credit card to purchase your good(s). Credit cards are a secure way to purchase goods and services since you can challenge and refuse to pay for items that show up on your monthly bill that you never purchased. If you think your card has been used fraudulently, cancel it immediately. Credit cards are also a good bet since the Credit Card Companies vigourously pursue and prosecute credit card fraudsters.

Up above I talked about using an escrow service as a way to secure your transaction at the internet auction. Using an online escrow service gives you more protection. For a small fee, an online escrow service holds your payment until you confirm that you got what you were promised within an agreed upon inspection period. Only then does it forward the payment to the seller. If there is a dispute about the item, the escrow service may be willing to act as a referee. There's some good ones and some not so good ones. Here's a few tips to help you choose a good one.

• Know the difference between escrow services and other online payment services. Escrow services hold your payment until you are satisfied that you got what you paid for.


• Make sure your money is secure. You're giving the escrow service your money to keep so make sure it is licensed and bonded and reputable.


• Make sure the escrow service is reputable. Crooked escrow services pocket your money and disappear. Crooked escrow services sometimes work in partnership with like-minded sellers so do your homework.


• Watch out for fakes. Bogus escrow services sometimes copy the websites of reputable escrow services using the identical wording and phrases and slogans. They will also fake their security credentials by placing VeriSign and Trust-e logos on their websites. Click on these logos and look at the web address in your browser address bar. If the site that pops up begins with anything other than http://www.truste.org/ or http://www.verisign.com/ you will know it's a fake. Dig a little at their websites. See whether these escrow services are even listed as members of these programs.


• Watch out unprofessional and amateurish looking websites, for example sites with spelling and grammar mistakes.


• Get the business' physical address. Don't settle for just a phone number and/or an email address. Escrow services can't be licensed without a physical address.


• Be wary of escrow services recommended by sellers


• Do a little research on the subject of fraudulent escrow services. A google search is a great place to start. Type in the search term list of fraudulent escrow sites and read, read, read.

Page Menu

Avoiding Credit Card Fraud Online


Another popular means of scamming people is through credit card fraud. Credit cards are a fast and convenient way to purchase goods and services. They are at the same time however, an effective means of victimizing unsuspecting internet shoppers. The irony is that credit cards are the safest way to purchase things over the internet because you can often dispute the charges if something is wrong and, in some cases, not pay for the unwanted goods you are charged for.

• Don't give out your credit card number(s) online unless the site or the purchase transaction page is secure. Look for an icon of a padlock in your IE status bar at the bottom of your window and the https prefix in the site's web address (not just http)in your browser's address bar
  

  Image taken from World Start

  
  
  and the icon of security services such as Trust-e , Veri Sign and Hacker Safe.

  These icons are not an iron clad guarantee of a secure site but do assure you a high degree of protection, high enough, in my opinion, to shop with confidence.
• Don't trust a site just because it claims to be secure. Security sevice logos are easy to copy. See my section on faked security credentials. Before using the site, check out the security/encryption software it uses.
• Make sure you are purchasing merchandise from a reputable source. Easier said than done I know but do a google search on the company. See whether it is listed with the Better Business Bureau or your country's equivalent,for example. If there have been problems with that company, chances are you will learn about it somewhere on the net.
• Try to obtain a physical address rather than merely a post office box and a phone number, call the vendor to verify the number. Consider not purchasing from sellers who won't provide you with this type of information. Send them e-mail to see whether they have an active e-mail address and be wary of companies who use free e-mail services where a credit card wasn't required to open the account.
• Make sure the company's website is well-done and professional looking. Poorly organized sites and an unusual number of spelling and grammar mistakes are a good sign that the company/individual may not be legit. Legit companies spend big money to make sure their sites are attractive and well organized and are free of amateurish mistakes such as bad grammar and spelling. Building a quality website is, in my opinion, a courtesy to your visitors. People out to scam others are not in the business of taking the time to put up properly built sites. They don't have the patience or the wherewithal which is partly why they're looking to defraud people.
• Be cautious when responding to special offers (especially through unsolicited e-mail). The special offer ploy is a favorite among scammers. Who doesn't like a "special offer"?
• Be cautious when dealing with individuals/companies located outside your own country. Your means of redress may be (severely) limited if you are victimized by a foreign company or individual as they are (perhaps) not subject to the laws of your own country.
• You should also keep a list of all your credit cards and account information along with the card issuer's contact information. If anything looks suspicious or you lose your credit card(s) you should contact the card issuer immediately.

Page Menu

The Software Solution

The tips I have given you on this page will go a long way to securing you against internet fraud but we're not done yet! The next step in protecting yourself against internet bad guys is arming your PC with first rate security software which, if deployed sensibly, will make you a very hard, low odds target for internet scammers.

• Keep your operating system up to date. Set your Windows updates for automatic. Hackers and spyware downloaders are less likely to succeed in spying on you and collecting personal info if your PC is hardened against the latest threats
• Install the right security software on your computer. Get a good antivirus and firewall and antispyware program. I like anti-viruses as a means of defending yourself against email and internet fraud. A good AV scans your incoming emails for suspicious content and an AV's real time protection means that if you open a dangerous file your AV will catch it and prevent it from opening. Always make sure that your AV's realtime protection and incoming email scan is enabled. If you've got a lot of power on your system then you can enable outgoing email scan as well.

  Antiviruses I recommend include Kaspersky , McAfee Antivirus and Eset antivirus. They are light on system resource consumption and easy to use.

  Get a good firewall. Firewalls are an essential piece of the internet security puzzle. Put simply, they prevent hostile penetration of your computer. They are to your PC like a wall around a city. Worthy of mention are and Zone Alarm's Pro and Free Firewall. Zone Alarm Pro offers very good email security with its unique MailSafe feature which detects and quarantines potentially dangerous Visual Basic Script attachments. Outpost Pro is popular and good as well.

  If you can't afford to or don't want to buy an antivirus or firewall, you have some good free alternatives: AVG, AVAST! and AntiVir Personal Edition Classic.
  Good free firewalls include Kerio, Outpost and Zone Alarm.

  Get yourself some antispyware programs as well. They specialize in detecting, blocking and removing trojans and other privacy stealing scumware. Start with Ad-Aware SE , ewido anti-spyware Free , and Spy Bot. They're free and solid anti-scumware programs. They simply are must haves.

  You should also get Microsoft's Windows Defender. It is a first rate adware/spyware scanner. It's also free.
  

  Get one payware spyware scanner. I suggest Spy Sweeper which is consistently rated number 1 - Download a trial of Spy Sweeper here. Ad-Aware Plus and Pro, Pest Patrol by Computer associates and Spyware Doctor are also very good. Don't bother with other spyware scanners.

The next piece of software you need is a spam filter. Most of the good ones are simple to use and require only a few days training before you can trust them entirely to sort through your incoming emails. Spam filters use very advanced technology to analyze every email that you receive. They look for tell tale signs such as words like sex, free, swear words, Viagra and other drugs and words not in the language of the user. When your spam filter spots a suspicious email it channels the email into its spam folder. Suspicious phrases include Join millions of Americans , Meet singles , collect child support, stop snoring, You have been selected and Fantastic deal . Check out this page for a much larger list of spam phrases and words. Other signs spam filters look for are the absence of any content in the email, forged headers and images also known as web beacons that send info about you back to their sender. The most effective way these spam filters work is when you add a sender to the blocked list. Once on a list of blocked senders every email from the sender is automatically channeled into the spam folder by the spam filter. It's easy to add a sender to the blocked list. It usually involves o right-click on the email then a left click on the "add sender to blocked list" option.
There are a good number of first rate spam filters out there.

I recommend these ones to you: eTrust Anti-Spam BitDefender 8 SpamDeny Firetrust MailWasher Qurb Cloudmark Desktop EmailProtect. There's also some good free spam filters. Of these I recommend: K9 (for POP3) Matador SpamWeasel Free Ella Free (Please note: Ella free places a line of promo text on the bottom of each of your outgoing emails. It looks like this: << ella for Spam Control >> has removed 425 Spam messages and set aside 331 Newsletters for me You can use it too - and it's FREE! www.ellaforspam.com) This is not a complete list, of course. You can keep looking for more quality free spam blockers here

You can also download the Earthlink toolbar which has made quite a name for itself as a solid protective measure against internet fraud. Its features include:

• Displays a visual protection rating for Web pages you are visiting


• Alerts you before you enter a page on our list of known fraudulent Web sites


• Includes EarthLink's innovative Pop-Up BlockerSM tool


• Includes a built-in search box for fast, convenient searching


• Includes up-to-the-minute, clickable news headlines in 11 categories

You can get the Earthlink toolbar for both Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Page Menu Follow these links for even more advice and tips on how to avoid online fraud: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission FTC Consumer Alert Michael T. Killian Council of Better Business Bureaus eHow Links on how to avoid internet auction fraud The Hazards of Online Auctions Shopping From Home - Online Auctions and Private Sellers Escrow Internet Fraud (Scroll down a bit) The Federal Trade Commission Links on how to avoid email scams: Email Scams, Phishing, and Fraud by Mary Landesman (Excellent!) "Phishing" Fraud: How to Avoid Getting Fried by Phony Phishermen (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) TCF Bank's anti-phishing and email scam tips Anti-Phishing Working Group

Online scans


These tools and info plus your common sense are all you need to stay safe and shop on the net!

TOP

Contact Me

TOP

Internet Tips Menu

Internet Tips 1

Internet Tips 2

Toolbars, the Handy Companions

How to Protect your Children Online

Tips to Avoid Internet Fraud

Internet Tech News

PC1Stop McAfee Store

PC1Stop Home Page

PC1Stop Site Contents

Thank you for visiting PC1Stop. Please come back and visit again!