Quick Tips To Avoid Email Scams

One of the biggest ways in the modern world that criminals and identity thieves will attempt to get at your personal information, is through email.  Phishing as it’s called, the practice of a criminal posing as a legitimate business to get you to enter any sort of personal information that they can use to assume your identity.  Phishing can take place through emails that request info like credit card numbers or bank accounts, or even faux websites that are designed just to con you into handing over something you’ll wish you hadn’t.  For example:

By now we all know about the Nigerian email scams, in which a ‘wealthy’ foreigner requests your help to move millions of dollars from his/her country, into a different country, also promising a large percentage of the money to you as a reward.   Already this should prompt a few questions, such as, how did some random millionaire you’ve never heard of pick your email address to ask for help?  And if that doesn’t dissuade you, you’ll end up handing over a ton of money to bribe ‘customs officers’ as well as the money needed to clear up any number of false reasons for why the million dollar transfer is taking so long.

The longer you buy into the scam, the longer that the thieves will try to convince you to offer up money, while giving you excuses as to why no cash is coming back to you.

Which is exactly where my major tip to avoid email scamming comes from.  Anything you get in your email that requests any sort of credit card, or bank account information, or that asks you to send money for any reason, is likely something you should ignore completely.  Even if the email in question has been designed to look as though it’s come from your bank, or from a credit card company, if you are asked for any sort of personal information through the email, nine times out of ten it’s a phishing scam.

Which is actually why you should essentially never send any personal information through an email unless it’s to a person or company that you know and trust.  Email is not a very reliable medium for transmitting vital information, so always remember that a bank or credit card company will never ask for your account numbers through an email, no matter what the situation.