The Top Five E-Mail Scams (2)

The Come-On
So you're surfing the 'Net one night and you receive an e-mail confirming your order. You think, "What order?"
The Scam
You follow the "cancel" link in the e-mail, thinking you're protecting your credit card, when all you're doing is giving a rogue site your personal data.
What You Can Do
Carol says: "These e-mails should be deleted immediately upon receipt. It's simple: If you didn't order something but you receive an e-mail asking you to confirm the 'order,' call the company that appears to be sending the message, and get to the bottom of [the situation] over the phone. The customer service representative will likely tell you they don't have any record of this activity, and you'll know for sure that you just avoided the bait."
You can also call your credit card company to see if a random charge actually appeared. Review with them purchases you have made, and if anything stands out, immediately dispute the charge. Most credit card companies will work with you to first freeze the card and then trace the charge.





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Comments
34
Subscribe to commentsMichelleJul 16th 2008 8:51AM
I was looking for work. Placed my resume online. Within a few days a company contacted me stating they wanted to hire me to research and sell their products online. Of course I thought yeah right so they sent me to their company website where I called and e-mailed the company to see if indeed I received a job offer. I was told yes on phone and e-mail. They wanted me to sell Ipods on ebay. I said I don't sell anything unless I'm sure the product is really there and is what they state it is.
They sent me one of their ipods. New, in the box with a packing receipt. I called the company on the packing receipt. They had no record of the item. I called apple. They said it was registered to me. Still, something didn't jive.
I explained to apple why I was calling. They then placed me on hold, researched more and came back with the store name and number where the product came from. Not the company offering me a job.
I called that company where they told me that someone had tried to buy it with a stolen credit card. I explained that I indeed had it in hand. They said they had no record of the sale. Nor was it recorded/reported as stolen or purchased with a stolen credit card. Anyway, the company was called: Wholesale from Japan. The site is down now but when it was up and running it looked great.
I made a police report and that's that.
daveFeb 25th 2009 1:50AM
hi
everyone is crying of scamers,but no one is actually ready is see an end to it, scam cannot stop, the webmasters will loose their customer,scammers are the highest consumers of internet isp,softwares ,credit card sites,
we can stop scam or at least give you a verifier, for all your doubtful correspondance, but the truth is the twentith_first century is a scam,if you think am not correct explain how madoff succeeded, where was the fbi,cia, when he was crooking his billions,
beside,scam is as old as prostitution,ask jacob, african actually look at scam as a means of repatrition of the proceed of the slave trade era,
Finally all the commentators know nothing about scam,and you can never know,even when you are scammed, you only know to the level where you were able to stop paying , ask the director of the brasilian bank, in the scam world the more you look the less you see, this is because technology changes everyday,and if you know what i know (cannot tell you that here on this public forum) scammer have access to the latest hitech and soft wares which you have no time to discover.
John C. Billingsley, Jr.Apr 26th 2007 8:15AM
I receaved an E-mail from TrimDay offering a trial of this mirical weight loss pill free except for S/H I bit and been receiving $58.90 drafts on my credit card ever sense. They even had the nerve to say that they contributed to cancer reserch (W/e) which they charged to my credit card. I've reported them to the Fed's but they will look in to it. I've called their number to be put on termanel hold, went to their web site and found another scam, sent them E-Mail it comes back by mail Deamon.
I guess the only thang left is to cancel my credit card.
JackieJun 23rd 2008 9:54PM
i HAD THIS SAME THING HAPPEN TO ME i CALLED THE CREDIT CARD CO. AND THEY GOT IT CANCELLED FOR ME AND I THINK AT THAT TIME 3 MOS OF MY MONEY BACK TRY THAT FIRST GOOD LUCK.....
myqdx3Apr 26th 2007 9:06AM
do you mean if u never opened the e-mail you are ok.
willardmihokJul 29th 2008 7:31PM
yes
do not, respond
mark as spam
M CApr 26th 2007 9:26AM
Hey John, no need to cancel your card, just have your back issue you a new card. It should come back with 2 new numbers at the end. When the outfit tries to charge you once again, they have the old card number so the charge never goes through. I just experienced something similar with a card we have with our daughter. Asking for a new card did the trick.
ChuckApr 26th 2007 9:06AM
You don't have to live in Manhattan to be savy You just have to have a little street smarts and commen sense. Should I feel sorry for these people, who think they are getting something free for 30 days? Or believe a stock is cheap and will go through the roof. I just don't.
SavvyApr 26th 2007 9:50AM
I spend my time checking out these kinds of scams for clients. More adviced: Check the spelling and grammar on these sites. We're lucky that most spammers can't spell well and eventually make a error that will alert the reader that something isn't quite right.
That being said, I've seen scam-sites that are so perfectly copied that I wondered whether I'd ordered something and forgotten that I had. So I'm not surprised that many people get taken in. Particularly the elderly.
More Advice. Never open a website from the hyperlink in your email. Type it in from previous references. I'm surprised that legitimate companies still put their hyperlinks in for bill paying, statements etc. in emails knowing how many scammers are out there.
JosyneApr 26th 2007 9:38AM
I would just like to say "come on people" don't you have the sense to see that if you don't know who the emails are from DON'T OPEN THEM!!! That's why there is a delete button. I can't believe that people fall for crap like that. If you do then you deserve to be scammed. I mean don't you watch tv or read the papers??! There are warnings ALL the time, and shows on tv about them. So people wake up and hit the delete button!!
KevinApr 26th 2007 9:49AM
I open these e-mails and follow the links. I fill out the forms with false information and profanities. I figure it's the least I can do to waste their time.
DonnaApr 26th 2007 9:52AM
Josyne...although I agree that everyone needs to be careful, saying they should not open emails from people they are not familiar with and that 'they deserve' to be scammed is a bit too much.
First of all, some of us use email for business. I do not know all the people who are emailing me. I am careful when the subject line is obviously spam, but when I get something from Ebay and I have just ordered something from Ebay...well you can be sure I am opening the email. What people need to learn is how to put their curser over the link and wait until the link address shows up. If the email states it is from Ebay, but the site address to the link is not to Ebay...report it as spam to spoof@Ebay.com....or where ever.
As far as people deserving to be scammed...does a person who walks down the street with a brief case or purse deserve to be robbed? Does a woman with a low cut shirt deserve to be verbally or physically attacked? Of course not. And people who are trusting do not deserve to be scammed. How about we spend more time educating instead of offending?
MHO...Donna
SpicuplfeApr 26th 2007 10:21AM
It's not right for you to say that a person deserves to be scammed!
I mean this world is crazy enough as it is without you making such comments. Keep in mind that this can happen to anyone regardless of whether you read the paper or not. These people are skilled at what they do, that's why it's called a SCAM. We should offer advice on how to catch these crimminals and not rejoice when it happens to good people who work hard to make their money.
ZaraApr 26th 2007 11:32AM
i am agree with Spicuplfe.
karenApr 26th 2007 10:56AM
Here's another one I have seen on craigs list for pets. Someone offering a cute toy dog to rehome, usually a pedigree and when you respond they give a whole story about being from a foreign country and they only want you to pay the shipping fee, around $250 and they just want their "baby" to have a good home!
LauraApr 26th 2007 11:14AM
I agree that people dont deserve to be abused or scammed. I ws scammed. I ws selling my sons truck and the man sent me Bank of America cashiers cheques and postal money orders. The bank even put a hold on them until the cleared and the funds were available. I ended up paying my bank back 10,000 dollars back. Even tho the bank recieved the funds for the paper documents they came back stolen. I ended up responsible for ALL of the money to be paid back. Was that fair to me when the bank put a hold on it and recieved the funds and released them to me??? NO it wasnt. I still lost $10,000. Thank god he didnt get the truck tho.
MarleneApr 26th 2007 11:23AM
Trim Day Got me too! What a rip off! But i dont know where to report them! Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. thank you
KevinApr 26th 2007 11:23AM
A good trick that I haven't seen anyone mention yet is this.....If you open a suspect e-mail that contains a link, put your pointer on the hyperlink and see what address that it gives. Chances are that it will not list the address of the legitimate company they are trying to dupe you into believing they are. Best thing is to not open and delete it but this is just an extra pointer to help make sure they dont take you.
E. DossApr 26th 2007 11:46AM
I received an E-mail from
I received an E-mail from Paypal telling me that a guy named Steven Gora(behead@aol.com) had stated that I owed him money. First I do not have a paypal account, I do not know a Steven Gora and I certainly did not owe him any money. When I tried to contact AOLPayPal my inquiry went directly to AOL. I checked the member directory and there is a Steven Gora and there is a Behead @aol.com. I am beginning to distrust AOL. I could never get any kind or response from anybody.
Idid document everything I could find about Steven Goro and Behead. I am associated with a local police department and I have turned all of the information over to them.
a
McKApr 26th 2007 11:48AM
We actually scammed the scammers, sorta -
First the arrival of the laptop, huh? Then the charge, made while wife was in the air. The call,m get it off the card, call the police, but hey, there was an e-address. Wife makes new return address "hey, you sent to wrong address, where does this go..."
Bingo, two Nigerian names and would you believe Wisconsin. But that was just the beginning - we thought they go arrest them. But who had jurisdiction, where was the crime committed ... the police came over, looked it over ... left ... I called a few times, tried to get a TV show with affiiates in Wisconsin ... nada
So six months later, I said .. hey open it up. Let's see if it works. And it did. Too bad, now it's used goods, they'd have to re-test it, they'd lose all their profits gee whiz ...
Two years later my wife left ... but she left with the laptop. Thanks guys ... next time send me a Porsche please.
LMcK