Secur-alysis

Just Ask Somebody: E-Mail Scams and How to Recognize Them

October 25, 2008 by Antivirus Ware.com

During the course of perusing your morning email, you discover an email that appears to be from Microsoft and declares you’re a lottery winner. If you’re using a split-screen viewer to see the contents of the email without opening it, you may be reading details that suggest your email address was randomly drawn and you’ve won some money. This is one of the most popular e-mail scams. You don’t have to bother trying to contact Microsoft or Norton replying to the originator for validation. Take no longer than a moment to click on the spam button and proceed to the next e-mail.

Recognizing e-mail scams is not always as simple as the example. It is important to understand that most e-mail providers don’t validate the information provided by individuals who sign up for e-mail accounts. The simplest route for providers to take is to simply delete a suspected account and often they do. This is by no means a remedy for the provider or for you because the scammer just opens a new account in a new name.

There are far too many scams to even begin to name them all. Dying victims, widows, orphans, you name it. If you are wondering whether or not an e-mail you have received is legitimate but are unsure, just ask somebody. There are countless web sites that maintain lists of with names and copies of e-mail scams that individuals have submitted. If you find your e-mail, report it again to your provider as spam.