Internet Scam Safety Tips

The Internet has provided many opportunities for scam artists and other criminals. The best way to protect one's self is to recognize the characteristics of these scam emails. Online fraud exists as advance fee fraud from foreign countries such as Nigeria or as phishing where the fraud perpetrators attempt to collect financial information. Some of the things to look out for include strange banks, foreign countries and foreign sounding names with certain titles. Some of these scam emails can also be identified by special words and phrases. In addition, some of these Internet scams have particular themes such as the Nigerian inheritance scam and the UK lotto scam.

Most Internet scams have certain features and attributes that make them easy to recognize. Some of these include the type of foreign country they claim to originate from, job titles and professions, type of greeting and special formatting as well as bad spelling and grammar.

Countries

Although Internet scams can originate from any country in the world, there seems to be a certain few that lend their name to more than their fair share. African countries are frequently mentioned in many fraud emails. The African scams usually include but are not limited to countries in West Africa. Many of the following countries are mentioned in scam letters.

Professions or Titles

Scammers use a wide variety of job titles and professions in order to lend authenticity to their scam letters and other forms of communication.

Special Words

Special Phrases

Themes

• ATM Visa Card Payment
• Charity
• Lottery
• Gold Dust Offer
• Inheritance
• Job Offer
• Stand In Beneficiary