How to beat ‘please-send-me-money’ scams
By Temitayo Famutimi
To many people, it is no more news that Internet scammers
have devised a trick to make unsuspecting victims part with their hard earned
money. It comes in the form of an email from a supposed close friend claiming
to be stranded somewhere and requesting for some money to help him get out of
the tight corner he found himself.
Usually written in not-so fluent English, the tone of
such a letter is urgent and it reads, "Hello, how are you doing! I hope
you are fine? I'm sorry I didn't inform you about my trip to the United States
for a conference. I'm presently in New York City, but I got robbed at gun point
on my way to the hotel where I lodged. All the cash, credit cards and phone
were stolen from me. Thank God I am alive and my passport is save.
"I would like you to assist me with a loan to sort
out my hotel bills and get myself back home. I have spoken to the Nigerian
Embassy here but they are not responding to the matter effectively.
"I will appreciate whatever you can afford to assist
me with. I'll definitely refund the money as soon as I return to Nigeria. Let
me know if you can be of any help. I don't have a phone where I can be reached.
Please let me know immediately."
This kind of letter has been sent to many people's email
and Facebook accounts at least once. Unfortunately, a few less discerning
people have been unlucky enough to fall for the antics of the senders. Such a
scam, often the handiwork of Internet frauders, has become very common on the
cyber space lately.
But the messages are not limited to Nigeria. In 2007, it
was reported that scammers sent e-mails to people asking them to donate to
victims of the California wildfires. The Federal Bureau of Investigation
reported total online fraud losses of almost $560m in 2009, which was more than
double the tally for 2008.
However, if you happen to receive such a message, it is
advisable not to respond immediately or you may end up losing large sums of
money to scammers.
Still, the big question is: What if your friend is really
in need of your help? You would definitely not like to leave your loved ones
stranded in a foreign land. The best you should do is to call your friend on
the telephone. If it is not going through, contact a close relative of the
person in question to find out the true position of things.
If you cannot verify the story on the telephone and
through other means, ask your friend (or the hacker) questions that only your
friend should know the answers and not the kind of stuff that he could find on
your Facebook profile page or other social networking sites.
If it turns out to be a scam, contact your friend and let
him know that the account has been hacked into and compromised. If he is lucky
enough to log into their email account and change his password, he should do so
immediately.
On Facebook, if you ever come across anyone
misrepresenting himself by using a new account and posing as somebody you know,
you should report that person by using the 'Report/Block' link on their
timeline.
There are many genuine and extremely useful applications
on Facebook that help users connect in more meaningful ways. But you should be
cautious while installing such apps or clicking on links.
It is becoming a common occurrence to receive a post
asking you to check out a funny video. Avoid scams by being wary of such posts
asking you to check out a porn video, complete a survey or install this viewer
application.
Responding to such invitations may expose your account to
danger of being compromised. Also it may put those on your friends' list at
risk of being swindled or receiving scam messages that look like one from you.
If you believe your Yahoo account has been accessed by
someone else without your permission, immediately change your password and then
use the "Login Activity" feature to check for suspicious activity.
Punch
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