Sadly, the number of email and social media scams is increasing. Every day we are bombarded with information and it is becoming harder to distinguish between the truth and the lies!
Even the most tech savvy people can be caught out by these terrible schemes. Here are a few that have been doing the rounds that you should be aware of.
Scammers are now becoming more aware of our social networks and the connection’s we have with people on line. As a result, there has been in increase in the number of scams targeting people by pretending to be someone they know.
Emails alerting you of an ‘offline message’ – These are emails which arrive, seemingly from your email provider telling you someone you are close to sent you an offline message. Do not open these emails! Google and Hotmail do not send emails like this out. Invariably, if you click on the link in the email, it will take you to what looks like a login page asking you to log in to your email account. In fact, you are supplying the crooks with your login details! This has happened to thousands of people just in the last few weeks and they have had their email accounts hacked and details stolen.
People have been sent emails purporting to be from their bank, the Inland Revenue, the Police and other official companies and government services. If you are unsure, send the email to the organisation that seems to have sent it, without opening it or clicking on any links inside it. If they really need to contact you, they can do so by letter, or will confirm the validity of the email for you.
Not all emails are scams, but we all must be more aware of them than ever before. On Facebook, the latest scam is to pretend to be an existing friend starting a new account and sending a friend request. Those who accept the friend request then have the same thing done to them. The scammers use it as a way of mining for more information about people and as a way of gathering email addresses and other personal details.
Be careful online!
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