Look out for the following email that claims to be from Amazon (it is definitey NOT from Amazon). It is a phishing email that is designed to steal your Amazon and credit card information. I got it in my email inbox today, so beware of the following email (un-edited and copied straight from my inbox):

From : Amazon.com, Inc.
Sent : Wednesday, March 28, 2007 6:59 PM
Subject : Dear Amazon Customer

Thank you for using Amazon!
The Amazon Team

Remember that Amazon does not request such information via email as their TOS clearly shows.

I have gotten emails from people (who are supposedly) in Nigeria or South Africa or China who tell me that they are the executor of a now deceased persons estate or that they control the funds of said person and need my help to get the money out of the country, promising me a handsome percentage if I help. Many times they ask me to get the money to my bank account then send it to them (less my commission, of course). Or get this one: A person claiming to be from a particular religious calling in some African country (these are the most popular ones) who addresses me in the mighty name of [which ever deity or god that is being worshipped] claiming to be some kind of leader who can ‘help me help myslelf’ by doing them a little favour. And then money is brought into the argument and the tales of what how to get it, etc., etc., etc. are layed out on the table.

As far as I am concerned, all these emails cry ‘foul’! What I have noticed is that all the emails have the same structure and are rife with incorrect spelling and poor language structure. Punctuation marks are in places where they don’t belong, for example: “Please help, me with this business. transaction as I cannot do; it by myself.” Paragraph formation is also very poor. Now, I would think that if someone was looking for a business partner in a foreign country that they would at least get someone who knows English well to setup the email for them.

Here are a few ways in which you can identify fraudulent emails:

1. Poor punctuation and spelling, lots of grammatical errors, and lack of cohesiveness (note that there are emails that can be genuine and have these inconsistencies, though the majority are frauds).
2. You get an email telling you that you won a lottery that you never entered. Most end up asking you to send them some money so that they can send you your winnings. When you ask them to take the money needed to send the winnigs out of your ‘winnings’, they usually claim that the money is in an escrow account which they cannot touch. Please, give me a break!
3. Emails from sources not known to you that request personal details, like username and password and address, etc. Most times these are phishing emails.
4. Emails that are sent by different people but have similar structure and errors.
5. Emails claiming to be from reputable people or websites but whose images and links lead nowhere near the website of whom they claim to represent.
6. Emails telling you that you have won an iPod or TV or free satellite system, but then goes on to ask for personal info so they can send you your prize. Again, this is all part of phishing.

Look out for these types of email and if the site they claim to represent has a way of reporting these emails to them, please do so. PayPal has that feature as part of their efforts to clamp down on fraudulent emails sent in their name.

Post sponsored in part by Just Answer – Get Your Questions Answered! and Melatrol – Insomnia Relief

Press Release
February 14, 2007

We all, at one time or another, have gotten e-mails from the so-called Paypal website, from the so-called eBay site, Hotmail, Yahoo!, and more. What kind of e-mails am I talking about? The ones that tell you something is wrong with your account and that you need to submit some info about yourself to prevent it from being closed down. We all know, though, that the real sites would never send such a request via e-mail. Well, there is a new one out, this time claiming to come from e-Gold. Below is the message I got over the weekend, which I am asking all to look out for:

To: [my e-mail address]
Subject: Your E-gold account will be suspended
From: “Costumer Service E-Gold” [support@e-gold.com]
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2007 05:01:05 -0500

[e-gold logo]

Dear E-gold customer

We regret to inform you that your E-gold account could be suspended if you don’t re-update your account information. To resolve this problems please click here and re-enter your account information. If your problems could not be resolved your account will be suspended for a period of 24 hours, after this period your account will be terminated.

For the User Agreement, Section 9, we may immediately issue a warning, temporarily suspend, indefinitely suspend or terminate your membership and refuse to provide our services to you if we believe that your actions may cause financial loss or legal liability for you, our users or us. We may also take these actions if we are unable to verify or authenticate any information you provide to us.

Due to the suspension of this account, please be advised you are prohibited from using E-gold in any way. This includes the registering of a new account. Please note that this suspension does not relieve you of your agreed-upon obligation to pay any fees you may owe to E-gold.

Regards,Safeharbor Department E-gold, Inc
The E-gold team.
This is an automatic message. Please do not reply.

What is interesting, as usual is that the part that says ‘click here’ never points to the real website. In this particular e-mail, it pointed to a website at http://www.scholarswithoutborders.in/images/egold/index.html (you donnot have to click on the link to see that it goes there. Just hover you mouse pointer over ‘click here’ and you will see it). Beware of this e-mail. It is NOT from E-gold.

PRESS RELEASE:
January 1, 2007

As part of my ongoing drive to find persons and so-called opportunities that are out there to trick you, I recently joined two paid-to-read websites based on the notion that I would receive $10 into an e-gold account. The email I got read as follows (grammar and spelling is exactly how I received it):

(HELLO, THIS IS NOT SPAM. YOU ARE RECEIVING THIS MESSAGEBECAUSE YOU ARE A MEMBER
OF SMART-LIST. IF YOU WISH TO BEREMOVED FROM THIS LIST, PLEASE TYPE REMOVE IN
THE SUBJECTBOX OF YOUR REPLY.)

Hi,

Thanks For Taking Time. I Know You R Looking For Making Money.

I m giving $10 egold for being my free referral in 2 ptr’s.
i.e. Just Sign-up Thru The Links given below.

http://tinyurl.com/y8m8ch

http://tinyurl.com/y4fqly

After signing up send an email at itsmokin#hotmail.com with
your username you used to sign-up and e-gold account no.
I will send $10 to your egold account in 24 hrs. and e-mail you payment batch number.

If you don’t have an e-gold you can get it here.
Its free to join
http://www.e-gold.com/

Best Wishes,

Rocky

It was from email address riyaj.sac@gmail.com and it has been well over five days since I responded and till this day I have not received any money. Both accounts have the name ‘riyaj’ as the upline. So, look out for this email or even others similar to it. You will not get any money if you sign up. By the way, I cancelled both accounts.

The prevalence of Information Phishing online today is quite alarming. Many of us have received emails that are supposedly from a particlar individual or company requesting that we take a particular action involving submitting personal information to them. But before we continue, let us define Phishing.

A direct quote from webopedia defines it this way: Phishing is “the act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information.”

So, to make these phishing e-mail messages look even more legitimate, the scam artists may place a link in them that appears to go to the legitimate Web site, but in fact it actually takes you to a phony scam site or possibly a pop-up window that looks exactly like the official site. Another name given to these copycat sites is a “spoofed” Web sites. Once you are at one of these spoofed web sites, you might unwittingly send personal information to the con artists who are running the scam.

How can you tell if an e-mail message is fraudulent. Microsoft offers this advice:

Here are a few phrases to look for if you think an e-mail message is a phishing scam:

“Verify your account.”
Businesses should not ask you to send passwords, login names, Social Security numbers, or other personal information through e-mail.

“If you don’t respond within 48 hours, your account will be closed.”
These messages convey a sense of urgency so that you’ll respond immediately without thinking. Phishing e-mail might even claim that your response is required because your account might have been compromised.

“Dear Valued Customer.”
Phishing e-mail messages are usually sent out in bulk and often do not contain your first or last name.

“Click the link below to gain access to your account.”
HTML-formatted messages can contain links or forms that you can fill out just as you’d fill out a form on a Web site. The links that you are urged to click may contain all or part of a real company’s name and are usually “masked,” meaning that the link you see does not take you to that address but somewhere different, usually a phony Web site.

Be proactive and look out for e-mail messages that may be part of a phishing scam. I hope that this post has served as a guide to help you protect yourself from fraudulent e-mails.