How to beat please-send-me-money scams

How to beat please-send-me-money scams

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.