Too Good To Be True

I have been getting a rash of emails lately that say, in one way or another, I can claim millions of dollars from a foreign bank. I just have to pay a security fee, or send my address or contact a benevolent banker. (Benevolent Banker... that is an oxymoron if there ever was one). I have been chosen, so the email says, because they know I would want to help by agreeing to take a very large sum of money off their hands. One letter said that they got my address from a Christian organization and had prayed to find the right person. God led them to me.

The emails read like they are written by a seven year old who is trying to sound like a lawyer. It is sometimes in broken English with spelling and grammatical mistakes. One letter even said that I would get "Ten-Milion US Dollars Monies ($20,000.00) cash" (sic). Who could resist that?

I don't think anyone who is smart enough to read would fall for a scam like that, but they seem to be all over the Internet right now. The problem is, if these amateurs are prowling, the real professionals are too. Today I got an email from a person inquiring about an item I have on Ebay. It had all the Ebay logos and the disclaimers and links back to Ebay and a button to respond. The subject asked me to "respond as soon as possible". The person wanted "More information in item I have for sales".(sic) The deal is, I haven't used Ebay in about 6 years and as I checked the links, all those official looking buttons linked to a weird website that was definitely not Ebay.

Even if I had written back to say, "you have the wrong person", too late. I would be sent to an Internet address that is a trap. They would have my information from the return. More important they know that the email address is "alive" with a person who will respond. It is not quite Phishing but the first step. Unfortunately you can be punished for being nice on the Internet.

Watch your backs. No one is giving away money even if it looks like the answer to a prayer.

As you were,
Jay