Scammers

Have you noticed the number of scams that have been popping up in your email lately have been increasing?  I get one that plows through the junk mail filters into my inbox at least once a day.  Yesterday is was a notification I could be a secret shopper, they day before that a woman I never met was telling me I could see pictures of her naked if I click right here.  Today PayPal is thanking me for a purchase I never did.  Last month the Apple Store thanked me for purchasing a $500 computer.  I get notifications of suspicious activity on my PayPal account every week. 

The thing is, I don't read these emails any more, I delete them and laugh.  I don't use PayPal.  And I don't believe that a secret shopper could earn $300 American a day.  The truth of the matter is, if Apple wanted me to contact them they would not email me.  Or phone me.  They would wait until I contacted them.  Same with PayPal.  If I respond to a Russian Girl who complains that boy near her are immature and just interested in sex, it is because I am bored and want a laugh.  

I remember about six years ago a friend posted an email and told me that she took a trip to London England and someone stole her ID and she needed £200 to get out of the country.  I calmly texted her and said, your email has been hacked, see you at work tomorrow.  It would have been more funny if it had happened twelve hours later and I could have nudged her and asked her how fast she was, 5000km in a blink of the eye.  But I was not that lucky.

But there must be people that reply to the lawyer in Timbuktu to help facilitate the transfer of 12,344,506 dollars, or they would not do it.  

Here is a simple rule, don't respond to emails by clicking the link at the bottom of the page.  If you think this applies to you, contact them directly and send e email to them.  They will probably tell you that it is a scam and they might investigate it themselves, because these scams hurt their business.  It is fraud. And every scammer out there makes people fear to use their lawful services.  

Also if someone offers you money for doing almost nothing, you should be suspicious.  

I bet future scammers will start telling you that you can get $50 coupon at your local grocery store if you click this link, and that is something will get people to fall for scams.