Email Frauds

Fraudsters are increasingly using email in trying to steal money or personal information like bank id and passwords from unsuspecting victims. Inexperienced persons can easily become vulnerable to such Internet scams. The good news is that it is easy to learn how to identify current Internet scams that arrive via email. Three most common email driven frauds are Phishing Scams, Nigerian Scams and Lottery Scams.

Phishing Scams-
Under “Phishing" scams you receive email messages that appear to come from your bank/financial institution. The email will try to scare you by saying that your account and money is at risk.
It also provides a link in the message and asks you to click on the link to visit bank’s website and to "update" or "verify" your personal information (your internet bank id and password or Credit card number). When you click on such link it will take you to fake ‘look-a-like’ bank website where you are asked to provide personal information. The scammers then use this information to log in to your account and transfer money/make purchases.
No Bank and Financial institution will ask you to provide id and password over email/phone. If you receive such mail do not click on the link given in the message, do not reveal any sensitive information over email/phone. If you still have any doubt after receiving such mail contact your bank/financial institution.

Nigerian Scams-
Persons of Nigeria or any other country (mainly from Africa) sends you email. The email claims that sender of email has some huge money (mostly illegal) which is parked in some account.
The sender wants to transfer this money to your bank account so that he can make it legal. In return they offer you a portion of the fund. If you show interest then email chain is established. The fraudster will ask you to send some money for processing work etc. Sometimes fraudster will ask you your id and password also. He will use a variety of stories to explain why they need your help to access the funds. Sometimes the story will be different – a rich man/trust wants to donate substantial money for charity thru you.

Lottery Scams-
You receive an email/letter/fax that says that you have won a huge amount of money in an international lottery even though you have never bought a ticket. The email may claim that your email address was chosen at random out of a large pool of email addresses as a "winning entry". Such emails are almost certainly fraudulent. In some cases, the emails claim to be endorsed by well-known companies such as Microsoft or include links to legitimate lottery organization websites.
Like the Nigerian Scams, once you respond the fraudster will ask you money for delivery charges etc. If you send the delivery charges they will ask you to produce “Anti Terrorism Certificate”/”Money Laundering” Certificate. In most case the certificate required will be from China government as fraudster will claim that prize money will be sent from China. He will offer you to get these certificates if you (once again) send money to them.
The fraudster may sometimes send you a fake proof of sending money thru wire transfer (TT) immediately and then they will claim that TT has been stopped by Government because you need to produce “Anti Terrorism Certificate” etc.
It is reported that this fraud is getting complicated. For example fraudsters may visit your home and hand you over some fake currency notes (only a small amount out of prize money) and will again demand some processing fee etc for rest of the prize money