“Selling
eternal life is an unbeatable business, with no customers ever asking for their
money back after the goods are not delivered.” Victor J. Stenger.
Few days ago, I
received an email from Yahoo Internet Lottery informing me I have won £
1,000,000 lottery, an amount I have never ever dreamt of. I stared at the email
hilariously because they wrote “One million United States Dollars” in words
whereas the sign of dollar is showing as ˣ. And how comes I have just won a
lottery when I have never ever purchase a lottery ticket in London or use any
website by the name of Yahoo Internet Lottery? I knew about the present days
email scams in order to extort money from unsuspecting internet user. Anyway, I
took a screenshot of the email and save as wallpaper for my amusement. See the
image below:
I’m sure any rational person will
not reply to this kind of emails or follow up but many times I have come across
in some news report when victims, especially old ones who have retired from
work, are extorted from all their life time savings in return for the fake
winning lottery amount. I can feel for the victims and it is not entirely their
faults because they just got swayed away by the words “Lucky Winners” and also
the jackpot amount. But yes! One has to rational and logic on this kind of
email. First point, how can you possibly win a lottery when you have never
purchase a ticket? No one has ever won a jackpot lottery without a ticket.
Second point, when a person wins
a jackpot lottery in term of millions, it is big news but the scammer choose to
communicate with you via your personal email address although you haven't
provided your email address to anyone else except your friends, family and work
related. Just think for a while before pumping our arms in happiness, why is
the jackpot lottery I've won was not announce in any of the major news
channels? Think about it and I'm sure most of us will conclude with the
following phrase, "To hell with the email, and every day is not April
fool’s day."
Third point, in order to convince
the victims to the core and extort the amount by any means, the scammer framed
the email in such a way it is believable as soon as we start reading. For
instance, “You were randomly selected from World Wide Web site through computer
draw system and extracted from over thousands of companies”. However, before
reading all the content of the email, it is extremely advisable to visit:
Google.com and search for World Wide Web lottery or whatever the lottery name
is. The Google search results will be show the words “scam or lottery scam” in
abundant on the 1st page. There and then, don't even bother to read the email
completely, just delete it permanently. In fact, there is no organizer by the
name of “World Wide Web lottery” or any kind of lottery committee communicating
with you via email to claim your winning prize.
Fourth point, the scammer also
tries to blackmail potential victims emotionally. In this kind of case, the
email is different from the lottery email scam. The scammer framed an email
with short unreal story about family inheritance and assets however the story
can easily sway anyone with the tone used in it. And if the potential victim is
sentimental, it just makes it easier for scammer. They will request a monetary
loan from the victim with a promise to repay back with mouthwatering commission
on the inheritance and assets. Honestly, who does a thing like this? It is
really kind of funny to send random emails to stranger for the first time just
to borrow money and to repay later on.
The points I have mentioned in
this blog are few of the circumstances most of us came across while checking
our email inboxes. Anyway, criminals are criminals; they are very confidence
artist and ruthless with their execution of plan. Frank Abagnale said,
“Technology breeds crime and we are constantly trying to develop new technology
to stay one step ahead of the person trying to use it negatively.” Frank used
to be con-artist but now he is FBI security consultant and entrepreneur. I
believed the statement is not against technology rather the misuse of
technology by criminals when we try to stay ahead. In the end, I really
believed email/internet scams can be prevented only if we can just apply some
sense and logic in our head.
Thank you. Have a good evening!
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