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Examples of Internet Scams
1.
A
person advertising an apartment on Craigslist.org is
contacted by someone via email who is interested in
renting the apartment. The apartment owner is told
that a check will be sent for the first and last
month’s rent. When the check arrives it is for more
money than the first and last month’s rent. The
owner is told to wire the difference back to the
prospective renter. Subsequent to this, the check
is returned for non-payment.
2.
Responding to a work at home Internet advertisement,
a victim receives $2,500 worth of American Express
Travelers Checks that they are told to cash. The
victim is instructed to wire the money minus their
10% commission. After depositing the checks and
wiring the money, it is learned that the Travelers
Checks are counterfeit.
3.
People are receiving e-mails stating that the
sender has been contracted to kill the victim. They
go on the say if the victim doubles the contract
price they will not be killed and they will be
provided with the information of the person who
wants them killed.
*** Unfortunately,
people have fallen victim to these scams. The
oldest and simplest advice is still the best . . .
If it’s too good to be true
it probably is!!
Internet Fraud Prevention Tips
Malden PD offers
the following tips:
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If you
encounter an unsolicited e-mail that asks you,
either directly, or through a web site, for
personal financial or identity information, such
as Social Security number, passwords, or other
identifiers, exercise extreme caution.
-
If you need to
update your information online, use the normal
process you've used before, or open a new
browser window and type in the website address
of the legitimate company's account maintenance
page.
-
If a website
address is unfamiliar, it's probably not real.
Only use the address that you have used before,
or start at your normal homepage.
-
Always report
fraudulent or suspicious e-mail to your ISP.
Reporting instances of spoof web sites will help
get these bogus web sites shut down before they
can do any more harm.
-
Most companies
require you to log in to a secure site. Look for
the lock at the bottom of your browser and
"https" in front of the website address.
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Take note of
the header address on the web site. Most
legitimate sites will have a relatively short
Internet address that usually depicts the
business name followed by ".com," or possibly
".org." Spoof sites are more likely to have an
excessively long string of characters in the
header, with the legitimate business name
somewhere in the string, or possibly not at all.
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If you have any
doubts about an e-mail or website, contact the
legitimate company directly. Make a copy of the
questionable web site's URL address, send it to
the legitimate business and ask if the request
is legitimate.
-
If you've been
victimized by a spoofed e-mail or web site, you
should contact your local police or sheriff's
department, and file a complaint with the FBI's
Internet Fraud Complaint Center at
http://www.ic3.gov.
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