Saturday, Aug 20, 2011 at 12:50
Yeah you'd hope that Andy, but you'd be surprised just how many people still fall for the old "I am the executor for the will of the Nigerian presidents cousin who has $25 million blah blah”.
I must confess to being surprised just how many emails I get on a weekly basis telling me something has been re-platformed, account structures have changes, systems been corrupted or any number of excuses , all asking me to log into a very official looking site and verifying my password and account details. The banks themselves notify you of these scams as a matter of priority when you log into their legitimate sites. They very, very rarely send an email because they are hard to distinguish from the scams. It's always on a legitimate website or by hard mail.
If you haven't seen any of these then you mustn't be checking your gmail or hotmail accounts. If you are not aware of this method of scam and it’s warning indicators in particular then you should be. They are listed on many scam alert sites.
I think the other main issue is the sheer connectivity in our lives these days as
well. We do our banking, communicate via email or VOIP,
shop, pursue hobbies and visit magazines, newspapers and forums. I think everyone has at least multiple sites that they possess passwords and account details for from our emails and this site upwards. There is so much information coming our way from the e-things we are involved with/connected to that people don’t always
check the legitimacy of the requests they receive.
An example. Our 16 year old just got his first Iphone. He had to have an apple account linked to a credit card before he could take advantage of any apps even being free. Checked it and it was legit but would you do it? I’ve got an android phone and I had to have a Google account linked to a credit card before I could venture into the App store as
well despite only wanting to download free stuff. With the rise in acceptance of e-commerce does everyone remember exactly what they’ve linked what details to. Can you even keep track of your passwords for everything (Health insurance, ambulance, RACV, utilities company, vehicle service centre, see what I mean. All pervasive)? A lot of the victims tend to be elderly because they are less savvy. Sad but true.
Wanna bet you 4x4 (or caravan) on whether it’s a scam or not in this case ;-)
Cheers Mick
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