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Chain Letters
This is a small matter but one that I felt had to be included somewhere in this document. Many days do we all receive that chain letter in our email inbox. Just like when you receive them at home, you are expected to forward them to a certain number of people if you don’t want to have bad luck.
Often these emails tell you that some person ignored their chain letter and they had been hit by a car or something, and that those who sent the email won the lottery or something like that. These emails are also spam.
I don’t know of one person that had bad luck simply by ignoring the chain letter. Actually their luck improved because the spammers stopped sending that particular email. There was one particular spam mail that is used quite a bit and it gets more and more popular by the day. It works similar to a chain letter.
This email is sent by a “lawyer” that insists that the email is a promotion for Microsoft’s Bill Gates. It basically states that if you send the email to as many people as you can you will receive a check from Microsoft for helping them with their promotion.
It also states that you receive a check that is bigger if the people you send the emails to send them to others. Of course it then tells you that if it is a scam, what have you really lost, but that if it’s true, you can earn some money.
No matter what your chain letters say, DO NOT OPEN THEM! They are lies. By forwarding these types of emails, you are helping the spammers get even more viable email addresses. And since you are forwarding them to your friends, you have just allowed the spammers to get their claws on them too. Your friends will not thank you.
The Pleas from Down and Out Strangers
You have to admire the spammers interest in pulling at the heart strings in order to get your attention. These are the emails that come from strangers that are from some foreign country who are just looking for “donations” from kind people so that they can finish college or get an operation they desperately need.
These emails are always extremely polite and come from seemingly educated individuals who just need help to make their dreams come true. People must be falling for it since they are still coming out in full force.
You must beware of these pleas for help because they are generally just spam scams. Think about it, how desperate can these people be for money if they can afford to mass email complete strangers? I don’t any person who is that poor but can afford a computer and the internet. Do you ever notice that none of these people even give you a viable home address?
Anyway, this is just a sample of a spam scam, there will be more on this in the next section.
The Spam Scam
As the section above mentioned briefly, there are plenty of spam scams going on out there. These are spam emails that come to you and request money or donations to various charities and such.
These types of spam are illegal. Real charities only use their client contact lists when asking for donations. Spammers will do anything in their power to get you to part with your money. Some of them even offer viable products or services, the catch is that the links to these products or services are rarely usable. Here is a list of some of the spam scams that will ask you for money.
Asking for Charitable Donations
Some even have viable sounding names like the American Heart’s Association. (There is no such company) They are relying on the fact that you have heard of the American Heart Association and they have simply pluralized it. It is a really good cover because they know that everyone has heard of the American Heart Association and just changing it a bit causes no real difference to the sound of it, so you are more likely to give up your money.
You really have to watch out for slight name changes like these because these are the scams that are harder to catch. Of course there is one way to know if your email donation request is real. REAL CHARITIES DON’T SEND MASS EMAILS!
Don’t get me wrong legitimate charities do advertise on the internet, but they do it on their website alone and generally offer their charity number and a phone number that you can call as well. Be careful on receiving these. If you know that you are a bleeding heart, just don’t open them.
Sometimes spammers will get your attention by making the email look like it has been forwarded to you. This is silly really, but it often works because the recipient believes that the email is from a friend or family member. Don’t be fooled by the forwarded email. Not all of them are from your friends.
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