Could You Have Been a Millionaire Too?
As I was lying in my bed last night, I was hit by a sudden thought, "I could have already been a millionaire many times and I could be ... I would have been on my way to be a billionaire." How is that possible? Just through reading my email. Yes ... just as simple as that. Easy money right? Almost right, easy money but easy way to lose our money! Having been on the Internet for years now, I have seen how their email evolving and getting more and more creative each day.
Just yesterday I received yet another scam email with the subject line, "YAHOO INTERNET LOTTERY" and I thought, "so now Yahoo is giving away money?" Such email should have ended up in the Spam folder but somehow it sneaked into my Inbox. Trying to amuse myself, I opened up the email and read it.
So they weren't kidding when they put "YAHOO INTERNET LOTTERY" in the subject line. I did win the YAHOO INTERNET LOTTERY or did I? As you can see, the email even comes with Yahoo! logo to make it all appeared legitimate and real. Apparently, Internet scam is here to stay and they undergo constant changes to keep up with time. On one hand, I have to say that whoever is coming up with this email did put in some effort to make this email appeared to be from a reliable source. At the end of the email, there was even a photo of a guy (which is something new to me) who signed off as Mr. James Walker LOTTO CO-COORDINATOR, The Yahoo.com staff. On the other hand, I really wondered, "Could this creativity be put to better use than to try to cheat people of their money?" It certainly can! If one is new to the Internet, one may have fall for this.
Some people may say, "Serve them right for being greedy and for being stupid to fall for this old trick. They deserve it!" Maybe they are right to say so. Pardon me that I was once like them and had the same thought. The number one factor why these Internet scams continue to work could be greed but these scams also prey on people who are ignorant and hopeful. Although more and more people are becoming Internet savvy, there are still a small number of people who are naive and maybe one would call them virgin Internet user. Everyday, there will bound to be new user of the Internet. There are some people who are just simply hopeful that these scams are real.
How does these Internet Scams work?
Usually they would explain the nature of the draw and how you had ended up as one of the winners. In this email which I received, they explained, "YAHOO, collects all the mail ID of the people that are online on yahoo messenger, among the millions that subscribe to yahoo messenger we only select five people every month as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying, we are congratulating you for been one of the people selected." A ticket number would also be provided to one and one will be told to contact the agent as soon as possible with one's details like name, address, telephone number, email, ticket number etc.
One would also be told to keep the information confidential from public until the claim was processed and the prize released. These Internet scams even answered your doubt of why you shouldn't inform anyone. They said, "This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted taking advantage of this programme by non-participant or unofficial personnel." Naturally one will follow their instructions.
Upon contacting the agent involved, he/she would explain to you the whole procedure of claiming the prize until a point of time they would ask you to remit a certain sum of money for the legal processing fee or priority mailing fee to send you the money order or cheque securely. How I know? Of course I tried it out. When I am in the mood to play with the agent, I would tease him/her and tell him/her to deduct the fee from my winning prize or to help me pay for the fee first and I will give him/her 10% of the winning. It is always entertaining to see the replies.
With the Internet becoming so common nowadays, such Internet scams are also becoming very common. As long as you have an email, you will bound to receive such scams once in a while. The best thing to do is not to do anything and just put them into the trash folder.
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Just yesterday I received yet another scam email with the subject line, "YAHOO INTERNET LOTTERY" and I thought, "so now Yahoo is giving away money?" Such email should have ended up in the Spam folder but somehow it sneaked into my Inbox. Trying to amuse myself, I opened up the email and read it.
So they weren't kidding when they put "YAHOO INTERNET LOTTERY" in the subject line. I did win the YAHOO INTERNET LOTTERY or did I? As you can see, the email even comes with Yahoo! logo to make it all appeared legitimate and real. Apparently, Internet scam is here to stay and they undergo constant changes to keep up with time. On one hand, I have to say that whoever is coming up with this email did put in some effort to make this email appeared to be from a reliable source. At the end of the email, there was even a photo of a guy (which is something new to me) who signed off as Mr. James Walker LOTTO CO-COORDINATOR, The Yahoo.com staff. On the other hand, I really wondered, "Could this creativity be put to better use than to try to cheat people of their money?" It certainly can! If one is new to the Internet, one may have fall for this.Some people may say, "Serve them right for being greedy and for being stupid to fall for this old trick. They deserve it!" Maybe they are right to say so. Pardon me that I was once like them and had the same thought. The number one factor why these Internet scams continue to work could be greed but these scams also prey on people who are ignorant and hopeful. Although more and more people are becoming Internet savvy, there are still a small number of people who are naive and maybe one would call them virgin Internet user. Everyday, there will bound to be new user of the Internet. There are some people who are just simply hopeful that these scams are real.
How does these Internet Scams work?
Usually they would explain the nature of the draw and how you had ended up as one of the winners. In this email which I received, they explained, "YAHOO, collects all the mail ID of the people that are online on yahoo messenger, among the millions that subscribe to yahoo messenger we only select five people every month as our winners through electronic balloting System without the winner applying, we are congratulating you for been one of the people selected." A ticket number would also be provided to one and one will be told to contact the agent as soon as possible with one's details like name, address, telephone number, email, ticket number etc.
One would also be told to keep the information confidential from public until the claim was processed and the prize released. These Internet scams even answered your doubt of why you shouldn't inform anyone. They said, "This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted taking advantage of this programme by non-participant or unofficial personnel." Naturally one will follow their instructions.
Upon contacting the agent involved, he/she would explain to you the whole procedure of claiming the prize until a point of time they would ask you to remit a certain sum of money for the legal processing fee or priority mailing fee to send you the money order or cheque securely. How I know? Of course I tried it out. When I am in the mood to play with the agent, I would tease him/her and tell him/her to deduct the fee from my winning prize or to help me pay for the fee first and I will give him/her 10% of the winning. It is always entertaining to see the replies.
With the Internet becoming so common nowadays, such Internet scams are also becoming very common. As long as you have an email, you will bound to receive such scams once in a while. The best thing to do is not to do anything and just put them into the trash folder.
LifeLock is the only Identity Theft Prevention Solution backed by a one-million dollar guarantee! Click here to get a 10% discount.
Labels: email scam, email spam, internet lottery, internet scam, spam, yahoo internet lottery
posted by Symphony of Love at 6:15 PM
2 Comments:
Ah well.. Hit me!!1 I need money! :P
You must be kidding! You'll lose more money than getting any if they hit you. Such scams are always around.
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