Financial scams on the web, part 2

The Web a wonderful place to buy, pay bills or sell, but it is becoming more and more dangerous each and every day as crooks establish consistently more clever ways to trick us into revealing our sensitive information to them via financial scams. The Internet is an important tool that permits many of us to engage in business and commerce from our offices without having to go somewhere to do so.

Continued below

Listed below are some more financial scams to stay away from while using the Internet:

• Foreign Lottery - The foreign lottery promotion requires the would be victim to send a fee to cover "processing" for their winnings in some foreign lottery, but if the victim mails the fee, the prize never comes. Any e-mail messages guaranteeing winnings from other country's sweepstakes should always be avoided, as it is against the law for U.S. citizens to enter other country's lotteries. Opportunists send out e-mail informing the recipient that they have won $10,000 or more in a foreign lottery and give out a phone number so that the recipient can claim their winnings. E-mail notices that tout lottery prizes are common. 
   

• Pharmaceuticals - Wise shoppers will understand not to purchase drugs from total strangers who send them e-mail and that giving your bank card number to strangers can result in identity theft. There may be state sanctioned companies that sell drugs over the Internet by means of unsolicited e-mail as marketing, but sharp Americans will stay away from these kinds of things. This prominent financial crime works because people do respond to it, as drugs are expensive. Pharmaceutical crimes are among the most common on the World Wide Web. Crooks send out billions of electronic mail messages each and every day offering price reduced erectile disfunction drugs or any one of many other name brand pharmaceutical products.
• Debt Consolidation promotions - If you pay by credit card, debt crooks may use the credit card to steal your identity, which could make your already poor financial circumstances worse. If you really have a debt problem, look for a professional credit counseling agency. Don't attempt to fix the problem by answering e-mail from a criminal. Electronic mail proposals that promise to eliminate your financial obligations, or consolidate your debts are almost always financial scams. While it is possible to obtain a bank loan to reduce debt or establish a repayment strategy with your creditors, a debtor can seldom solve such problems by responding to unsolicited e-mail. Debt consolidation scams simply want you to pay them money to apply for their "program", whatever it is, and they really just want your cash.
• Get Rich Fraud - One prominent get rich quick scheme involves the sale of a booklet for $100 that will tell you the secret of earning $1000 per day. Offers to acquire a lot of money very rapidly are quite prominent on the Internet and they regularly work their way into the inbox of users by way of e-mail. Gullible people who buy into this scheme soon find out that the "key" is to write a booklet about how to earn a lot of money.

A large number of of these frauds look completely legitimate, so it is up to the user to be cautious of any offer that arrives by way of e-mail that might seem too good to be true. There are a large number of criminals on the Web who would enjoy nothing more than to take your money, your personal information or your identity. Remember, no one ever got hurt by exercising caution.