A Vision for the Future

My vision of the future of e-mail scams is that, while I believe it unrealistic that all scams would be eliminated, people would be given courses on how to avoid common e-mail scams. These courses would be offered as a seminar, directed in age appropriate ways towards students from an elementary school level, through high school and university. These seminars would be mandatory, and teach both students and teachers about how to deal with e-mail scams, and how to detect them.
I envision that the scam databases already in existence, will merge their knowledge into one collective worldwide database. There should be a forum to report instances of e-mail scamming, allowing the authorities to be informed. The IP address of the sender should be tracked down, and the person responsible should pay the penalty for fraud. I envision that scam monitoring will become more active, and that we should enforce penalties for e-scamming much more severely in the past.
If everyone were to do their part in preventing scams, together we can create a safer world to live in.

Excersising Caution With Unsolicited E-Mail

As with all dangers, there are ways that you can protect yourself from falling for scams. Clues lie within the e-mail message itself.
The most important thing to remember is to always take a good look at any page or e-mail that asks you to send personal information, or money. Use your logic. If there was no announcement on the e-mail service provider page, and the message isn’t coming from a logical e-mail address for someone who is head of a financial department, then a message asking you to send $12.95 for your previously free e-mail address probably isn’t real.
You should always take a good look at the address that the message is coming from. A message coming from staff@emailprovider.com is going to be more credible than one coming from a2f4jf778@iheartemail.com. If an address doesn’t look professional, chances are that the message isn’t either.
Simple errors like typos are an important hint as well. A real, professional message will not have typos like “hte” or “emial”. Any typo tells you that the message wasn’t professionally produced.
Take a look at how the message is addressed. If they refer to you as “Valued Customer”, “Recipient”, or, without any title at all, the message was mass-produced without access to the information you set up with your e-mail provider.
All of these provide clues as to the true origins of an e-mail message. It really is very simple. If a message doesn’t look professional, it isn’t, but more importantly, is what I consider to be the golden rule of unsolicited e-mail messages: Always exercise caution and vigilance.

The Dangers of E-mail

As with all technology, the use of e-mail poses some risks, ranging from basic annoyances, to serious problems. Spam, or unwanted e-mail, is often a big complaint amongst e-mail users. Most spam is, though irritating, ultimately harmless. Unfortunately, a fraction of the spam we receive can be very dangerous.
Some spam contains messages that try to trick you into sending personal information, or even money, to a fake company or organization. These forms of spam are often referred to “e-mail scams”. A typical scam might look something like this:

Dear Valued Customer,

As of April 2007, our company will be requiring you to provide an annual service fee. If you choose not to, we regret to inform you that your account will be shut down within the next 48 hours. Please send credit card billing information to the following link:

http://www.emailscam1020394949.com/colscam.htm

Sincerely,
The Staff of Canadian On-Line

Overall monetary losses in the United States due to electronic scams doubled between 2000 and 2001, growing to a colossal $6,000,000. If you are tricked by a scam, the average amount that you will lose, according to the National Consumers League of the United States, on average about $518.00.
Being solicited by scammers is, for the most part, unavoidable. There are some serious risks that occur every time you pause for a moment, and check e-mail from an unknown source.