Have you been scammed? Do you know someone who has, or have you been fortunate enough to avoid scams so far? The internet can be a dangerous place, everyday people are having the wool pulled over their eyes and being ripped off. A golden rule to remember whilst surfing the net is, "If it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is."
Here are some tips to help you identify a scam and protect your money and your P.C.
POP UP'S:
How many times has a pop up, well... popped up, claiming that you have "won" when you have been on the internet? For me personally, more times than i can count. The most popular and also one of the biggest pop-up scams on the internet is a grey background box with text in black,reading, "congratulations, you are the 999,999th visitor, you won!!" Watch out for this one, and what ever you do, dont click on it as it has been known to carry a nasty virus and cause errors. Infact, pretty much every pop up is a scam that internet users need to be aware of. Although we would like to believe these "you won" claims are true, reason being why it's easy for people to get scammed, us internet users need to wake up and remind ourselves that nothing in life is "free". Never click on a pop-up no matter how tempting it is, because i garuntee it'll be nothing but a no good scam, which can infect your computer with a virus, cause errors, its could even be giving a hacker information about you or your computer, it could be a hacker at work, and worst of all it could have you giving your credit card number out online, which is giving access to funds to you dont know who!
MONEY MAKING "SYSTEMS":
The majority of internet users will have come across this one, websites claiming to be a buisness and that they can make you rich if jus follow the simple steps that consist of their "proven system." Just like most scams on the internet in can be easy for an individual to be tempted by this concept and happily hand over their credit card number, after reading testimonials such like, " I was skeptical at first but this system has changed my life, now i make more in a month than i was making in a year from my full time job."
I for one, do not believe that the majority of these testimonials are true. Think about it, it would be easy for a scammer who may be running this "buisness" to construct these testimonials them self, also, if someone was really "skeptical at first" they would not give out their credit card number. If you were skeptical of a "money making system" wesbsite, would you give out your credit card number?? There are also "systems" that claim to be "free", setting them apart from the rest. It is far easier to buy into these "free" systems than the ones that demand your money "for today only, at half price", but generally there will be at some stage in the "system" that your being asked for money. The most common way the "free systems" work is, it is indeed "free" to sign up, but when you have signed up you have limited status and to get to the top of the system you will need to purchase something, or pay to "lock in your place" as a higher rank, usually as it goes these "free" sytems are not "free", but thats exactlly how they get ur attention and once your in, your hooked.
In saying that, there are a few genuine "money making systems" out there, and if you are looking to find something genuine the first thing to be aware of is that you should NEVER give any money to be a part of these "systems". If a buiness is genuine and they make as much money as they claim they do, then why would they require you to have to pay anything? It is important to realise the concept behind the word "buisness", being, a buisness is a system with employees whom work at making money for the company, and the employer is in control of this money and gives a portion of it to employees. My point is, it does not make sence that an individual would have to give out money to be a part of a buisness, off the internet, do we ever pay money to get a job?
EMAILS
'Junk mail' is the term used to refer to unfamiliar emails from people or "companies" you are unfamiliar with. Although not all junk mail is filled with scams, you should not open any mail that you have no idea what it is or what it's about. Email is the most common way that hackers harm your computer. Junk mail can either be a virus, can cause errors, or it can just be a plain old big fat scam. In saying that, junk mail emails are not always harmful, it could just be rubbish that will not harm you or your computer in anyway. But there is no way of identifying harmful emails as opposed to harmless ones. So it is advisable to just delete anything that you are unsure of.
Internet scams have always been around and they always will be. There is not much we can really do about them, but we can educate ourselves of scams to avoid being scammed. Dear reader, i hope this article has provided you with some helpful knowledge and that you will be able to identify a scam and stay away from it.
