So you sit and wait, and wait, and suddenly, everyone seems to know your identity. Someone's used your credit card for a trip in Europe, and your bank account had been empties by an ATM withdrawal in Asia.

Then it dawns on you. You've just been scammed by a fraudulent email ploy.

Email is now part of our everyday lives. We work with email; we keep in contact with email; we use email to spread good news, bad news and any news worthwhile. Unfortunately, with email, just like any other forms of communication such as the phone or postal mail, comes with those who possess unethical intentions to trick unsuspecting consumers.

Some common types of fraud can be offering of fake prizes, fake charity requests, fake notification of your bank accounts, request for identity validation from an online company or simply, just an email with a virus.

These are also commonly known as hoax emails.

As it is getting more common for identity thieves and financial fraud to attack users over email, it is important to understand some of the basic detection methods for suspicious emails to avoid falling into the trap.

PREPARE YOUR COMPUTER

Before we can even protect ourselves from scams, you should be aware that emails can sometimes even contain viruses that will infect your computer as soon as you click on it. Therefore, it is important to prepare for these attacked by having up-to-date Anti-virus software in your computer to protect you from these most basic attacks.

Consumer Search will help you to choose the best Anti-Virus programs.

Detecting a Scam

It's easy to detect any email or web frauds by learning a few of the golden tips below:

Emails

1. Use filtering - many free email accounts such as G-Mail and Yahoo have free filter service. What these programs do is to detect any possible fraudulent email first before you even see the email in your inbox and put them in a separate folder. They usually call this the Spam or Junk folder.

   The problem with this method is sometimes they can accidentally put a legitimate email in the spam folder if it's coming from an email address that is not in your address book and looks suspicious. So make sure to check this folder from time to time just to check if one of your emails is in there.

2. Look before you open - most of the time, fraudulent and fake emails can be detected just by looking carefully at the sender and the subject line. A repeated subject line by different senders is a guaranteed scam. If you get three emails with identical subject line such as “Confidential Winner”, you can safely delete this email without checking its contents.

   Another clue is the use of language and letters. If the subject line has parts or all in CAPITAL LETTERS, then it is likely to be a fraudulent or spam email. Unless you recognise the sender, delete it.

3. Look carefully at the contents - Some emails can seem legitimate, therefore you open it to check what it is. Look carefully on how the contents were written. Personal emails aside, most official emails should address you by your full name (not just your nickname or the part of the email just before the "@" sign) and bare a company letter head.

   If your email is addressed to “Valued Customer” or simply goes into the contents of the emails, then double check these details.

   If the email is not from an organisation you recognise, delete.

   If the email is from an organisation you recognise but do not have dealings with, such as a lottery agent or a bank, delete.

   If the email if from an organisation you recognise and have dealings with, such as a bank or an online merchant, check with the organisation. Call them and let them know that you have received such an email; ask them to verify the validity of this email. This way you'll know for sure, if the email has been sent to you personally. Even if it says "Urgent" on the email, there is always time to be safe.

4. Check the email contents against known frauds - If you have got a fraudulent email it's likely that someone else has already detected, or have been a victim of this email and reported it. There are websites that offer online fraud checking to see if you have received one of the spam emails that are going to everybody looking for unsuspecting users.

   However, an easy way to check is to copy and paste part of the email content word by word into a search engine search bar and sees if there are already information on this particular email.

Websites

1. Look at the web address (URL) - if the email you have received contains a website, make sure to look closely at the web address provided. Many scammers do register fake websites that look legitimate, with only a slight difference to the real organisation names such as www.advancedbank01.com rather than www.advancedbank.com. If you notice this, perhaps check the contents of this email with the real organisation's website and report it.
   
2. Look for spelling mistakes - fake websites like the above are often made up quickly and sometimes can contain spelling mistakes and word errors. Look for these. Professional and legitimate websites will not usually contain these errors, which may indicate this is a hoax website.
   
3. Be aware of processes - financial institutions and government agencies do not ask for your personal details online unless specifically requested. If you receive an email asking you to enter sensitive information such as bank account number, credit card number or passport number, call the institutions to ask. Especially if the website looks suspicious or is not secured. Look for a "padlock" icon on the frame of your browser that indicates a secured website for input of personal information.
   

Some Useful Sites to Visit

Google - A great search engine that will allow you a broader search into the email you are after.

Snopes.com - Read up on the latest hoaxes and myths. It is also a good website to check the validity of an email.

Truthorfiction - Another great website to visit to check whether an email is a hoax.

Sophos - Has good information on email hoaxes as well as internet security.

It is another work morning, and I find myself scanning through a stream of unread emails. Scrolling through the list, I find the most tempting email waiting for me to read:

It's for real! Forward this email to 25 people and Microsoft will send you a check with $1000.

I think hard to myself: what would I do with an extra $1000? Is it in US dollars or Australian? I move my mouse and click the button - delete.

We have all received emails like this. Since the beginning of email, forwarding jokes and good photos have become daily part of our lives. In the recent years, there has been an increasing amount of emails offering reward for forwarding it on, those warning of unspeakable punishment to those who do not. Some forwards, containing warnings of crime and bodily harm also delve into our inner self-security, making us wanting to do our friends the goods by forwarding it to them.

There are so many types of these emails:

• Email offering cash from the CEO of a large firm for forwarding to certain amount of people
• Emails offering health warning about using certain products or other possible exposure risks to cancer, asking you to forward to your friends to save their lives
• Emails describing how a particular crime is being conducted and warning that if you do not forward the email to your friends, their lives can be in danger
• Emails claiming each forward will generate certain amount of payment as donation to charity to save lives
• Emails simply asking you to forward and something nice/bad will happen

Are they for real? If I do not forward to twenty friends, will I get seven years of bad luck? What if someone only have nineteen friends on their email list? Will they get their bad luck reduced down to three days?

I decided to relief myself of the curiosity and cut and pasted some part of the mail content into Google. What I found, may save all my friends from the number of spam they receive from me and the number of forward clicks they need to make each day.

All those forward emails were hoaxes. Some of them might have been started by some bored youngsters dating as back as 1995, and some, simply have their wordings changed along the way to suit any current news and situations, making them sound very valid.

Currently, tracking every single recipient of an email is still technically not possible, according to Snopes.com, an urban legend and myth tracking website. In my own experience, I never got the money anyway so I had long figured. There are many types of hoax emails these days, concealing themselves with brand names and authority organisations, offering free money, merchandise and advice, starting rumours in the general public and at times, may be involved in the spread of viruses and worse, financial scams. An email circulating for a long time now, gives advice on surviving a heart attack by coughing vigorously, was in fact, false. How do we tell if it's true? Where do we get the information?

Check the Email Contents

If you have received such a forward, it's worth cut and pasting a couple of sentences into a search engine and search for the content online. If you have received it, it's likely that the email has been circulating the world and someone would have picked up its validity.

Read up on Rumours but Ignore Them

It's worth going to spam checking websites to check what current rumours and hoax emails are being distributed. This way, simply by glancing over a forward, you are able to tell that it's just another spam and hit delete, saving your time to do something more useful.

Use Common Sense

If Microsoft wanted to give you money, they would have advertised through formal means of press releases and the media. If there was a proven major threat to our body by drinking water from plastic bottles, or a scientifically possibly way to prevent a heart attack, it would have been broadcasted to everyone through the media. Do you ever think it would be unfair, if someone who actually needed to know, doesn't have an email account so they would miss out? If there was something important or exciting to be talked about - it would have appeared in the news, so just no one misses out.

So I Stop Sending Forwards?

It's a personal decision. Ethically, sending hoax email forwards can cause unnecessary stress and panic, and in a way, you just become one of the spammers yourself. We all like a good forwarded joke, photo or video clips. However, forwarding emails containing false and misleading content is not worth the effort.

Some Useful Sites to Visit

Google  A great search engine that will allow you a broader search into the email you are after.

Snopes Read up on the latest hoaxes and myths. It is also a good website to check the validity of an email.

Truth or Fiction Another great website to visit to check whether an email is a hoax.

Sophos Has good information on email hoaxes as well as internet security.