Threatening Tone: One hook that tricks the uninitiated into providing information is the threat that the service provided by the sender is about to be cut off unless the recipient responds immediately with certain information. The ones allegedly from PayPal often indicate that records need to be update, and ask to confirm your user name and password. Once an identity thief has this information, he or she can simply log into your account and clean it out.
Personal Information: The email is asking you to provide personal information, or to confirm information that they should already have on file. Even giving out your name can be dangerous. Remember, these emails are computer-generated, and they don’t have your name at this point. By providing this, you are opening the door to more personalized spam that can entrap you further.
A Plea for Help: This type of fraudulent email can take the form of a direct request for money for a charity, or get even more involved, purporting to be from a member of a foreign government or a family member of a murdered diplomat. This particular “genre” has been given the name “Nigerian” scam since most of these campaigns originate in Nigeria. The email explains that for the “victim” has millions of dollars in a bank account, but cannot access this money for whatever reason. You are asked to help, and in turn, you are promised a percentage of the riches, usually to the tune of a million dollars. All you have to do is to send a small amount of money upfront to pay for the transfer charges. This is a total scam. There is no grieving widow, and no millions. All these people are doing is preying on the sympathies of charitable Americans, hoping to sucker a few into the scheme.
An Offer You Can’t Refuse: Whether it is for a low-interest credit card, a home equity loan, or a car loan, you need to be very wary of these types of email. Some may well come from legitimate businesses, but the risk you take in providing any information is too great to take. If you are truly interested in an offer that you receive via email, visit the website of the company, and send an email to the contact address. Mention that you received an email and that you are just checking to make sure this was a legitimate offer.
Surveys and Product Testers: These emails are very prevalent, and seem innocuous enough, at least at first glance. You are invited to join an online survey site and in turn, promised payment in either points or some sort of reward. There are some legitimate survey and product testing sites that live up to their promises. But others are simply a means by which to gather information, and sell that to other, less scrupulous sources. If you are interested in doing surveys, do a search for “Paid Surveys,” and apply directly online. One word of caution, however, some of these survey groups will require you to go through pages and pages of ads before getting to the survey. If you find yourself in this situation, get out.