Posts Tagged fraud
Scams Information And Prevention Techniques
Posted by Pedro in Internet Marketing on February 22, 2010
There have been few scams that have yielded as much money as the Lottery scam. Initially contacted by mail, criminals are now also using Internet spyware, business directories, and anywhere else the person’s name appears as a means to contact innocent marks. The con artist informs the individual that they are the winner of a huge lottery or money sweepstakes, and the web begins to be spun.
Criminals using this method are very professional. They develop locations with groups of operators, in various parts of the world, who set at computers all day long sending out these phony e-mails or letters. Thousands of forms are sent out on a daily basis.
There are even phones that contain the correspondent’s name and the scam victim’s name within these organizations. This way, when talking to the victim, the scammer knows which names to use and what lies to tell. It is this attention to detail that makes the victim comfortable and confident in the story that they are being told, and it is also why you want to verify who your callers actually are, by utilizing a telephone service such as 411telephonedirectory.com/Kansas/Hutchinson/620/662.htm.
With the Internet in practically every home and people using e-mails, Facebook, and other means of communication, it is very easy for someone to make contact through a person’s personal e-mail or home address. The scammers also have the capability of discovering passwords, and accessing financial information by infecting a computer with a spy virus. A wise decision is not to open an e-mail if the sender is unfamiliar.
You’ll just end up getting another email if you open up the first one. This follow-up letter will explain that in order to claim their winnings, the victim must first pay specific fees. Unfortunately, there will be innocent victims who will respond by sending the requested fees, and then, they will not hear from these scam artists again; unless the criminals feel that they can convince the victim to give them even more money.
There are also lottery scams that are just openings to acquire information for identity theft. They’ll say that, in order to get the money, you have to verify some information. With this information they can go further into identity theft. When this happens it usually takes several months to get things straightened out and some people have had their bank accounts wiped out by this method.
You should exercise extreme care and good judgment, if you should find yourself faced with this circumstance. If this is done it will be evident that the person claiming to be in charge of the lottery funds is not legitimate.
Keep a few things in mind in these situations. One is that you have to purchase a ticket to win a lottery. For the most part, you can only buy tickets to win a lottery int he first place. Also, you won’t be informed that you won a lottery over an email; it’ll happen by UPS or FedEx instead. You can’t let hope of becoming a millionaire overnight override your sense of clear judgment.
Fraud Information And Prevention Methods
Posted by Pedro in Internet Marketing on February 22, 2010
Craigslist has exploded in popularity over the last few years. On Craigslist, you can find almost anything you want or need — cars, furniture, clothes, even jobs and personal ads. Too bad numerous scammers can also be found on this Internet phenomenon also.
One scheme that is often seen involves listing a car for an amazingly low price. The claim is that that car belongs to a soldier serving overseas and that the car is being shipped back to the United States, but they need money for expenses immediately and are selling the car. When the potential buyer sends the money the scam is complete, and the car never materializes.
Recently a man was arrested for advertising on Craigslist for putting an ad to rent a house he did not own. Before he was caught be the authorities he made away with thousands of dollars. His many victims were left with no rental and no money. By doing a some research, these would-be renters could have avoided this terrible situation.
Another common scam involves fake job postings. That’s why it is always wise to approach “work from home” ads with caution. Many times, after paying an upfront fee, the job seeker will find little if any real work. However, if you are pursuing a job through Craigslist and the point is reached where there will be a telephone conversation, you can use telephone look up services such as phonelookupagent.com/607/988/ to do some background checking on the caller.
Anytime you are considering making a purchase on Craigslist or applying for a job, it’s important to do some research and be cautious. Before sending money you should always require a personal review of the item or some type of guarantee on it. Additionally, any response to personal ads should be done with much caution as many romance scammers utilize this site to take advantage of lonely hearts.
Its a sad fact that many people never receive items they sent payment for. Of course, when this happens, there is no recourse and the money is simply gone. It is a good idea to check the location of the item for sale and, if it is nearby, go and pick it up personally. This allows you to take a look at the merchandise before actually paying for it.
A great benefit of Craigslist is that it is free, and many people have benefited from it. However, with scammers ready to use any means to commit fraud it has become an easy means to swindle people. This is why it is important to exercise caution with Craigslist, take the time to do some research and be aware that there are people on it who are only looking to swindle and steal.
Beware of anyone offering to send money via wire transfer or money order, especially from distant locations. Meeting the seller personally and buying locally is always the safest way to go. Always trust your gut and never give out personal information. And remember, an offer that sounds too good to be true usually is.
Popular Scams Information And Prevention Methods
Posted by Pedro in Internet Marketing on February 22, 2010
In recent years, people have been plagued by the increasing activity of the 419 fraud. Due to widespread use of the Internet, it has since become far easier to commit fraudulent activity and target thousands of people, specifically through email accounts. In the course of this scam, the person getting the email is solicited for money under the illusion that they’ll get more back.
While the advance-fee type scam has been around for a while now, it has since spread from its origin in African countries to others. Using e-mail a person is contacted regarding huge amounts of money that they can receive if they send money in advance. Even though this smacks of an illegal activity many people have fallen for it, losing money.
Specifically, the fraudulent scam works by contacting an individual and informing them that through some legal stipulation, they are entitled to a large sum of money; however, in order to collect, they first must advance a small amount to settle administrative fees and forward their bank account information. However, this also means that victims can get money taken from their own bank account as well as the advance funds.
Since most 419 frauds are based in foreign countries, it becomes increasingly more difficult to find out whether or not the source of the offer is legitimate. Use tele-search.com/Florida/Naples/239/919.htm or other such telephone services to figure out whether or not a provided telephone number in the email can verify the information you were given. However, in most cases, the email does not include any additional information save a name and email address, and caution is advised.
419 frauds are typically received by people without much money or the elderly. Since the offer is too good to pass up according to these people, they literally can’t resist taking this gift for what it is. However, this is not the case, and victims lose the advance money and possibly even the remainder of their resources.
Any communication regarding a large volume of money from a foreign country should be treated with caution. Questions that should immediately come to mind might include: How did they get my name and e-mail? What reason do they have for contacting me? Who is this person or persons?
The world is a smaller place thanks to the Internet. Being able to chat with people in foreign countries is fun. Unfortunately, it has also opened the world to scammers who prey on elderly and trusting people. The 419 fraud scheme is a typical example of this for of exploitation.
In any event where you receive communication from an unfamiliar individual or company, you should always be cautious and validate them first. Furthermore, if they offer you an opportunity that appears too good to be true, that should serve as a warning. Immediately, research this person or company, and in the event that they seem suspicious, contact the fraud division of whatever government agency may be applicable.
Important Information About Frauds and Prevention
Posted by Pedro in Internet Marketing on January 28, 2010
In the past hundred years, no scam has generated more dollars world wide, than the Lottery scam. In the past, scammers used snail mail to contact their victims; now email directories and spyware are the new ways to get marks for their schemes. The person contacted is told they have won a large money sweepstakes or lottery and the con begins.
There is a highly professional quality to the procedures of these crafty scam artists. They develop locations with groups of operators, in various parts of the world, who set at computers all day long sending out these phony e-mails or letters. On any given day, thousands of letters and e-mails will be sent out, in one of a variety of form letters that they utilize.
These groups also have cell phones with the name of the victim being scammed and the name of the supposed correspondent. The purpose is to help maintain the cover story that the scammer is providing to the victim. cell-registry.com/267/716/
With the Internet in practically every home and people using e-mails, Facebook, and other means of communication, it is very easy for someone to make contact through a person’s personal e-mail or home address. The scammers also have the capability of discovering passwords, and accessing financial information by infecting a computer with a spy virus. A wise decision is not to open an e-mail if the sender is unfamiliar.
If the initial lottery scam letter or e-mail prompts a victim to respond, there will be a subsequent letter sent to the victim. The next email you receive typically tells you that you have to pay a few fees to get your reward. Unfortunately, there will be innocent victims who will respond by sending the requested fees, and then, they will not hear from these scam artists again; unless the criminals feel that they can convince the victim to give them even more money.
Sometimes, it is an individual’s personal information that the scammer is interested in obtaining through the lottery scam. In this case, the letter or e-mail will tell their target that in order to claim their winnings, they must first provide specific information. It is through the gathering of this personal information, that these criminals can move forward in stealing an individual’s identity. When this happens it usually takes several months to get things straightened out and some people have had their bank accounts wiped out by this method.
You have to be careful any time you have this type of situation on your hands. For the most part, you can count on whoever is promising you lottery money to not be on the level.
Keep a few things in mind in these situations. You won’t win a lottery unless you buy a ticket. For the most part, you can only buy tickets to win a lottery int he first place. And, lastly, when you win a lottery you are notified by Fed Ex or UPS, not by e-mail or letter. Although we would all like to become extraordinarily wealthy overnight, you must not let this desire, outweigh your good judgment.
Popular Scams Information And Prevention Techniques
Posted by Pedro in Internet Marketing on January 28, 2010
In recent years, people have been plagued by the increasing activity of the 419 fraud. Due to widespread use of the Internet, it has since become far easier to commit fraudulent activity and target thousands of people, specifically through email accounts. In order to work, this method requires the recipient to advance money to the fraudulent people under the promise of receiving a gain on their money.
Even though the advance-fee scam has been operating for a few years in certain countries in Africa, additional countries have started their own scams. The victim receives an email that informs them that, for a comparatively small amount of money that’s advanced to the scammer, they will get much more in return. Despite the dubious nature of this scheme, many people have lost money through it.
The pretense of the email is that you have to pay an administration fee in order to receive the huge payment that they tell you you are entitled to, and they ask for your bank account numbers in order to transfer the money to you. Unfortunately, in addition to losing the advance money, at times, the victim loses money from their personal bank account.
Since most 419 frauds are based in foreign countries, it becomes increasingly more difficult to find out whether or not the source of the offer is legitimate. cell-registry.com/208/583/ Very seldom does one receive anything but a name and an e-mail address, however, so caution should always be taken when considering a transaction of this kind.
Often the person receiving a 419 fraud communication is elderly or is low on funds. As such, the offer is exceedingly enticing, as it provides an opportunity to resolve any and all financial difficulties. However, this is not the case, and victims lose the advance money and possibly even the remainder of their resources.
Any communication regarding a large volume of money from a foreign country should be treated with caution. Questions that should immediately come to mind might include: How did they get my name and e-mail? What reason do they have for contacting me? Who is this person or persons?
The Internet has opened the world to everyone. Communicating with individuals from foreign countries is enjoyable. However, there are those who would use the Internet to scam innocent, naive people out of their money. The 419 fraud scheme is a typical example of this for of exploitation.
In any event where you receive communication from an unfamiliar individual or company, you should always be cautious and validate them first. If it offers great benefits a warning flag should immediately be raised. A thorough investigation should be made and, if suspect, the correspondence should be turned over to the fraud division of whichever government agency is concerned.
Creating A Click Fraud Action Arrange For Your PPC Campaign
Posted by Pedro in PPC Advertising on December 28, 2009
OK thus you’ve read or heard enough to form you concerned about click fraud. During a 2006 survey of 1400 search marketers in the U.S below 50% of the group had plans to watch click fraud across their campaign in the coming half-dozen months (MarketingSherpa) so by creating an action set up currently you’ll already be within the minority of conscious and risk conscious PPC marketers. Your PPC click fraud action set up will be tailored to your own campaign budget and your analysis of the chance level involved, here’s a guideline.
Allocate a budget
This should be relative to your campaign ROI. If you’re spending £a thousand/ month and you live your campaign ROI at one hundred twenty five% you’re not going to want to pay £250/ month monitoring click fraud. If you haven’t noticed the effects of click fraud already chances are your invalid click level will be five% or lower so as a general rule you won’t want to regularly invest a lot of than 5% of your estimated gross campaign profit back to click fraud detection. (The % effort for click fraud detection should be taken from your profit and not from your campaign budget as this is often supplementary work, if you detect zero invalid clicks you may still have spent the identical total budget.)
Assign responsibility
Who can be accountable for monitoring invalid clicks across your campaign? If your PPC account is managed internally by your marketing team this could be another role for them in their regular account maintenance duties. If you utilize an agency to manage your PPC they will take responsibility for this either included in your package or at an additional cost. Ask your agency what their policy and action arrange is for click fraud detection. If your campaign budget exceeds around £5k a month you’ll wish to think about using a click fraud vendor (a specialist agency coping with click fraud) these have sprung up across the U.S and are beginning to seem in the UK too (I can review UK vendors in future posts or there may be ads on this page).
Settle on a timescale
You will be losing cash to click fraud on your PPC campaigns right now. Then once more chances are if you haven’t noticed you may not be. The most important search engines do monitor click fraud or invalid clicks and should provide you with a warning to the current however none the less if you’ve got a bigger PPC budget you ought to be doing your own monitoring right now. Calculate how abundant you’ll be losing primarily based on your total spend and a ball park figure of five% invalid clicks because of click fraud. Then figure out how many hours you ought to be assigning to this. If you calculate you could be wasting up to £one thousand/ month and you value some time at £one hundred/ hour then any time beneath ten hours a month spent on click fraud detection could build it a profitable exercise. Set a date for review, say at 3 months and half dozen months and report back to all or any parties responsible for the campaign to analyse the estimated impact of click fraud on your PPC budget. If you have found nothing suspicious once 3 months, place click fraud detection work on hold for three months and do another audit.
Make it policy
Build click fraud detection half of your PPC campaign policy and procedure. Make it an issue at coming up with conferences and strive to fit monitoring into your routine account maintenance.
Doing it
A plan is value nothing without effective implementation. Click fraud will be a advanced area but they are some simple signs to seem out for- here’s a outline of the prime signs of click fraud:
1. Click through rate (CTR). Monitor you CTR’s traditionally and look for sudden sharp % increases. Typically these may be explainable i.e. the seasonal nature of your AdWords campaign however it could additionally indicate these clicks are invalid or fraudulent.
2. Sudden drops in conversion rates. If your campaigns sometimes convert at a gentle three% month in month out and this suddenly drops for no apparent business reason it could indicate click fraud as invalid clicks can rarely go through your website any additional than the destination URL landing page.
3. Faster than usual daily spend. Study your hourly information and find a feel for when within the day your budget usually runs low and your ads stop showing. If on 1 day or a run of days your budget runs out sooner than usual it may be a sign of click fraud.
4. Keyword stat variations. Look at very similar keywords that typically attract similar CTR’s. A spike in one keyword and not the opposite is a tell-tell sign of click fraud.
5. Suspicious IP addresses. Your net logs or Google Analytics will provide you a record of the IP addresses of each visitor to your site. Although not all ISP’s give their customers with unique IP addresses above average page impressions for a bound IP address is typically the best method of spotting click fraud and Google could ask you for this information when conducting a click fraud investigation on your behalf. Google Analytics is a very useful approach of matching IP addresses to PPC clicks.
6. High traffic levels from unusual locations. Again your internet stats or Analytics will facilitate your here. Study the geographic location of your PPC clicks. If you run a global campaign look for high levels from countries you don’t usual pander to or who even speak a different language. If you’re UK based hunt for unusually high click densities coming from explicit locations even though your campaign or product is not regionally based.
7. Remember examine CTR’s and conversion rates separately for search clicks and content network clicks otherwise the general data might be skewed.
Higher than all bear in mind it’s the littlest percentage of pay per click advertisers who ever see serious effects from click fraud therefore be cautious but don’t sacrifice the benefits of a well managed pay per click campaign for irrational concerns.
To learn how to increase your website traffic, visit: website link building. You can use our website link building to increase website’s rank on search engines and boost your business as well. Why SEO is crucial? And what can SEO do for your business? Find the answers at website link building.
Be Careful When Advertising Online
If you place an advertisement online, there are a number of potential problems which you should be aware of. This article discusses the most common ones and simple methods to avoid them.
1) Non-Payment
One of the biggest problems is that the buyer does not pay you for the product or service which you have advertised for sale. Before sending anything to the buyer, you should ensure not only that payment has been received but also that it has cleared and been deposited in your account. This should be done for all types of payment, including bank cheques and credit cards.
A similar issue is ‘buyers’ denying that they received goods and refusing to pay. Few of these claims are true, but unless one uses registered mail this is hard to prove. Although registered mail costs more, it does increase the probability of you being paid (or not having to give a refund).
2) E-Mail Theft
To place your online advertisement, you will need to provide a contact EMAIL address. Unfortunately, there are various software programmes which collect EMAIL addresses from websites. They may get this direct from your advertisement, or breach the website security and steal it direct from the website databases. Alternatively, some programmes randomly complete the advertisement contact forms and send off messages, so that when you reply your EMAIL address can be collected from your reply.
Your EMAIL address will then be used for SPAM, fraud, or both. To prevent this, do not use your personal or business EMAIL address. Instead, get an address from one of the free EMAIL services and use this for the advertisement. When you no longer need the EMAIL, just delete it.
3) The Over-payment Scam
A ‘buyer’ will overpay you for an item and then ask you to refund the overpayment. For example, if an item costs 0 he might send 0, and then claim that he overpaid by mistake, requesting you to send him the extra 0 back. Similar to this is when the buyer asks for advance money, for example if you are offering a horse for sale, he agrees to buy it provided that you first send him money for a vet examination.
In this scam, the original payment is fraudulent (e.g. counterfeit cheque or stolen credit card). The ‘buyer’ will simply disappear with any refund and since the payment to you will not clear, you will be out of pocket the amount of the refund. To prevent this, instead of refunding, cancel the original payment and request a new payment. Never ship goods or provide refunds before payments have fully cleared and been deposited in your account.
4) Private Meeting
On very expensive items (e.g. house advertised for sale), the ‘buyer’ may insist on a private meeting to complete the deal, usually at a distant location (another city or country) and away from the public (e.g. in a hotel room). If you go, there are a number of problems which can occur, from your house been robbed (as they know when you will be away) or a straight-forward scam (e.g. they try to purchase the item in cash, using counterfeit money) or an attempt to get you alone and force you to give them money.
In general, such meetings are unrealistic and one should immediately break off contact with the people. Nobody agrees to buy a property before ever seeing it and then insists on a private meeting in a distant city. However, if you do decide to go, do not go alone and insist on the meeting being in a public place such as a restaurant.
5) Identity Theft
There are a number of scams which are designed to get your financial details. For example, a bank account number or credit card number, along with sufficient personal information to give them access to the bank account or credit card.
Banks and credit card companies often use personal information as account passwords. For example, when contacting them, they may ask for your birth date or your mother’s maiden name. In combination with an account number, such basic information may allow someone to contact your bank or credit card company and pass themselves off as you.
People who practice such cons have developed a number of credible stories for why they need this information. They may suggest paying money direct into your bank account and request your details for this purpose. They may try to get personal information for ‘administrative’ purposes or through friendly chat.
It is best not to provide either financial information or personal information to strangers. Instead, use a payment method (e.g. cheque or credit card) which does not require that you provide this information.
Secure your email
With Internet fraud on the increase it is becoming increasingly important to protect yourself and your personal details. One slip up can cost you dearly. The most important thing you should do is protect your passwords.
Speak to anyone involved in the Internet security industry and they will tell you it is very important to have different passwords for every major account you log into. This goes without saying, right? Well yes, it is, and lots of online companies help you out by forcing you to have a complicated password, or even generating one for you. That’s great, right?
Well no, not really. Consider it like this. You have an email account which you access every day, often from multiple locations. It stands to reason that this account is the one you log into more than most of your accounts. The more you use it the more vulnerable it is.
You may think that last statement is not accurate, that your password is strong and nobody can know it. You might be right, but the first time you need to use a public computer to access your email, can you be sure there isn’t a keylogger on the computer you are using? Can you be sure their systems are secure and that the kid in the corner with his Macbook isn’t waiting to steal your password?
This all sounds a little far fetched, and indeed it is rare, but it does happen. Every day there are many people whose email accounts get compromised. It is by far the most targetted type of user account.
Email accounts are usually targetted primarily so they can be used for sending spam. The second reason they are hacked is because they contain user accounts and password information.
However, this is often not your fault. You sign up using their registration form, enter your secure password and wait for an email from them. You check your email only to find they have sent it to you in plain text!
If a hacker manages to hack your email account they now have access to your email, as well as the other account you have signed up for. If you happen to use the same password for other accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Bank!) then they may try to gain access to those too.
This is a big problem, and as individuals we can try to stem it by deleting these emails (from the trash too!), but the real issue is companies sending them out in the first place.
As a final word of advice, try to keep to these following rules:
- Keep your email password as secure as possible (letters + numbers etc)
- Use different passwords for all accounts (not even similar)
- Change your main email password every now and then
- Delete emails with passwords in them (and empty the trash)
- Never trust a public computer. If you must use one, change your password asap
- Never use any common passwords