http://www.actionfraud.org.uk/
Report e-mail scams, National Fraud Authority urges
People receiving e-mail scams are being urged to forward them to Action Fraud
Millions of Britons who receive scam letters and e-mails are now being urged to forward them on just the once - to the National Fraud Authority.
The agency has launched a new operation to track down the fraudsters behind the multi-million pound industry in scam mail, but needs public input.
Details of how to forward e-mails are on the [url]Action Fraud[/url] website.
Chief executive Dr Bernard Herdan said doing so would give "unprecedented" information about criminal activity.
"Both in terms of collecting lots of fraudulent e-mails and letters, and getting those e-mails sent to our website that we can send on to the police, that has not been possible before.
It's really important that we do that in order to collect that data, deter the criminals and educate the public," he said. The e-mails received by Action Fraud will be forwarded to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau run by the City of London Police for collation and analysis.
Last year, more than 3,000 people reported being scammed but police believe many more are too embarrassed to admit they fell for them.
Mass marketing scams makes up a quarter of all reported fraud but accounts for 90% of losses, with the average victim who reports a fraud losing £27,000.
Received an email scam?
- Do not click on any links
- Do not reply to the e-mail or contact the senders
- If you have clicked on a link in the e-mail, do not supply any information on the website that may open
- Do not open any attachments
- Visit the Action Fraud website
Source: Action Fraud / BBC
you will not fall for these scams if sensible
When you read these letters you can see that only someone very gullible and greedy would fall for these scams. They tell you that you hvae won a lottery you have never entered and which does not exist or they tell you they wish to give you millions of dollars if you help them with something easy and trivial. Only a greedy person would respond to this. Normal people would work hard to raise their own incomes rather than relying on this generosity or luck.
I think it's a bit harsh to broadly label people as greedy if they fall for one of these scams. There are people who are naive in various aspects, or those who are elderly and/or trusting of people. Some people enter competitions and all sorts in the hope of winning something, so if they get a letter telling them they've won, they may believe it's in relation to something they've entered.
Even the most cynical and scrutinizing person can sometimes be gullible to something or other.
Sometime it may also be that a person is in dire need of a little extra cash as they may be out of work, trying to support a family etc. and the idea that they can get something for very little work is extremely attractive to them. That doesn't make them greedy, they are just in a situation that makes them more susceptible to untrustworthy people.
All Love and Reiki Hugs
Also a lot of scams aren't about money like that, some of them are
* hotmail will close your account if you don't respond
* paypal details need to be updated
* your bank queries something
one of the main reasons that I won't do online banking is the amount of bank emails I receive.
I also posted one on here the other day saying that my business name had been protected in China and if I wanted to use it I would need to respond to them, the biz names wasn't my biz name but it would make you think if it was.
A tip that I heard long ago there's a way to tell if the link really is from a bank, credit card or other secure site. The beginning of the name will be https rather than just http. The S stands for secure.
For exampl, you might get an e-mail from your bank and that e-mail will be from the link http://wwwdotmybank.com with another link to their onlyne banking. The online banking site which asks for your passwords, etc. will show as https://www.mybankonlinebankingdotcom.