Beware : Online scams Cont..

[goodboys]

3. Reshipping/Postal Forwarding scams: You've seen these email cons: "Work at home, handle shipments, make big bucks!" An offshore outfit needs a U.S. insider to obtain a U.S. shipping address and bank account to accept goods and ship them outside the country. Activities may involve electronic funds transfers into your bank account, after which money gets transferred offshore. For each transaction, the sender claims you would receive a cut from the proceeds. What's really going on is that scammers use stolen credit cards to make online purchases, which are then shipped to you. You forward the items to the thieves, who resell them overseas. When you transfer money in and out of your account, you involve yourself in wire fraud or money laundering. After a while, the thieves either ransack your bank account and disappear or authorities come after you for participating in illegal activities.

4. Free merchandise scams: You get an email (or popup ad) that says you've won or that you qualify for a free game console, laptop computer, plasma TV or other common source of "gadget envy." All you must do to collect is visit a Web page and provide credit or debit card data (and PIN, as needed) for small shipping and handling charges. But the item never arrives, and mysterious entries show up in your monthly credit card statements. The only thing that's really been turned over, of course, is access to your financial information for deliberate misuse.

5. Phishing scams: You receive an email that says it's from a bank or a credit card company, and it asks you to confirm financial or account information for some plausible sounding reason. Should you visit the Web page that's linked in the message? You'll see a site that often looks exactly like the real thing -- except it's not, and exists only to collect account numbers, PINs, passwords and other data you share with it. This info may be used to make illicit online purchases or fuel attempts to steal from your accounts. Stop to consider that financial institutions and credit card companies won't ask you for data they already have, nor do they send email to request it. If you're ever in doubt about an appeal for such info, use the phone to call the sender (and don't use the number from the message, either).

The biggest problem with these scams is that they target those who are ill equipped to withstand them. FBI and FTC reports indicate that the elderly are particularly susceptible to online fraud. Unfortunately, those on small or fixed incomes are also least able to survive financial losses unharmed, particularly if they're tricked into surrendering some (or all) of their life's savings.