Thu, 11 June 11:00 2009

Beware of inbox intruders

HOW many times have you received a chain email, normally starting “if you erase this you have no heart” (or some similar phrase), which goes on to tell you about some poor child that is missing or dying from a rare disease? One such email, received from a friend, arrived in my inbox last week. In it, a supposedly distraught mother asked people to forward the email and photo of her missing 12-year-old son, Agustin Martin, whom she says has been missing for a month (it doesn’t say a month from when). Not only does it ask people to forward the email, which most people quite happily do, without putting their contacts in the BCC area (that is, so that no one else can see the addresses), it also had a contact address, which I expect many people wrote to in good faith, again exposing their address to hoaxers and scammers.
When you receive an email like this, it doesn’t take a minute to put the name of the ‘missing’ or ‘dying’ child into Google. More often than not, it will bring up a number of results, which will confirm that it is nothing more than a scam by people preying on the goodwill of others to then use their details for underhanded purposes. In the case of ‘Agustin Martin’, his ‘disappearance’ has not been reported to the police, and there is no record of a German school (from which he is supposed to have gone missing) in the area where he was supposed to have studied. Police are now investigating where the email originated from.
When I wrote back to the friend who had forwarded me the email and told him, and everyone else that I could see had been sent it before me, of my discovery, he told me, in all innocence, that he had forwarded it because he trusted the source he had received it from.
That is what these people depend on, the goodwill of others. They then unscrupulously sell the addresses on to others for so-called ‘phishing’.
Have you ever wondered why a bank has written to you telling you there is something wrong with your account and it will be closed down unless you provide certain details, when in fact you do not have an account with them? This is how; these people (who have nothing at all to do with the bank) have obtained your details from such scammers. But just imagine someone who does have an account and innocently provides them with the information requested. They could suffer major losses.
So, next time you get a chain email, check it out, or if you don’t have time and you do feel you should send it on, instead of simply adding your contacts’ addresses in the ‘To’ box, put them in the BCC box so no-one else can see them.
Other such scams are those which tell you that you can get money or something for free from a certain company if you forward the email to enough people; telling you you’ve won the lottery; offering you a job; or those which warn of viruses or closing down your email or instant messaging account unless you send on the message. And then, of course, there are still the age-old ‘Nigerian scams’.
Beware of all chain emails and, remember, you very rarely get something for nothing. Most importantly, never, EVER send your bank details or anything else in reply to an email you have not requested. Your bank will NOT contact you in this way.
To see more on this subject just type in “hoax emails” in Google. There are a number of sites dedicated to hunting down this type of scam. The internet is a wonderful tool, and, maybe, if all of us did our bit, when a child really does go missing, people will take notice, and not just erase the email.
If you have any views or comments on the subject, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Don’t forget to tune in to TRE.fm every Thursday at 12 noon to hear more from EWN Euro Weekly News

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