In an average lifetime, everyone gets scammed in one way or another at least 2 times.
This guide will tellyou how to avoid, or be preapaired if you get scammed.
 
1 E-mail
Only give your email to people you trust.
frauds and scams are becoming more and more complex, an easy way to avoid them is to not give your E-mail to websites that dont appeaar safe.
 
Use a low-key email, for example johnsmith@hotmail.com will be picked up by software thats puts letters together and sends out an email
A better alternative would be johnsmith098@hotmail.com, this is like a password, use a combination of letters and numbers for highest security.
 
E-mail written in capitals are designed to get your attention, so WIN A LUXURY HOUSE!!!!!!! would be a scam in your inbox because even if they do supply a picture of this house, chances are they got it off google. Be weiry of spelling mistakes, eg. u gotta clik dis link 4 50 bucks, tha will always be a scam, your bank, or any decent site will use formal english.
 
 
2 Web sites.
names of websites can deceive you, scams will have very similar names to the real web sites name. eg the commonwealth bank (the comonwelth bank), though it might look completely different, you might over look it.
The gold lock on your browser shows the site is secure, while scams might also have this, it will look different, or will be placed in a different place on your browser.
Your bank will never ask for private details online, a site requesting your pin or phone number, will be a scam, but be cautious of your details.
 
3 Share tipping
the scammer will by low cost shares in a small company, he then sends vast emails and forum posts out, encouraging people to buy them, it only takes a tiny percentage of the audience to buy the shares themselves to boost the price of such a company. never trade shares you see on emails.
 
4 common types of scams
the good old scams like YOU COULD OWN A ....!!!!!!! are false, while that ferrari might look good or that house might look big, it is a scam. the clue is "could". Misspelt words are a dead giveaway.
 
Charity Requests
after a disaster E-mails will start to pop up about how they need help to save people. links will be supplied to news sites about the disaster. even if it looks legit, it sn't safe, delete such an E-mail,  if you so wish to make a donation, listen to local media, or braches where you can doante funds or items of value.
 
5 The encription padlock
Can be your best friend at times, it shows that it is safe to put your personal details on this site, it will not distribute them over the web.
 
6 The phone scam
Recently, fake representitives of online services have been calling saying "you need to verify your credit card details" they will request your card number and expiery date. However, services like AOL will never need your credit card details, so it is also a scam, if this happens to you, report this to the service via email or call their help line.
 
If your bank calls and tries to sell you items, chances are it ISN'T a scam, but still listen closely and you will notice a different voice, possibly suspicios background noises (laughing) or long breaks in speach, your bank will never ask for your whole security code, only individual letters or numers.
Just because they have your phone number doesn't mean it is safe.
 
 
Thanks, hope it is helpful
 
-Dazza  

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Best way to avoid scams is to use your head. You have it for a reason

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ok then, but sometimes we overlook things when we get excited, like that new house you COULD own thru an E-mail
 
 
(so you are saying this help is pointless  )

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I really doubt this.    I am certain that companies like this are able to identify numbers as well these days.

I agree with above comments, but since everyone is being harsh I'll also add: Good work on the little guide, I'm sure it'll help a few people avoid more scams

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There is a God www.ie6nomore.com
Glomping the internet populace One forum at a time.

 
Yeah, people like my mom will find this useful. She always opens the xxx.doc.exe files  

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Haha. I know..! I thought it would be a good idea to show hidden files and extensions on her computer (running XP). Because I always do this for myself as well. Ever since she's deleting and worrying about all the thumbs files that start to appear. Somehow she can't see that those files are 'hidden' files (their opacity is low).  

Nice little guide. Of course this may be a subject example you wish to add:
 
"W0RK FOR GO0GLE FROM H0ME! PR0VEN SAFE BY CNN!"
 
I get stuff like that all the time to my hotmail account.

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Glomping the internet populace. One forum at a time.

i only read CRXP emails and emails from friends and everthing is deleted
 
its called being scared (and a long word that always escapes my mind )

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Glomping the internet populace.One forum at a time.

Didn't you read his point on deleting messages which are all in caps?

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There is a God www.ie6nomore.com
Glomping the internet populace One forum at a time.

Yes, but he forgot 0s for Os. And the common "proven by CNN" part.

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Glomping the internet populace. One forum at a time.

if this help is really that crap can i just delete it?

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It's not crap. You can't expect everyone who comes on here to be tech savvy like us, and tuned into what goes on for that matter.
 
Trust me, I bet this will help somebody!

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Glomping the internet populace. One forum at a time.

 
Use Gmail. They've got insane spam filters! I actually POP3 my mail into Gmail just to get rid of all the spam.

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i thought you had to have a gmail acount to use gmail???

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I use gmail, even my school comes up as spamming (reason : scams and fraud )
 
it can get annoying though
 
 

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Glomping the internet populace.One forum at a time.

Never ever had an  email spam. (strange)

my spam folder usually contains Microsoft newsletters.

Good effort dazza . hmm...   I should post a guide about malware etc.

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Just add your schools email to a filter or your contacts. Then they'll come trough correctly.
 
dazza, you can forward mails trough to Gmail if you set up a Gmail account.

Actually, my Hotmail account filters all that stuff extremely well too. I never see it in my inbox.

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Glomping the internet populace. One forum at a time.

its a good excuse for a reply about bad homework, or late homework
 
then all external mail is counted as spam too..

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Glomping the internet populace.One forum at a time.

 
What do you mean? I forward e-mail from my university to my Gmail account without any problems.  

 
I do. I've got an e-mail account in inbox.com, but they have a lousy spam filter, so I POP3 my email into my Gmail account, so that it filters the spam out. And it works as a back-up, too Oh, and Gmail always warns me if a email it tried to download from inbox.com contained malware
 

That's good to hear. The last time I used Hotmail was maybe 4 or 5 years ago, and back then I used to get all kinds of messages.
 

When you have your e-mail available as plain text for bots to pick up (stupid Ubuntu Launchpad), the amount of spam (or the risk of getting spam) tends to increase greatly.
 

Really? Gmail has never marked legitimate mails as spam for me..

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emails from petcheyacademy.org.uk is ending up in spam as deafult  
 
i should add it to a trusted domain but i cant be bothered

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Glomping the internet populace.One forum at a time.