Breakdown of an Email Scam Alert with a Silver Lining: Affiliate Opportunities
This is a very sneaky email I got in today because it is somehow using an important keyword that I used in an important email yesterday and something we talk about all the time in here. Of course there is a 1% chance it could be 'legit' but here's why it smells scammy and I will not open it at all. Bear in mind scam emails are worse than spam emails and often plant some sort of trojan in our computers that can steal our entire email lists and has them all emailed and infected before we even know we are infected. The thing is, experienced as I am online and with email, this was still very tempting to open today!! So I'm really thinking of newbies here with this, look for these key points - any one of which is a red flag and I've actually got all four in this email heading:
- The name, it's a stranger. I know I have had no contact with this person, if you can't remember then hover over their name to see what email comes up for them without even clicking or do a google search or search your contact list - IF you think it's important.
- Re: is used in the subject heading with a subject I did not use - this should mean it is a reply to an email I've sent someone and using the same heading I should have used - but I'm aware I did not send an email with this heading and I did not send it to this stranger, so he has no reason to 'reply' to me with this. That is cheeky to try to trick me into thinking this is a 'reply' to an email I sent! Many people are too busy to catch this. And some spammy marketing tactics use this sometimes now, still high risk.
- Using a keyword I used: 1st page in google - this is a keyword I used yesterday in the body of an email, and that is where it is so sneaky - how did they know, lucky guess or more, hm....!!! That is where it gets tempting, it looks like someone is replying to what I was talking about, but again, the re + keyword is off, I did not use it in the heading! If someone were legitimately replying to me it would be with the same heading I used and not require an attachment.
- Attachment! This is one of the biggest red flags!! If you are expecting an attachment from a trusted source then that is fine, but the people looking to infect your computer usually are strangers and usually send attachments, so when a complete stranger asks you to open an attachment then don't do it. Check them out in other ways without even opening the email if possible or in my case here I will not open this email at all.
'Usually are strangers': One further thing to watch is if you get an email from an address you know, someone in your contact list - the name and address are clearly someone you know or know you have emailed BUT you suspect there is something a little off about the message, it is bad English, has mistakes in it, not 100% making sense AND has an attachment - then do not open the attachment because if / when someone is infected with one of these trojan type things that infects their entire contact list and you get emailed in the name of someone you know but really it is the virus/worm people trying to infect you! It's no real big deal - there have been times I suspect someone was infected and just emailed them to ask them and funnily enough I was the first person to tell them they were infected! They simply confirmed they did not send an email with an attachment and could see now they had to clean up their computer.
Affiliate Opportunities
At this point anyone writing a blog on this should be guiding people to free software to help clean up and protect their computer - and using their affiliate link to sell the pro versions and make commissions - that's what the training here is about, showing you how to help your audience and use affiliate links and earn money by getting commissions on sales just helping people with consumer choices when they need to buy something.
There are many free versions of cleanup software out there eg Malwarebytes, and each of these usually has a pro version which people can buy, that is where you make your commission. If you want to find the affiliate program then type for example malware bytes affiliate program into google and see what happens! There's more out there of course.
Help @WA
Of course if you run into problems or suspect anything, as a member here you can ask a question and the members here are quick to answer questions and advise. I've often asked for help with these things in the past and it's been great.
It's something we rarely run into, but need to know how to handle either to prevent or to clean up and deal with it.
Mary
Recent Comments
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Thanks Mary. It is steadily becoming more difficult to do business and even communicate online without being scammed. And now Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Google are being sued for refusing advertisements regarding cryptocurrencies. They continue to spread ponography, so the technology used by cryptocurrencies must be a big threat to their power and profits. Mark Zuckerberg net worth has decrease 82 Billion in the last week or so and he is fighting back to retain control over the use of Facebook Users/ data.
Awareness is key.
Lol that is funny about fb if they finally get their ass kicked, they have a lot of power and they've always been a bit unfair when it comes to advertisements and how they use their power...
It's just a small percentage of emails, if your intuition tells you something is off then don't click ;)
Hey Mary,
Thanks so much for this valuable information contained in this
post. I will try to be careful as the world is filled with people
looking for ways to cheat or harm others. Good actions on your
to investigate and warn others.
Cheers,
Ken
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This one was slick. Good thing you were alert to all the signs. These people are getting better and better and we need to stay on guard. They really need a LIFE!
~Debbi
True Debbi, they do need a life! Yep, I had to do a double take on this one, I've no idea how they pick up on our transactions or what we've said sometimes!! But they seem totally powerless if we don't click.