There is no shortage of Internet scams out there. How do we protect ourselves from being duped? This article will provide 5 tips to avoid being a victim of an Internet scam.
5 Tips to Avoid Internet Scams
Have you ever received an email from a Persian prince offering you the opportunity to earn millions of dollars? Have you ever come across an Ad on Craigslist which offers a rental property for an unbelievably low price? These two examples are just a small sample of the numerous scams that are prevalent on the internet.
The one thing that many internet scams have in common is that there are obvious signs that they are scams. Despite the obvious signs, these scams are still prevalent. This is an indicator that there are unsuspecting victims being duped. Even though it is hard to fathom why individuals would fall for some of these scams, the reality is that most of us have had those experiences where we decided to override the switch in our brain that dictates logical reasoning. If we really want to believe something bad enough we are going to.
Now we are going to consider 5 tips we can take to avoid being victimized by internet scams.
- Be wary of an online listings or emails that are rife with grammatical and spelling errors.
- In the instance of a rental property do not agree to rent the place sight unseen. If they are legitimately out of the country they would have made arrangements for someone to look after the place for them.
- Avoid requests for wire transfers.
- Know what is considered fair market value. If you are being offered a deal that seems significantly less than market value, then be suspicious. For example a downtown apartment for $400 would be unbelievably low for most major North American cities.
- Avoid responding to any emails or offers where the individuals claim to live in Africa.
These tips can be summed up as simple common sense. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Writen by ChrisB
