In These Tough Times, Could You Use Some Extra $$$’s ?
Income University | Earn Cash Online | Become An eBay Success Story | Earn At Home | Get Paid For Your Opinion — What do all those things have in common?
C’mon… That wasn’t a trick question.
Here’s a “Tech Paulism”: if there’s an exclamation point in the Subject line, the odds are about 99:1 it’s a scam, a rip-off, a flim flam.
[Note the “paperclip” attachment? Simply previewing this puts you on a “sucker’s list” (Please see How did they get my e-mail?).]
These “work at home” (great for stay-at-home-moms!) *deals* have been around for a while, and naturally have found their way onto the Internet — old news. What is new (lately) is a GLOBAL RECESSION, and many previously comfortably-off folks now grasping at straws. Being on the outs should not lower your defenses — don’t be duped, please see Top 10 Work At Home and Home Based Business Scams.
And listen… do you really think your opinion on a survey is worth $100? Really? To me, opinions are like *bellybuttons* – everybody has one and it ain’t worth squat. See, Online Surveys: Can You Actually Earn Any Money?
And maybe you can ask yourself, do you know — I mean friends that you hang out with — anyone making real money on eBay? It does happen; see, Small Romanian Town Gets Rich Through eBay Scams
I have not even brushed the surface of all the scam “earn extra income” e-mail currently bombarding our inboxes. There’s almost as much of it as there is for our good Canadian Ph@rmacy friends, and this trend is on the rise (IMHO). It’s a sign of the times.
Maybe.. there’s a Government Grant Obama wants to give you..? Click now!
And don’t be in a rush to spend money either — for “health benefits”, weight loss, nor the secret for whiter teeth. I am not really sure why.. but acai spam is back… (yes, people, come buy my magic berries.. )
Okay. Okay. Okay. I think I’ve made my point(s). You’ve heard me say here before, more than 9 out of every 10 ‘packets’ traveling the Internet – at any given moment – is scam spam from a criminal. (90%+ dangerous.)
Let’s be careful out there, and use some good, “paranoid common sense” (another Tech Paulism, free of charge!)
Today’s free link(s):
Top Ten Internet Safety Tips for Children
Top 10 things you should do to your computer
Today’s free download: K9 Web Protection is a free Internet filtering and control solution for the home. K9 puts YOU in control of the Internet so you can protect your kids.
Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix
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• About Tech Paul
I am a Retired computer & network technician. I used to think the machines were pretty cool. Now I don’t.
They’re anything but.
I regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here starting in 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers. But be aware, many are rather dated.) Sometimes I answered (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer was generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see was my own, typos and all. There always is/was an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
Note: You are responsible for using this blog and its content. I am in no way liable for any losses caused by user error, viruses and/or other malware, hardware or software failure, or any other conceivable reason.
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Tech - for Everyone 
I like it when “TechPaulism” points out the scams to us. These example emails are an excellent way to teach people (especially very new computer users) not to get duped into these scams. I know many wonder, “How would someone fall for these; BUT, it does happen”.
Thanks,
Rick
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Rick,
A while back I read somewhere that someone did a study (sorry, don’t remember where) that showed that a spam e-mail has a .0025% chance of being opened .. or, was it .00025%? — very, very slim.
But I have also read that if just 1 in 12.5 million falls for the scam, there’s a profit for the criminal.
It would be great if there were no humans *naive* enough to fall for spam, as it would go away… But.
E-Commerce Times has a good read on this topic: Suckers for Spam: When Will They Ever Learn?
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a couple of years ago, i was bored one day and decided to test out the legitimacy of doing online surveys. talk about a web of deceit! i spent about two hours trying to get to the end of the “survey” and was never able to.
what happens is you get done with one and have to “click here to finish”. at that time you would be directed to another survey. so forth and so on.
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G,
Hmmmm…. sounds like it was rigged.
When I was knee-high to a grasshopper, I first heard a tall person tell me, “son, there is no such thing as a free lunch.”
(Of course, I thought that grown-up was nuts, as my PB&J’s were always free…)
I wasn’t much older when first heard, “if it sounds too good to be true, it isn’t.”
I did some research on the psychology of scams and scammers — you know, big fancy studies which conclude the obvious? — and it seems that humans have some built-in characteristic that made them want to GET RICH QUICK way back in the caveman days; to GET RICH QUICK in every era up to today; and, probably, will want to GET RICH QUICK well into our future…
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This is very useful Paul. Bravo.
I use online business a lot because I’m a freelance writer
but I use common sense too :-)
Still, this is a great warning piece so I might repost this on my other weblogs if you would allow.
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pochp,
I appreciate your kind words of support. I am flattered you feel that this is something that you would like your readers to see, and I know (as a writer yourself) that you’ll treat me fair, so, of course!
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