By Staff
I must say this has been a very fortunate and unfortunate week for me.
So far, I've won the British Lottery three times, once in the amount of $2 billion Euros. My PayPal and eBay accounts needed immediate attention due to possible fraud activities and, of the 25 different Credit Unions I bank with, my personal information had to be updated at least three times a day. Oh, and here's my favorite, I now also bank with Theachers Credit Union -yes, Theachers!
I'm sorry, but if you're going to try to scam me, you may want to spell TEACHERS right first.
I feel bad for the people who actually have to send these thousands of e-mails out on a daily basis to people all over the world. I feel even worse for the people who fall for the scams.
E-mail scams have become somewhat of a comical situation for us at the office. On a daily basis, we receive about a handful a day, sometimes it's more, and sometimes it's less. When I check my e-mail for the first time in the mornings, I usually end up hitting the delete button anywhere from five to 15 times.
The headlines alone let me know something isn't right, especially when it says something like "We shall tell you of winning." Who in America really says that?
Then there are all the e-mails we get from e-mail outer space that try to sell us prescription drugs from some five-mile wide country in Blansgjerinteasvuea. And the men and women who want us to marry them, but we have to send $5,000 to get them to the United States.
And I cannot forget about Mr. Richard Riley who claims he can make me richer than Bill Gates. He's pretty consistent because he sends me at least two e-mails a day. If he can make me that rich, I wonder why he's not and is stuck behind a computer all day sending e-mails?
A few of my co-workers have also hit it big in the lottery. I'm not sure of their winning amounts, but I know it's pretty high up. I'm not even sure why we are still working?
If I have a few seconds, I usually read over these e-mails, just to see what they say.
My British lottery e-mail, for example, tells this grand story about how I won some exceptional amount of money. I can claim my winnings within 24 hours, I just need to provide my full name, home address, age, location, occupation, e-mail address, date of birth, social security number, height, weight, my right leg and my left ear. I'll get right on that.
I can sit here and joke about this because I know what's fake and what's real. Some people cannot tell the difference though, and have had their identity stolen, along with a number of other problems.
E-mail scammers are not the brightest people on earth, but their e-mails can look very real. Most companies will never ask for your personal information through e-mail, so if you get one and you are unsure about it, be sure to get hold of the company requesting the information.
In the meantime, I am going to continue to enjoy my lottery winnings and save up for the day when pigs fly and hell freezes over.