catholicsphere

As much as we all probably detest SPAM email, it can sometimes be entertaining. For instance, today I received an email informing me that I had been selected as a winner of the International Lottery Program’s “second category” prize of 2 million EURO. I better start drafting my letter of resignation as soon as I send off an email giving my account number to wire the winnings to, I thought.

Actually, I never for an instant thought that this was real. But there are plenty of folks who are falling victim to these types of scams. The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported that there were over 200,000 complaints of internet fraud received in 2004.

Internet auction fraud was by far the most reported offense, comprising 71.2% of referred complaints. Non-delivered merchandise and/or payment accounted for 15.8% of complaints. Credit/debit card fraud made up 5.4% of complaints. Check Fraud, investment fraud, confidence fraud, and identity theft round out the top seven categories of complaints referred to law enforcement during the year.

There are those who know this is a scam and have decided to toy with the perpetrators … such as at Scam-O-Rama. They keep these guys on the hook for several weeks.

The bottom line … don’t get scammed. Know who you’re sending your info to.