Ways to Identify Online Scammers

Online scam is on the rise in Nigeria as the internet marketing business is on the increase a typical example of tars (weed) growing amidst the wheat. It's often difficult to tell if an email is legitimate. A friend of mine that travelled to the US recently sent a mail to his wife in Nigeria, in which he requested she pays Five Hundred Thousand Naira into an account he gave him. In less than five minutes, the lady received another mail (from hackers) using the husbands email address asking her to pay 1.5 million Naira into another account.  The only reason she smelt foul play was because that amount of money did not exist in the said account.

 Beware that the internet is not a safe playing ground and that scammers have become increasingly sophisticated in creating fraudulent emails and Web sites that look authentic. These emails and Web sites often appear to be from legitimate companies and include images and logos of these organizations. 

Following are some common characteristics of fraudulent emails and Web sites:

1.     1.  They have an urgent tone.

They often have a sense of urgency telling clients that if they fail to update, verify or confirm their personal or account information, access to their accounts will be suspended. One popular one supposedly from GTB reads

Dear Valued customer, 

GUARANTY TRUST BANK CUSTOMER DATA UPDATE EXERCISE


As part of our continuous efforts towards providing you with excellent customer service and ensuring efficiency in 
transaction processing, we request that you kindly update your records with the Bank by going to https://ebank.gtbank.com/ibank3/update/login.aspx 
This update will help us to prevent any unauthorised or illegal use of our customers identity and to confirm that you are 
truely the owner of the account you are operating. Failure to update your account now will lead to termination of your account and internet banking services for security reasons.
click here now for the update.

.

GTBank is committed to protect the identity of it's internet banking users. 
Help us to serve you better. It's all about your security. 
Thank you for choosing Guaranty Trust Bank Plc. 



© 2011 Guaranty Trust Bank. 


NOTE : THIS UPDATE MUST BE DONE IMMEDIATELY OR YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE DISABLED

2.       2. They request your information.

This is called phishing. If you click the above website link, it will direct you to a place they steal your personal account details. They typically ask for personal or account information such as:

·         Account numbers

·         Credit Card numbers

·         Online Banking sign on IDs and passwords

·         Mother's maiden name

·         Date of birth

·         Other sensitive information

3.   3.    They include links that appear legitimate.

They often include links that include a legitimate company's name or Web address. When you click on the link above you will see the difference. Below is the genuine GTB website

THIS IS WHAT THE REAL WEBSITE LOOKS LIKE.(Click to Enlarge)

NOTE: 

1.THE WEBSITE ADDRESS IS FTTP AND NOT FTP
HTTP MEANS Hypertext Transfer Protocol WHILE FTP MEANS file transfer protocol

2. THE WEBSITE IS ALSO VERIFIED WHICH YOU CAN CONFIRM FROM THE ADDRESS BAR (VERIFIED BY VERISIGN) A FTP CAN NEVER BE VERIFIED

3. THEN THE THIRD ONE WHICH IS MORE OF AN OVERSIGHT BECAUSE IT'S EASY TO ADD IS THE TIME AND DATE ON THE ORIGINAL WEBSITE.

NOW COMPARE THAT TO THIS ONE,(Click to Enlarge)

THIS IS THE WEBSITE YOU'LL BE DIRECTED TO FROM THE LINK YOU GET IN THE EMAIL. ITS A FTP THAT COLLECTS YOUR DETAILS IN A DATABASE LIKE A FORM DATA COLLECTION SYSTEM. SO BE VIGILANT, BESIDES A BANK WILL NOT ASK YOU TO UPDATE YOUR DETAILS ONLINE. YOU SHOULD RATHER DO THAT AT THE BANKING HALL WHERE YOU CAN GO BACK TO HOLD SOMEONE RESPONSIBLE IF ANYTHING GOES WRONG.

TIP: Always type Web addresses into your browser instead of clicking on links.

4.     4.  They often have incorrect grammar.

The emails and pop-up Web sites may include misspelled words and incorrect grammar.

Here are  things to look out for in doing an online transaction, especially in Nigeria

1. Look for a physical address.

A real address that you can ship things too — like letters from your lawyer — and not a P.O. Box. If you have somebody staying in that area ask him/her to check it out

2. Do a search on scam.com’s forums for the company name.

This is another great internet resource. Essentially Scam.com is a huge forum full of people complaining about companies that have scammed them. Will 100% of those complaints be legitimate? Of course not. Imagine a competitor to your business signing up just to create a fictitious story about terrible customer service. (Remember, the internet isn’t a safe playground.)

3. Google “[Company Name] Scam”

Going back to doing research, this is a great first step. Never heard of the company? A quick Google search for the company’s name and the word scam will provide you with an up to date list of people that are unhappy with the firm for whatever reason. Some of these complaints will be unfounded, but if you get a ton of quality results full of complaints, that’s a red flag.

You can also just do a basic Google search for the company’s name and see if anything negative pops up.

  

Hopefully this post will help at least one person avoid getting scammed. Good luck out there.

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