How To Stop Getting Spam Mail And Avoid Being Scammed By Foreign Email Letters

I have two email accounts, and every day without fail i sign in to find my junk folder and inbox folder filled with unwanted emails. Not only is this annoying because i didn't ask to be sent this rubbish, but i have to waste my time deleting them so i can read the emails i actually did want. These are some of the top Spam/Junk emails i receive on a weekly basis..........

1. Congratulations, you have been selected for a one of bonus of £xxxx amount, or you have been selected for our free prize drawer, or you have been selected to receive free V.I.P tickets for a film premier, concert, fashion week etc. etc. (woohoo! if only it was true)

2. Every Finance company imaginable offering me credit cards and loans with low interest rates. (Seriously if i want a loan then i will see my bank)

3. Online Scratch cards and Lottery sites informing me i am their next winner, despite the fact i have never heard of them therefore never participated in their lottery.

4. Congratulations, you have won a holiday in our weekly prize draw, please click the link to claim your prize..(Yeah and bring up a virus on my computer no thanks)

5. Psychic Readings - Your psychic reading is enclosed please click the link below at no cost to you. (If they really are Psychic they would know i was only going to delete this email)

6. These following emails were sent from the same email address from someone pretending to be my bank. Please note that your real bank will never ask you for security details, if there is a real issue with your account they will phone or write to you, i have had about 21 emails from these people to date......

1st Email

We detected irregular activity on your HSBC Card so we
have currently suspended your Internet Banking. Click on
the link below to restore your Internet Banking access.

IMPORTANT - You are strictly advised to match your
SENSITIVE DETAILS correctly to avoid service denial.

Best Regards,

Thank you for using HSBC Internet Banking Services.

2nd Email

Dear Customer,

In order to make your online banking experience even more secure we have introduced a new security feature that allows us to detect unusual activity on your account. If we detect unusual activity, we will call you to make sure that it's really you.

What are the next steps?

To continue banking online we need you to:

• Visit our secure site by following the reference given below.

• Verify your security questions.

• Complete the new security process.

For banking with a higher level of security,

How does it work?

If we detect a sign in with your user name from another country we may decide that we want to confirm that it's really you. You must complete all steps otherwise you will not be able to use the online service until we have completed additional security checks.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this action.

7. Emails scams from foreigners where they write things such as this............

I pray that God will bless you and give you the heart to help me as you read this email.

Please permit me the time and chance to introduce myself to you. My name is Musa Nurudi.

I am 20 years old.

I am the only Son of Late Dr Kabila Nurudi, a well know business man in Sudan before he was murdered including my mother. Before the death of my parents, my father took me to Ghana to deposit the sum of $8 million united state dollars and also Gold Dust and Bar and make me his next of Kin as if he knew he was going to die. After the death of my parents i came to Ghana with the help of my late father's foreign business partner who lives in London.

I got your contact from the UNITED NATIONS FOR REFUGEE that you are a trustworthy person during my search for a reliable and competent foreigner to help me stand as my new foreigner beneficiary, to help me receive my boxes from a delivery man in London that worth $8 million dollars and also Gold Dust and Bar belonging to my late father which deposited in a Security and Finance Company here in Ghana and made me his next of kin.

The reason i came to Ghana was to get the boxes of the money and Gold which my late father deposited in a security and finance company here in Ghana. With the help of my late father's foreign business partner, i was able to get the boxes out of the security and finance company because my late father foreign business partner help me to pay for the demurrage of the time that the boxes have spent in the security and finance company

The boxes left Ghana last 3 weeks to be delivered to my late fathers friend by a courier service.

When the delivery man arrived London, he called my late father's foreign business partners house so that my late father's business partner will give him the correct description to his house but to the delivery man greatest surprise my late fathers friend wife, pick the phone and told the delivery man that my late fathers friend died in a ghastly car accident. The delivery man has no options than to call me and told me what happen and that he wants to come back to Ghana with the boxes but i beg him to wait for a while that i will look for a new foreign beneficiary that will help me receive the boxes.

The delivery man can deliver to any country of my choice that i get a foreign beneficiary from and i don't want the boxes to come back to Ghana

My plans was that my late father's foreign business partner will help me to invest the money in a good and profitable business and also help me to sell the Gold and he will also help me come to his country to continue my education. I promise to give him 30% of the total money and when he sell the gold for me i will also share the money with him.

So if you are willing to help me stand as my new foreign beneficiary to receive the boxes from the delivery man for me, i will give you the 30% from the money and when you sell the gold i will also share the money with you and you will help me come over to you and continue my education with 10% of the money and you will use the rest of the 60% to invest on a good business for me.

Please reply me if you are willing, with your full name and phone number so that i can call you to hear your voice and also show you all the documents given to me by my late father, this is my Email address musa.nurudi@gmail.com please help me.


Thank you and God bless you,

Yours Faithfully

Musa Nurudi.

(Seriously his Father took him to Ghana, because he knew he was about to be murdered?? Then why did he not just use the huge sum of money to get himself and his family on a plane to London? )

There is also a Nigerian scam where Con Artist's claim to be officials, business people, or the surviving spouses of former government honchos in Nigeria, or another country whose money is somehow tied up for a limited time. They offer to transfer lots of money into your bank account if you will pay a fee or "taxes" to help them access their money. If you respond to the initial offer, you may receive documents that look "official." Then they ask you to send money to cover transaction and transfer costs and attorney's fees, as well as blank letterhead, your bank account numbers, or other information. They may even encourage you to travel to the country in question, or a neighbouring country, to complete the transaction.

8. Emails from Businesses offering me cut price products such as i phones, i pods, Lcd TV's etc. etc. (never give payment details to an unknown source on the internet)

9. Emails offering me Viagra or herbal medicines with a dodgy looking link in big red letters, or they tell you they have found a miracle cure for something or other and you have been selected for a free trial.

10. When we were selling our car we got lots of emails from people saying they were interested in our item (that being the first give away as surely they would have said car not item?) they then went on to write how they are away on business and would send their business partner to collect the item. Then it goes on to say how they will pay us a cheque for £500 more than the asking price and we could keep the £250 extra and wire the other £250 back to them. We later found out after researching this on the net, that it is a common scam because the buyer (fraudster) gets your valuable item (the car) and the £250 you have wired them, but after a few days the counterfeit cheque will bounce making us liable for the full amount.

When you receive a spam email they will normally have a bit at the bottom where it tells you, that you can unsubscribe from getting any more mail from them, and while this may be tempting, DONT DO IT. They have already anticipated you wanting to stop their emails, so by clicking the unsubscribe button you are just confirming that your email is real, it will have a link or tell you to put unsubscribe in the email to them, but you should never do it.

Some email spammers use Dictionary Attacks which is a software that will guess the first part of a email address, for example amybarton @ emailprovider dot com, the best way to avoid being attacked in this way is to use underscores or numbers in your email id.

Email spammers also use forums or social networking sites to get email addresses, to avoid this hide your email address in your profile details using your security settings, and when commenting on forums or message boards write your email address as Name, email provider, AT instead of @.

Another way Email spammers can get your email address is from third party company's, so only give out your details to your most trusted sites to prevent this from happening.

A lot of email providers now have a Spam button so you can mark your unwanted mail as spam preventing you from receiving emails from these company's again.

Unfortunately a lot of email users have actually lost money to these fraudsters, as we know con artists can be very clever and actually seem very legitimate, but remember that's how they make their living, use these tips to stop yourself being conned in the same way

Protect your personal information. Share credit card or other personal information only when you're buying from a company you know and trust. Know who you're dealing with. Don't do business with any company that won't provide its name, street address, and telephone number. Take your time. Resist any urge to "act now" despite the offer and the terms. Once you turn over your money, you may never get it back. Read the small print. Get all promises in writing and review them carefully before you make a payment or sign a contract. Never pay for a "free" gift. Disregard any offer that asks you to pay for a gift or prize. If it really is a gift or simply free then you should not have to pay for it.

And if you believe you have already been scammed, you can report it to spam@uce.gov

I hope you found this helpful, if i can stop at least one hubber from getting scammed then i have achieved what i set out too.