Each day I receive a handful of emails telling me I have won some international lottery, I am now the beneficiary and need to make my claim, a bank I never heard of is telling me that my account information needs to be verified, PayPal says they lost my information saying I need to fix that problem by following ‘this link’ and even the FBI has sent me stuff. All SCAMS! If I won some lottery, I don’t know if I’d be sitting here typing or if I’d still be in this house for that matter! If someone died and left me as a large sum of money, I think I would have gotten notification via a certified letter from an attorney. If these banks think that I am having some serious memory problems (I call it CRS) then why don’t they call me since they have my phone number or even send me something in the mail inviting me to come into their bank to meet with them? PayPal has my personal information so they can call, too. And, if the FBI wants me, I’m here; come and visit….we can do coffee.
I wonder if these people that are sending these phishing emails really have a life. Why do they make it their mission to sit down and see who will take the bait when they are phishing for personal information? Who is funding their way of life? Hopefully not you!! The sad part is that someone out there will get one of these phishing emails, believe this garbage and they will fall for the bait. The people that fall for the bait have will probably experience identity theft. Here is my motto ‘when in doubt, throw it out’. Ok, that can apply to the science experiment in the back of my refrigerator, too! Seriously, if you get some weird email from someone in another country saying you won millions of dollars and you never went to that country, but they need your personal information, why on earth would you click on that link? If PayPal sends you something regarding your account then pick up the phone and call them. They may actually ask you to forward that email to them. If your bank is questioning you then dial their number, too.
You hear it all the time and it is becoming part of the norm in our daily lives, identity theft. When I get these ridiculous emails I just highlight and delete them only to find more in my mailbox later in the day. That means I’ll be giving the muscles in my hands another work out – highlight, click delete. I think everyone should live by my motto even if your refrigerator doesn’t contain any science experiments. Live cautiously in today’s world because with diligence and luck you may never have to travel down the road of identity theft.
