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Confidence Tricks
I can trick you into giving me money, or the information I need to steal your money. These trickes work WHATEVER SORT OF COMPUTER YOU HAVE and HOWEVER SECURE IT IS
The way to avoid Internet confidence tricks is to be aware of the type of scams used, keep your eyes open, and THINK BEFORE YOU CLICK. Here are examples of the most common types of threat.
"Your name has been entered in the Transylvanian national lottery and you have won $50,000. Please send us your bank details so we can transfer your prize money. Please also send your passport number and national Insurance number so we can verify your identity."
Emails with messages like this try to get you to send all the personal information needed to steal your identity. Other scams may ask you to send a smaller amount of money as "fees" for transferring the larger amount of money.
"We need to update your Internet banking details. Click here to log in."
This is a PHISHING email. Messages like this include a link to a replica of your Internet banking login website. If you click on the link and enter your login details, the criminals will use them to log in to your real Internet bank account and steal all your money. For more details of phishing mails, click here.
"We need to verify that you still use this email account. Please click here to log in."
This is a variant of phishing emails. There is a link to a replica of your Internet email login page. If you click on the link and enter your email address and password, the criminals will use this information to log in to your real email address and take control of it. For more details of email account theft, click here.
"I'm in Nigeria and I've been robbed. Please send $3,000 to this bank account so I can get home."
This type of email APPEARS to come from a friend, colleague or family member. In reality, a criminal has taken over the email account of the person you know (see the example above), and is sending this mail to everyone in their address book. For more details of email account theft, click here.
"Hello, this is Internet Security Services calling. We've detected a virus on your computer. Give us your credit card details and we'll remove it."
This trick involves the telephone. Criminals will call your home phone number and claim they have detected a virus on your computer, and can remove it for a fee. They will trick you into giving them your credit card number and letting them take control of your computer. For more details of phone scams, click here.
"www.lloydstsb.com" is not the same as "www.loydstsb.com"
Look carefully at the two addresses above. The first address has two l's, and is the genuine Internet address of Lloyds TSB bank. The second address has only one l, and is an example of "typo squatting". This involves buying Internet domain names (addresses) that are very similar to well-known banks and other companies; inevitably many people visit these sites by mistakes, by making a simple typing error. They may be harmless advertising sites, but could be used for fraud. If you're doing Internet banking, buying online, or entering any personal information, make sure you've typed the right address.
