Top 10 email scams, frauds and scams

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Although many 'experts' predicted that with the appearance of social networks, email would come to an end, nothing could be further from the truth. It remains one of the most widely used methods of communication worldwide and is increasingly accessible and easy, given that we can now access it from different devices: smartphones, tablets, televisions and, of course, computers. For this reason, it remains one of the favorite targets of cybercriminals, as they still have a good number of victims within their reach.

The methods have not changed over time: if we compare the legendary IloveYou, which managed to fool millions of users around the world thanks to a pleasant and unexpected declaration of love received via email, with the millions of emails we receive every day from supposedly trustworthy sources, such as Linkedin, Facebook or Twitter, we will see that the method has not changed much. Although the social engineering techniques that cybercriminals use to get our attention and not only infect us, but also turn us into victims of fraud have changed.


In any case, and on the occasion of International Email Day, it is not time to let down our guard even if we use other alternative methods of communication, and it is advisable to keep up to date with the most modern techniques of social engineering and infection methods as well as good security practices that, together with a 14 year old korean boy whatsapp number good antivirus, will help us to be safe from many later problems. This is the Top 10 of the most frequent scams and deceptions distributed through email:

Phishing is more popular than ever. Now they don't just come from our bank, but we can find them perfectly imitating our favourite social networks, such as Linkedin, Facebook or Twitter, payment systems such as PayPal or entities such as Amazon, Sony or the popular game Candy Crush Saga. The objective is always the same: to steal our identity, because our data, whether it is access to our bank account or our profiles on social networks, are worth a lot of money on the black market.

The most dangerous “click here” message. We are probably more used to not opening email attachments, probably because we repeat it over and over again. But an innocent click on a link contained in an email can be as dangerous or even more dangerous than a PDF of a supposedly pending invoice. If we don’t know the sender or it sounds strange to us, it is much better to access a web address through the browser than by following the link.

Spam in the form of a bargain. We are all used to recognizing pharmaceutical spam, the kind that advertises the pills that will brighten up our married life. But we may not yet know how to recognize the bargains that often arrive via email and direct us to the most affordable vintage furniture or the most attractive equipment for the child's school. Many of these emails are legitimate, but many others are not. And we may be registering and leaving our bank details on an illegal site that will keep them and from which we will probably not receive any product.

The job of your life. The economic crisis we are experiencing in our country is encouraging more and more frauds related to the most lucrative job offers –generally to go abroad–. Offers that are often related to an advance payment for contract processing, for finding housing in the destination country or for any other reason. Almost always coming from unknown senders who have contacted us because they have discovered our most natural talent. Well, they are not offers, there is no work and we will not see the money we send on account again. So it is better to try to locate the original sources of the companies offering them than to speak with intermediaries, even if we have problems with the language.