Hi all. If you’re reading this, chances are you’re utilising the power of the Internet. I suppose it’s possible that people loved this blog so much that they printed off a load of hard copies and stuck them up in town centres and pubs so that the masses could enjoy… but let’s be realistic.
I’ve been a user of the Internet in its World Wide Web form since near the beginning. Fun fact: it’s actually quicker to say “World Wide Web” than it is to say “www.” With this wealth of experience, I have, of course, seen my fair share of scams. So, I thought I’d offer a public service and share some tips and tricks I’ve picked up down the years. In no particular order… Enjoy!
1. Choose your email address wisely
If you work for any sort of corporate company, you will likely have a common style work email address. Usually something along the lines of: firstname.surname@company.com. It’s very likely you won’t get any say in this.
Your personal email address, however, can be anything you like, as long as it’s unique. If you’re around my age (mid-thirties), then you probably set up your first email account when you were a teenager. And if you’re as big a dork as me, the email address would have been embarrassing.
Mine was gamemaster_rob. Putting aside the fact that I was master of no games whatsoever, this email address simply got more and more cringe-worthy over time. Particularly when it came to looking for work and providing an email address on my CV! So I changed it.
Now, here’s where I got lucky. I contemplated going with a, perhaps, more professional style address, which included my first name and surname. But I decided against that and instead plumped for a variation of my surname, plus a few symbols and numbers. Unbeknownst to me at the time, this proved to be a simple way to detect a lot of email scams.
Say what you will about the embarrassing email addresses we concocted in our youth, but they can be useful. Let’s say your name is John Smith, and you set up an email that is something like ‘john.smith1970@example.com’. What a lot of scam emails can do is read the text of an email address before the first bit of punctuation or first symbol, and assume that is the person’s first name.
So, in the above example, a scam email might start “Hey John” or similar. Sometimes, this can be all it takes to lure people into a false sense of security. Because we assume – or, we at least are more likely to believe – an email that uses our real name must be genuine.
This is where the silly email addresses come in handy. If I were to receive an email that started with “Hey Gamemaster,” I would know not to trust that email straight away. And, sticking with emails…
2. Don’t Ever Click on Email Links
If you are super serious about staying vigilant against scams, you won’t ever click on a link in an email again! Clicking links in scam emails will usually infect your machine with a virus or malware, which could enable scammers to obtain personal data such as passwords or bank information.
Now, I’ll be honest, I do sometimes click on email links. I primarily do this for convenience, although sometimes, there literally is no other option. For some services that you sign up to, they will verify your email address by sending you an email and asking you to click the link to confirm it’s you.
I guess a more realistic way of dealing with this is to say, “Don’t click links in suspicious emails.” Although that is good advice, the amount of convincing phishing emails about these days makes this easier said than done.
Oh, phishing? Let me explain for those who may not know what this is. A phishing email is one where it pretends to be from a reputable, well-known company. Some popular ones are Amazon, Netflix, Apple, Norton (or other anti-virus software companies).
Usually, there will be an element of urgency to these emails. A fake Amazon or Netflix one might say that your account has been locked and to click the link to unlock it. A fake anti-virus one might tell you that your protection has expired, and you must click the link to keep your computer safe. They get more sophisticated and potentially realistic all the time, which can make them tricky to spot.
But don’t click the links! If in any doubt, or even if you’re 99% sure the email is genuine, don’t click the link. If you have an Amazon email about your account being locked, try logging into Amazon and/or buying something. Trust me, Amazon doesn’t want to potentially miss out on your business, so if there’s any sort of problem with your account, you best believe it will be obvious as soon as you try to do anything on their app or website.
Same with Netflix. Try opening it up and playing something. If it’s working OK, then you’re fine. But you now know that the email was probably bogus.
3. If an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is
There are often little scams that make their way around on Facebook or WhatsApp. It will usually be something like, “Share this message with 5 of your contacts to win a free *thing*.”
Often, these scams will use the name of a company to try to entice more people. Supermarkets are popular to impersonate. I once got sent one that was supposedly from B&Q (the UK hardware store) that said if you shared the link with five people, you’d get a free gas BBQ.
If you come across something like this, there are a few things you can do to check if they’re a scam. First of all, does the offer sound too good to be true? In this example, does it seem likely that B&Q would give away expensive BBQs to every person in the country who shared their supposed promotion five times?
Secondly, if in doubt, you could look at B&Q’s website. Similar to verifying phishing emails, as mentioned above. If a company is running a promotion, they’re doing it for a reason and will definitely have something about it on their website. It’s not often companies run secret promotions that they only want a small number of people to see.
Thirdly, if you’re still not sure, you can always try Googling the scam itself. A simple search for something like “B&Q BBQ scam” would probably be enough for you to find out whether this is a known scam or not.
4. Be careful with what information you share
On Facebook, there are lots of ‘fun’ posts that end up doing the rounds, which can be more sinister than they appear to be. Some are completely harmless. You might get one that says, “Your superhero name is the colour of your underwear + whatever the last thing you ate was.” And thus, the Pink Whole-Packet-of-Cookies was born. If you look at the comments on the post, you will see lots of replies from people with their own underwear/food combos. Overall, quite an amusing post.
Then others, still under the guise of being just a bit of fun, might say, “Your porn star name is your first pet’s name + the name of the street you grew up on.” See any problems with this?
On the face of it, there doesn’t appear to be any issues. Unless you remember any time online when you’ve had to provide answers to a security question. The name of your first pet and the street you grew up on are common security questions.
Of course, someone having this information doesn’t automatically mean they can access your accounts; you may not have even used those specific security questions for anything. But it still isn’t wise to willingly share this information unless you’re 100% sure it can’t come back to bite you.
5. Selling online can be a huge minefield
As discussed above, Facebook can have certain dangers, and there are certainly some pitfalls with using the social media platform. However, one useful feature Facebook has had for a while now is Marketplace, an easy way to buy or sell stuff locally.
As good as it can be, it didn’t take long for scammers to start plying their ‘trade’ there, too. If you’re selling on there, particularly anything that’s valued over £100, be very wary of basically everyone who messages you about it. This is doubly true if they message you within minutes of you listing the item.
One quite popular scam is if they mention any famous delivery service (FedEx, UPS etc.). They might tell you they’re interested in the item, but they’re too busy to collect it. But they can arrange for a UPS courier to collect it. Then they send you a link to pay a small fee for the courier. And they’ll, of course, reimburse you when they pay for the item… Avoid!
You might get someone who insists on paying via bank transfer. Not in and of itself a problem, but it can lead to a scam I ran into a few weeks back. I was selling a TV and sent my account number and sort code over to the supposed buyer, which is safe enough to do; there’s not much a thief can do with this information alone. He then asked for my address. Again, reasonable, as he needs to know where to pick the TV up from. But, my spider-sense was tingling.
I sent him my address, minus the door number. He then asked for my email address associated with my bank account. Big red flag; I’ve never once had to include someone’s email address when sending them money via bank transfer before. I told him I didn’t have one, as I did all my banking in branch or via post (a lie, but necessary). He didn’t like that. He pleaded with me to double-check. Once I confirmed I didn’t have an email address, I didn’t hear from him again…
There isn’t an exact science to this, but, in my experience, people who are genuinely interested in buying from you will often try to haggle on the price. You list something for £100 and they offer you between £50-£80. Scammers, on the other hand, don’t usually quibble about the price (presumably because they’re not planning on parting with any money at all!). They will usually offer to pay the asking price, sometimes even offering more. So that’s a good way to spot them.
6. Understand the game
The key way of stopping online scammers is to understand the ‘game’. In this case, the game is crooks trying to steal information and money. To truly understand the game, you need to understand the players.
Firstly, the scammers. The one thing you must realise is that scammers aren’t trying to steal your money, per se; they’re trying to steal someone’s money. Think of it this way: they’re not snipers up in a bell tower, trying to assassinate a specific person. They’re maniacs throwing a grenade into a crowd; they’ll settle for whoever they can get.
Without wishing to sound too new-age-y, the second person you need to understand is yourself. That’s obviously harder for me to talk about because, ultimately, that will come down to your personality. But, generally speaking, hubris is not your friend.
You may have read this blog and thought to yourself, “All of this is obvious, I know all this already.” If that is the case, good for you. But there are people out there for whom this stuff isn’t obvious, and it may just help them. Whether those people ever actually see this blog is another issue entirely.
Even if you do know all the above, it’s important not to get complacent. It only takes one small lapse in judgement, and you could be in trouble. Scammers are constantly evolving and perfecting their scams. If they weren’t so despicable, it would almost be admirable how well they adapt and the ingenious new methods they come up with. Constant vigilance is required.
I’m not trying to scare anyone, and I’m not suggesting we should all live in a constant state of fear. If you’re confident you have the tools in your arsenal to identify and avoid scams, that’s great. But if you were to ask scammers, would they prefer their potential victims to be fearful or confident, I bet they’d say confident. Because it’s a very small trip from confidence to over-confidence.
There are a shockingly large number of people out there who thought they were too smart for scammers or thought that it was something that would never happen to them. Imagine their surprise when they ended up losing money to a scam.
Banks are there as a final safety net; they will usually spot suspicious activity and will block any money from actually leaving your account. But they don’t catch everything. And, even if they do, you still have to speak to them on the phone, go through security checks, confirm recent purchases, and then update your passwords and/or get a new debit card. In short, it’s quite a lot of hassle.
So, try to keep safe out there. The above is far from an exhaustive list of tips, and I’m not an expert. There’s plenty of literature online that will have additional and, frankly, better information than I can provide. But, hopefully, what I’ve presented will be useful to someone. It only takes one or two small tweaks to your online habits to become safer and better protect your computer and information.
If you’ve enjoyed this blog, please let me know in the comments. In order for me to see the comments, you’ll need to provide your debit or credit long card number, your mother’s maiden name, and the name of your first pet. Can’t wait to hear from you.
Thanks for reading. Join me next time as I talk about the super-relatable subject of afro hair. Can’t wait to pick through that.
And last, but certainly not least: Rest in Power Sinéad O’Connor ❤️
Rob Recommends
Arnold – Documentary – 8/10
Netflix continues its trend of very good documentaries, this one about the great Arnold Schwarzenegger. He literally may be the most fascinating person alive today. At least, that’s how I felt watching this.
It’s almost a laughably unrealistic Hollywood story. If you saw a film pan out the way Arnie’s life has, you’d claim the film was taking liberties with plausibility. A young Austrian boy grows up to become the greatest bodybuilder in the world. He then pivots to acting, where he becomes the biggest action star in the world. He ends up marrying a relation of John F. Kennedy, before turning to politics himself and becoming governor of California. It’s a crazy story.
As good as it is, I’m marking this down slightly as I would have liked greater detail in parts, particularly around some of his movie roles. As just one example, Total Recall doesn’t get a mention. Too much of the nitty-gritty was glossed over for me. But this is still well worth a watch.
Dreamland – TV – 7/10
An entertaining drama/comedy series, following Lily Allen’s Mel, the black sheep of the family, returning home after years away and immediately causing trouble. Lily Allen is actually really good in this. Her performance is top-notch. With both her dad and brother being actors, this perhaps shouldn’t have surprised me. But I think this is the first thing I’ve seen her in, and she’s great.
The big letdown with this is a pet peeve of mine: nothing gets resolved. I can only assume that they knew they’d be getting a second season. They must have, as literally every storyline remains up in the air. I fully get the idea of leaving cliffhangers; you want to give the audience a reason to come back. But it winds me up when nothing at all gets wrapped up. You can give closure to some storylines and still leave some stories with room to grow. Dreamland obviously didn’t fancy that.
Platonic – TV – 8/10
Put very simply: if you’ve seen and enjoyed the Bad Neighbours movie(s), you’ll enjoy this. It’s created by the same people and, just like the movies, also stars Seth Rogan and Rose Byrne.
The chemistry between these two is off the charts; they’re really fantastic together. In this, they play a pair of platonic friends who haven’t spoken in years who end up reconnecting and disrupting each others lives. This is a fun, easy watch.
Seinfeld – TV – 9/10
Arguably the greatest sitcom of all time. The show about nothing, following four friends in New York, is essential viewing for sitcom fans.
“Hang on…” I hear you say, “if this is arguably the greatest sitcom of all time, why are you only giving it a 9/10?” I’ll tell you exactly why. As good as Seinfeld is, the first couple of seasons aren’t the best. It’s not that they’re bad, per se; there are plenty of good moments across seasons one and two. But the show hadn’t really figured itself out yet.
In the first couple of seasons, there were very few (if any) on-going storylines. Every episode was standalone. Which is fine and can even be quite enjoyable if you’re just flicking through TV channels and happen across an episode. But when you’re watching the show in its entirety, as I did recently, it can get a little stale.
From season three onwards, the show is pure gold. The show suddenly seemed to know what it was and what it could become. Storylines carried across multiple episodes (and sometimes multiple seasons). Whether it was Jerry and George trying to get their sitcom made or Elaine and her on-again-off-again relationship with David Puddy, or Kramer and his coffee table book.
The show was also elevated by great recurring characters. You have the wonderful Wayne Knight as the maniacally mischievous neighbour, Newman (“Hello, Newman!”). There’s the joyous Jerry Stiller as the excitable and eccentric Frank Constanza. And, my personal favourite, the perfect Phil Morris as the smooth-talking lawyer Jackie Chiles, a parody of Johnnie Cochran. These are just a few of many.
In short, if you can make it through the so-so opening two seasons, you’ll be in for a right treat for the remainder.
A Rob Blog 