Online security

I received two e-mails this week: One was a phony letter scam allegedly from the widow of a very rich ruler. The ruler passed away, leaving her childless. She has now been diagnosed with cancer and a stroke, and always wanted to give the money to charity, but is afraid that a total stranger may apprehend the money (what does this make me?), and she is thereby naming me the beneficiary of said monies. The e-mail states that I must reply urgently because time is running out. If I were to respond—which I’m not—I have no doubt in my mind that the next step is for me to provide my bank account info so that the money can be transferred into my account. Before you laugh at this ridiculous scenario, understand that unfortunately, people fall prey to this type of scam everyday and relinquish their bank account info for these thieves to wipe out their accounts because their heart strings were tugged onto by a false, destitute story. If the sheer ridiculousness doesn’t grab you, then for the record, no one’s going to arbitrarily drop $4.5 million dollars into your account!

The other notification was from a PayPal imposter. It was an e-mail alert requesting me to login and update my account information, because they had to “upgrade their server in order to remove online fraud.” And then a link was provided for me to click onto so that I could input sensitive information so that my account would not be further compromised. The only compromise here is that no reputable entity that you’re doing business with is going to ask you for your personal security information over the Internet!