Fraud has existed perhaps as long or longer than money . Any new sociological change can engender new forms of fraud, or other crime. Almost as soon as e-mail became widely used, it began to be used to defraud people via E-mail fraud . E-mail fraud can take the form of a "con game" or scam . Confidence tricks tend to exploit the inherent greed and dishonesty of their victims: the prospect of a 'bargain' or 'something for nothing' can be very tempting. E-mail fraud, as with other ' bunco schemes ' relies on naive individuals who put their confidence in get-rich-quick schemes such as 'too good to be true' investments or offers to sell popular items at 'impossibly low' prices. Many people have lost their life savings due to fraud.

Forms of e-mail fraud

Spoofing

E-mail sent from someone pretending to be someone else is known as spoofing. Spoofing may take place in a number of ways. Common to all of them is that the actual sender's name and the origin of the message are concealed or masked from the recipient. Many, if not most, instances of e-mail fraud use at least minimal spoofing, as most frauds are clearly criminal acts. Criminals typically try to avoid easy traceability.

Fishing for data

Some spoof messages purport to be from an existing company, perhaps one with which the intended victim already has a business relationship. The 'bait' in this instance may appear to be a message from 'the fraud department' of, for example, the victim's bank, which asks the customer to: "confirm their information"; "log in to their account"; "create a new password", or similar requests. If the 'fish' takes the 'bait', they are 'hooked' -- their account information is now in the hands of the con man , to do with as they wish. See Phishing .

Bogus offers

E-mail solicitations to purchase goods or services may be instances of attempted fraud. The fraudulent offer typically features a popular item or service, at a drastically reduced price.

Items may be offered in advance of their actual availability, for instance, the latest video game may be offered prior to its release, but at a similar price to a normal sale. In this case, the 'greed factor' is the desire to get something that nobody else has, and before everyone else can get it, rather than a reduction in price. Of course, the item is never delivered, as it was not a legitimate offer in the first place.

Such an offer may even be no more than an attempt to obtain the victim's credit card information , with the intent of using the information to fraudulently obtain goods or services, paid for by the hapless victim, who may not know they were scammed until their credit card has been "used up". Here is an example of a typical bogus offer:

FROM: WILFRED MASAYA TEL: +27 847 567 141 EMAIL: wil_masaya2002@hotmail.com

Good day to you,

My name is Mr. Wilfred Masaya, the elder son of late Mr. Murerwa Masaya of Zimbabwe , but I am contacting you from neighboring country South Africa . It might be surprises to you where I got your contact address but I got your e-mail address from the Internet, please don't be worried. During the current crises against the farmers of Zimbabwe by the supporters of our President Robert Mugabe to claim all the white owned farms in our country, he ordered all the white farmers to surrender their farms to his party members and their followers.

My father was one of the best black farmers in the country and knowing that he did not support the President's political ideology, the President's supporters invaded my father's farm burnt down everything, killed him and confiscated all his investments.

Some months before the death of my father, my father travel to South Africa and deposit the sum of US$15 Million as personal valuables in a security company. After the death of my father, my mother and I with my younger brother decided to move out of Zimbabwe for the safety of our live to the Republic of South Africa and seek for political asylum.

My Mother and I have decided to contact any reliable overseas firm who could assist us to transfer this money out of South Africa, because we as asylum seeker here in South Africa cannot open a non-resident account through which this fund will be channeled out to your nominated overseas account.

If my preposition is considered, for assisting us to transfer this money to your country, we will offer you 20% of the total fund, and 5% of the total will be set aside to cover any expenses incurred during this transaction. Then 75% will be for me and my family to invest in your country under your assistance.

My mother and I pray and plead for your help. You can contact us strictly on Telephone: + 27 847 567 141 or through this email: wil_masaya2002@hotmail.com

NOTE: THE KEY WORD TO THIS TRANSACTION IS ABSOLUTE CONFIDENTIALITY AND SECRECY. THIS TRANSACTION IS 100% RISK FREE. Your urgent response will be highly appreciated.

God bless you as you heed to our plea for assistance.

Best regards,

Wilfred Masaya

Requests for help

The "request for help" type of e-mail fraud takes this form. An e-mail is sent requesting help in some way, but including a reward for this help as a "hook," such as a large amount of money, a treasure, or some artifact of supposedly great value.

This type of scam has existed at least since the Renaissance , known as the " Spanish Prisoner " or "Turkish Prisoner" scam. In its original form, this scheme has the con man purport to be in correspondence with a wealthy person who has been imprisoned under a false identity, and is relying on the confidence artist to raise money to secure his release. The con man tells the " mark " (victim) that he is "allowed" to supply money, for which he should expect a generous reward when the prisoner returns. The confidence artist claims to have chosen the victim for their reputation for honesty.

This confidence trick is similar to the face-to-face con, known as the " Stranger With a Kind Face ," which is the likely origin of at least the title of the vaudevillian routine known by the same name, as "Niagara Falls," or as "Slowly I turned..."

The modern e-mail version of this scam, known variously as the "Nigerian scam", "Nigerian All-Stars," etc., because it is typically based in Nigeria, is an advance fee fraud . The lottery scam is a contemporary twist on this scam.

Avoiding e-mail fraud

Due to the widespread use of web bugs in email, simply opening an email can potentially alert the sender that the address to which the email is sent is a valid address. This can also happen when the mail is 'reported' as spam, in some cases: if the email is forwarded for inspection, and opened, the sender will be notified in the same way as if the addressee opened it.

E-mail fraud may be avoided by: