Not to be confused with the fishing you and your pet goat do, phishing is a very common practice by scammers looking to take your personal information for their personal benefit and usually resulting in them taking your money.
Mostly done through email type marketing and messengers, these scams are starting to be very popular with regular websites that seem 100% legit.
According to Wikipedia, the annual world wide impact of phishing scams can be as high as $5 billion.
Such a high number and only because we allow it to happen.
Within this post, I want to show you why such a thing happens and how you can avoid it.
As an online consumer and an online marketer, my personal information is always at risk and I have actually been taken for a ride once, thanks to the many factors that I would like to share with you today.
So if you have never heard of such a scam or you want to avoid them, let me share some helpful tips as I’m sure you value your personal information and that hard earned money.
Crazy Email
If there’s one thing that you need to be aware of it is that these scammers evolve just like anything else.
Most of you may know these types of scams in the form of an email.
Whether it be in your inbox or your spam folder, you most likely get them on a daily basis.
“You just won $1 Million dollars!”
If it’s your first rodeo, you probably clicked on the email just to see what it was about.
They usually tell you that you need to deposit some money to release the funds and they need your bank account information.
I hope you stopped there and deleted the email.
If not, you just gave away some valuable information and you might have dealt with some identity theft.
And if you aren’t getting bombarded with spam, you might have come across a phishing scam in a different form.
Yup, scammers adapt.
Phishing Scams Come in Many Different Shapes and Sizes
If there’s one thing that you need to be aware of it is that these scammers evolve just like anything else.
From emails, they have now gone on to creating other strategies that you might not even think too much about.
From jobs to recruiting based Ponzi schemes, you can’t tell what is legit if you don’t know what they look like.
There are fake news type sites that have you thinking that it is legit (because it’s the news), but there is a lot that needs to be exposed or you will be giving away information once again.
With the many of them out there, it is going to take up too much time here, so I will save that for a completely different post.
For now, let’s focus on what we can do to avoid phishing scams.
Phishing Scams Usually Cost $0
I say this simply because most people will jump into anything and everything if it means making a few bucks.
The offers are usually free (as they don’t want your money just yet), but their main goal is to get your personal information.
By having you signup to some kind of form, your information is at stake and could and would be used against you at a later date.
My first phishing scam encounter was from a survey site that I knew nothing about.
The way thy take your information is really simple but in a way that has you completely clueless.
They’ll let you signup for something and then have you use a payment processor like PayPal in order to withdraw your so called money, and then try to use the information you provided against you.
Never use the same private information to signup to ANY free sites.
Period.
This is the best way scammers are taking money these days and it all stems back to us as humans (broke ones) wanting to make more money.
Don’t Be Desperate
We all want to make more money and that is what sets us up for failure.
By having that want only allows us to click and let our curiosity get the best of us.
We then start filling out information just to see more of what these scammers have to offer, just to see if it does in fact work.
By the time you figure out that it is nothing but another too good to be true scam, they already have the information they needed.
Don’t do that.
Without you paying a single penny, it leaves you with the whole “I have nothing to lose” mentality, which is not what you need in the world of making money online and scams.
We all want to make money but being desperate is the same thing that will have you lose more than what you thought.
You are the perfect target and one that these scammers are out for in the first place.
Avoiding Phishing Scams
“If it sounds too good to be true, then it most likely is”
If you can follow that simple rule, you can easily avoid being a victim of identity theft.
You also need to really understand what I am about to say, as this is very critical in your adventure through the online world.
Firstly, nothing in this world is free.
Not to include taking surveys for a few bucks, but there is no program out there that will give you thousands of dollars without an investment.
Next thing you need to know is that there is no such thing as getting rich overnight unless you won the lottery or something.
It simply is not going to happen online no matter what anyone tells you.
Lastly, you need to understand that making money online takes a lot of hard work and most especially a lot of determination.
On top of all that, you are going to need the knowledge to understand what is legit and what is actually a scam but that is why you have us.
Conclusion
Be scam smart.
Please.
There are billions of dollars being lost to scammers each and every year, so that should let you know how easy it is for money to change hands, especially on the internet.
If a program is free, don’t join them unless it is some kind of free trial to a legitimate program.
Now if a program claims that you will make thousands of dollars without paying any money, that should tell you something.
Phishing scam artists are not new and they are only getting more creative as technology advances things.
Your information is a lot more valuable than that $20 in your wallet, so focus on the more important things as you have a lot more to lose than just money.
These types of scams are the worst and I’m sure you do not want to become the next victim.
Is The Residual Income Code a Scam? [Updated Review For 2018]
Ever since Trump became President, I have seen add touting that all Americans qualify for Trump Checks….money that actually belongs to the citizens. Nis this true….you receive money every month for life,. …supposedly.
Never heard of this one Sheela but I will look into it.