Congratulations! You are the one millionth visitor to this site. You have won an iPad. Click this link to claim your prize.
How many times have you allegedly won these competitions? Just how lucky are you?
The internet is full of scams and there are millions of fools online just waiting to be sucked in by these elaborate schemes. The fact that they are carefully crafted to buy your trust makes them all the more dangerous. Here are just a few of the schemes that you are likely to come across online:
The International Lottery
Everyone has been jobless at some point in their lives. There are times when money has been scarce and hope has been the only thing left to hold on to. Some have been so desperate that they’ve trusted the first vestibule of hope they find on the internet, Free Lotto.
If you haven’t heard of it, then you haven’t been scouring the internet as well as you should. Free Lotto is an international lottery scam that has been around for years. It is one of the most common cons available on the internet. All it takes is a click on a link and you’re off to Blunderland.
With Free Lotto, you just have to fill an online form, giving your name, your e-mail address and a few other ways to reach you. Within a week, you’ve won a fraction of the pot. Therein lies the bait. To claim your winnings, you first need to send your Visa card details and
It could be USD 10,000 or even more. To graduate to the next level, you just need to send these people a processing fee.
It’s shocking how the scheme keeps reaching out to new fools on the internet every single day. Whoever is behind this seems to be applying the law of averages; the more nets you cast, the more fish you catch.
The Troubled Millionaire
Have you ever gotten an e-mail from a Nigerian prince looking for someone to launder their money into the country? They usually give you some sad story about how they don’t want to pay transaction charges. They tell you how they can save a fortune on taxes and promise to give you part of their stock. All you have to do is send them some of your personal (and usually confidential) details as a show of trust. They say that this personal data will act as some sort of assurity in case you decide to con them.
In case you didn’t know, you are not the best shoddy accountant they could find. And even if you are, it was purely by coincidence because this scam is nothing but spam.
It’s hard to say how many e-mails are sent out. It could be hundreds of thousands or even millions. Like it was stated before, these people are casting a wide net, hoping to cash in on a few stupid fish. With your personal data in hand, these people can wreak havoc on your bank account. Before you know it, you’re broke and it looks like you did it to yourself. After all, who else has your private PIN and bank account number?
The Free Merchandise
Apple recently ran an online campaign, promising to give people some of their merchandise for free. It was a legitimate competition and prizes were actually claimed. But it was locked to specific regions within the United States.
Not every competition is the real deal. Some draw you in using simple tasks like moving a cursor to shoot an iPad. It’s so easy that you wonder how anyone would fail. But don’t start celebrating yet. Most of the tasks you click on will just send you off to some random site. Most of the time, you will be asked to send some shipping fee before you can claim your prize. Once the money has left your hands, the deal is done. You have been conned. There was never any prize to begin with.
If you were the one pulling the scam, imagine how many people it would to make you a millionaire. According to Real Time World Statistics, there are currently over 2.45 billion (and counting) people using the internet worldwide. If you sent them all the same e-mail, some would ignore it. Others would flag it as spam. Few may actually take a look at it and fewer still may fall for your scam. But with 2.45 billion people, the odds are in your favor. You just need less than 10% to respond with a single shilling and you are in business. Unless you’re some sort of multi-millionaire, KES 2.45 million is nothing to joke about.