Fraud Tip of the Day - April 1

Don't be an April Email Fool

Every day is April Fool's Day for online scammers, fraudsters and cheats. Each day they send out phone emails that attempt to phish our financial information from us so they can merrily raid our bank accounts.

Holiday Greeting E-cards

A popular, and effective, trick is to send out emails that tell you to click a link to view a holiday greeting. The phony ones are easy to spot because they have neither your name nor the sender's name anywhere in the email. A bonafide E-card will have one, if not both, names somewhere in the email body or subject line.

You should also be on the lookout for all manner of email hoax, virus, chain letter, Nigerian scam, or anything appearing your inbox that looks too bood to be true.

ebay, PayPal, and other Phishing Scams

The same holds true for announcements you've won the lottery, eBay second chance offers, or PayPal security notices.

And who could forget those annoying messages from your bank or credit union asking you to log in through strange looking links embedded in your email message?

Last but not least we have emails about business opportunities, miracle diet pills, male enhancement, work at home schemes, and my personal favorite...free stuff you have to pay a fee to receive!

Keep these in the back of your mind all year long so you never feel tempted to click links or reply to messages that are better off ingored.