Opinion Beware of scamsters!
A couple of years back my mom called to say one of her students would come over and meet me while he is in Delhi for a job interview.
A couple of years back my mom called to say one of her students would come over and meet me while he is in Delhi for a job interview. Praveen,who was in his early 20s,was doing his MBA and had been selected for a job with an oil major in the UK.
The boy from Palakkad in Kerala came to my office to meet me. During the brief interaction,he told me that we would be meeting the “risk manager” at the British High Commission to finalise the job. He hadnt met anyone personally,but had already transferred over Rs 2 lakh to an account.
After he left,I called up my mom and told her I didnt have a good feeling about all this,but added that Praveen seemed pretty confident.
The next I heard of Praveen was almost a month later when my mom called to say he had killed himself. The boy had been the victim of e-mail job scam and he could not bear the fact that he had given up over Rs 3 lakh so easily.
Maybe Praveen was too innocent to have realised that no one would select him randomly for a job,or to check why an oil major needed someone like him with a degree in hotel management and pursuing and MBA to work in an offshore rig. But he was also foolish,given that he was educated and should have made some inquiries or at least met some people in person before parting with so much money. The only losers here are Praveens parents,who lost a son at such a young age. Praveens story made the headlines because he had chosen to take the extreme step,not because he became one of the many victims of a mail fraud.
I was reminded of the boy when I recently say a mail from the FBI in my inbox,informing that I have a few million dollars waiting for me.
The FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (FBI) Washington,D.C United States of America in conjunction with some other relevant Investigative Agencies here in the USA have recently been informed through our Global intelligence monitoring network that you have a pending FUND transaction with a Bank regarding to an over-due Inheritance / Award payment which was fully endorsed to be paid in your favor. It might interest you to know that we have taken out time in screening through this whole transaction as stipulated on our protocol of operation, said the mail.
Very nice of the feds to keep me posted about the windfall. But,no thanks,I am happy with what I have.
However,this is not the way many think. Some see in these mails a genuine opportunity to make a fortune,and in the process dont mind spending a packet to get to it. This is the human psychology that the scamsters are trying to cash in on,quite literally. For every thousand mails they send,there are a few who reply and that is all that these guys need. And they are constantly improvising,finding new was to dupe hapless people.
The offers can range from dictators wanting to move their money to your safe account to lotteries from MNCs and simple job offers. But every time you think that this time you have been sent a genuine offer,just remember: there are no free lunches in this world. No anti-virus programme or email protector can stop you falling prey to these scam. There is only one antidote here,your intelligence.
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