Email Scams may cost your life. There is no easy money !!!!

A Korean man and his daughter visited South Africa to collect a million dollar lottery win. At the airport they got into a hired taxi which drove them to house in Soweto. There the duo including the taxi driver was held hostage and a ransom of 10m$ to be deposited in Singapore was demanded from the Korean’s wife. Fortunately, the driver escaped, informed the police, and the pair was rescued. The Koreans were so traumatized from the incident that they left the country without giving evidence. They were lucky that they escaped death. Read the full news story South African police rescue Asian pair kidnapped in 419 scam

Email scams are a small percent of the overall spam mail sent. Normally they end up conning victims out of an advance fee, which is asked for, to complete the formalities needed to send lottery winnings to the winners (i.e. that victims). The danger increase exponentially when the victim either in an attempt to collect his winnings or recover his money actually visits another country, eventually to get held for ransom or killed.

Cybercitizens should understand that one cannot win a lottery which was never entered into. No money comes for free or by chance. Human psychology is such that even when advised that the email is a scam, many people fail to believe it to be true. I have seen this happen at close quarters because the lure of a potential winning that may change the victims entire life is so strong, and the victims understanding or comprehension of cyber risk is low. Much like the disbelief one has of the existence of a heart problem in asymptomatic situations.

 I have written on this subject extensively in the posts below:

Tom and the Lottery Scam

 Fighting Scam Emails through Simple Intellectual Deduction

How you get suckered in Online scams and the little one can do about it?