How does this fool smart people and other people who would never fall for the simplest of scams, it uses people you know, sometimes has some of your personal information and you think it's legit.

NBC News tells a story of a woman who got an email from her boss (or so she thought) who was out of town, and asked her to "do me a favor". He asked her to buy a bunch of gift cards for co-workers for the upcoming office party. She did and sent the information about each card just like he asked so he could keep track of them.

The boss was a scammer who did a lot of work making the email look real. The scammer drained the cards of the $10,000 and the woman found out she fell for the scam. The company held her responsible and she tried to get help from the credit card company, who eventually helped. By that time, she was thoroughly embarrassed.

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Smart people are fooled because it's always a harmless favor. Sometimes it's for a large amount of money, sometimes it's for a little. Think of this, if they scam many people for $20 or $50 it adds up to a lot of money. A few things, always see where it comes from, which email it is. Call the person who is asking the favor to see if it is them. Most of these scams require you to do something and get back to them with it.

A lot of the scammers use your passion. If you belong to a church or organization, they will hit those people and ask for help with something very similar. It is very innocent. Here are a few examples.

Hey (your name),

I hope you are okay. I was wondering if you have an account with Amazon? I would like to buy a gift card for a friend and I don't have an account. Just wondering if you could get me an (amount) gift card and give me the number off the back so I can give it to them in an email.

Thank you

(Person you know)

If you think it sounds fishy, it is. Either don't respond or contact the person directly and ask if they need that favor.

HT Lite 98.7

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