HOW TO SPOT SCAM EMAILS

Scam emails designed to trick you into clicking on their link always have certain traits about them.

Learn them and avoid falling victim!!

Yesterday I got a new one, this time purporting to be a bank where I actually have an account. This time it was Bank of America, but such emails can and do masquerade as many other banks and financial institutions.

How did I know it was a fraud? Let's take a look:

1) For starters they always play to your fear or greed. This one chose fear, using the following subject line: "Urgent Security Warning" (Others play to your greed by promising something that always sounds too good to be true.)

2) It was addressed to my business email that's out there on my website for the world to see, a necessary evil for my line of work. I do not use that email in my info for that bank.

3) You'll notice this on so many scam emails, they just sound amateurish. They use bad grammer, bad english, and basically sound like a stupid person wrote them. Let's take a look, with the stupid or illogical parts highlighted in red:

"Our Technical Service department has recently updated our online bankingservices, and due to this upgrade we sincerely call your attention to follow below link and reconfirm your online account details. Failure to confirm the online banking details will suspend you from accessing your account online." And this: "We use the latest security measures to ensure that your online banking account opened with us is highly safe."

Technical Service department? A bank? ha-ha-ha! Sincerely call your attention? Like they sincerely, really mean it this time? ha-ha-ha! Highly safe? Like there's a mostly safe, or not so safe? Give me a break!

4) Then there was the coup de grace. Here's part of the supposed bank's logo:

Now seriously....do you think a bank would EVER let an image go out where the text was so badly off-center, jammed against the right side like that?

5) Finally there's the bogus link they wanted me to click on. They used the http link format that LOOKED like it was Bank of America's domain name, but by holding the cursor over it in Outlook Express and looking down at the bottom of my screen I could easily see it would actually go to a DIFFERENT address.

If your email client doesn't show the actual address at the bottom like that, you can hold your cursor over the link and RIGHT-click it and chose "Copy Shortcut" then paste it into a text editor like Notepad and see it that way too.

Remember to LEARN the tell-tale signs of email scams and you won't fall victim to them!!!

FREE Razorbacks email animation!

Ok, so shoot me. I'm from Little Rock, and around Arkansas this time of year, that means its time to Hog Up!

So for all Arkansas Razorbacks fans out there in the world, here's an animated Razorback you can put in your Outlook Express email messages. All I can say is GO HOGS, BEAT SOUTHERN CAL!!!!!

Print this out to refer to if you like. To go hog wild, copy the following into a text editor like Windows Notepad, exactly as follows:

And then save it with an '.htm' file extension, like "gohogs.htm" Somewhere like your Desktop where you can easily find it in a minute.

Next, open up your Outlook Express email program.

First click on "Tools" at the top, then "Options" then "Signatures".

Then in the "Signatures" window click on "New." Then just below that click on "Rename" and title it something like hogs or whatever.

Then lower down, under "Edit Signature" put a dot by "File" and click on "Browse" and navigate back to wherever you saved "gohogs.htm" (for example, "Desktop" if that's where you saved it). When you've located it, click on it and then click on "Open". This will then take you back to the main little window.

Last step is to click on "Apply" in the bottom right of the little window. Then to use it, open up a new email, write it, and at the bottom or wherever else in the message you want to put it, click on"Insert" in the email message window up at the top, go down to "Signature" and click on the little pop-out that says "(whateveryou named it)".

And remember, GO HOGS!!!