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This is an example of what a local official says is a scam letter trying to convince people to buy a home warranty. Personal information from the homeowner, which was included in the letter, has ...
• Fake email addresses - Malicious actors sometimes send from email addresses made to look like an official email address but in fact is missing a letter(s), misspelled, replaces a letter with a lookalike number (e.g. “O” and “0”), or originates from free email services that would not be used for official communications.
The oldest reference to the origin of scam letters could be found at the Spanish Prisoner scam. [1] This scam dates back to the 1580s, where the fictitious prisoner would promise to share non-existent treasure with the person who would send him money to bribe the guards.
An overpayment scam, also known as a refund scam, is a type of confidence trick designed to prey upon victims' good faith.In the most basic form, an overpayment scam consists of a scammer claiming, falsely, to have sent a victim an excess amount of money.
A recovery room scam is a form of advance-fee fraud where the scammer (sometimes posing as a law enforcement officer or attorney) calls investors who have been sold worthless shares (for example in a boiler-room scam), and offers to buy them, to allow the investors to recover their investments. [92]
False insurance claims are insurance claims filed with the fraudulent intention towards an insurance provider. Fraudulent claims account for a significant portion of all claims received by insurers, and cost billions of dollars annually. Insurance fraud poses a significant problem, and governments and other organizations try to deter such activity.
The "request for help" type of email fraud takes this form: an email is sent requesting help in some way. However, a reward is included for this help, which acts as a "hook". The reward may be a large amount of money, a treasure, or some artifact of supposedly great value.
It could also be a scam that convinces users to spread the letter to other people for a specific reason, or send money or personal information. Phishing attacks could fall into this. Urban legends: urban legends are designed to be redistributed and usually warn users of a threat or claim to be notifying them of important or urgent information ...