Scams have always been around. Someone out there is always looking to make a quick buck and unfortunately with the way the economy is there are more gullible individuals out there.

Scammers have been increasingly proactive on email campaigns and my only thought is that some people MUST still be falling for them if I'm still getting them.

So in this post I want to point out what exactly to look for when it comes to your emails and scams.

Here is my Inbox that shows exactly what the message was titled that was sent to my personal email address

apologies in advance for the blurriness

inbox

*Note the two LEGIT email advertisements that I actually have willing subscribed to.*

When the email was opened this is what it looked like

scam

*Take note of WHO sent me the email. It wasn't notification@honorsociety.com; it was from notification_F9QebbR@rcf3airfailrail.com*

By Googling the entire email address I came up with no results so I tried searching airfailrail.com and got nothing. I tried googling simply airfailrail with still NO results.

Tip #1 If you can't find the company Online, don't trust it

OK so here is the email that I received that is 100% legit and I know that I subscribed to the emails

wm1

Note where the email came from.

newsletter@walmart.com

To have an @walmart.com email address you must be GIVEN the email or own that particular domain *correction* I just learned that people CAN indeed send emails from a particular domain even if they do not in fact own the domain. *end correction*

wm3

Note that they explain the security and privacy policy.

They state "Walmart protects your security and privacy. We will never ask for personal information (such as passwords or credit card numbers) in an email newsletter. If you receive such a request, please do not respond to the email. Learn more. See our Privacy Policy."

Be very careful with any advertisements coming from gmail, yahoo, AOL or other type email accounts unless you have personally requested to be added to a list.

Follow me on Twitter: @_KimRandall

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Kim Randall Social Media Strategist

Tags: Email, Email Safety, Email Scam, Kim Randall, Scam

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Comment by Kim Randall on December 14, 2009 at 4:22pm: Thanks for the comment Franklin :-) The sad truth is that hackers and scam artists don't have to try too hard because unfortunately people are very uneducated when it comes to Online safety.

Comment by franklin on December 14, 2009 at 4:21pm: if there is a free email, then its more than likely to be a spoof. The good spoofs are harder to spot, where the have faked the sender and everything.

Comment by Kim Randall on December 14, 2009 at 11:06am: I guess I can change the title to a few ways to spot an email scam.. Once again thank you

Comment by Kim Randall on December 14, 2009 at 11:04am: Oh well I did not know that... I have never actually heard of that being done, but thanks for letting me know :-)

Comment by Daniel Case on December 14, 2009 at 11:00am: Or just use the PHP mail function...its easy enough to send a not legit email from a legit email address

Comment by lenswipe on December 14, 2009 at 10:47am: "To have an @walmart.com email address you must be GIVEN the email or own that particular domain."

Not neccecarily, its actually possible to spoof the SMTP headers in an e-mail

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