| Email marketing fraud, or more accurately email fraud, | | | | Phishing. This is a type of fraud that most people are |
| is a con game that has been in existence since email | | | | quite familiar with and is the cause of much worry. |
| was popular. Like all types of fraud the idea is to | | | | Curiously, this is a leading cause for most people to not |
| basically con a mail recipient to part with money or the | | | | take email marketing seriously enough. In this fraud, a |
| access to money and then wipe that account clean | | | | mail is sent to a recipient stating that there has been |
| before the recipient realizes and does something about | | | | some kind of fraudulent activity in the recipients bank |
| it. The biggest problem when it comes to internet fraud | | | | account or credit and that the recipient will then be |
| is that the fraudsters are usually based in another | | | | asked to login to his or her account as a security |
| geography that sometimes does not even have | | | | measure. There would be a link in the email that is of a |
| mature internet laws against fraud; thereby, rendering | | | | site that is a mirror image of the banking site and once |
| the crime unprosecutable and the fraudster free to | | | | the user logs in, the recipients login details belong to the |
| continue the con. Some of the most famous frauds | | | | fraudster. |
| that have made headlines include the Nigerian frauds | | | | Fraudulent offers. This type of fraud is ingenious in its |
| and Russian attacks on the credit card users of most | | | | simplicity. Here a marketing offer that "you can't |
| banks. There are different categories of fraud that | | | | refuse" is sent to the recipient. Surely enough, the |
| you need to take a note of are listed here. | | | | recipient will try and buy the product. Unfortunately, the |
| Spoofing. This is a benign type of fraud that intends to | | | | product will never come from the email marketing |
| just con the user into opening a mail but since the | | | | website and since a credit card has been used, the |
| mechanism that is used is deceit, this technically comes | | | | recipients bank account will be wiped clean. |
| under the categorization or fraud. Spoofing works by | | | | Requests for help. This is one of the oldest tricks in the |
| altering the senders name and return address in such | | | | book and is an online version of more popular fraud in |
| a way that the true spammer identity is never | | | | which a con artist will ask the recipient to transact |
| revealed. Even more sinister is spoofing using names | | | | some money on behalf of a wealthy person in some |
| that are familiar to the mail recipient. This occurs due to | | | | kind of a mess. The recipient is usually promised some |
| a worm existing on a computer due to which the | | | | major reward for the help provided. Of course, one |
| address book of the familiar person is sent to a | | | | can imagine what happens once the money is sent. |
| spammers address. | | | | Nigerian email fraud comes under this categorization. |