A New Low in Scams

“Hello, I have a lot of money, but need some American money to get into the country. Please give me your credit card number and I will give you half of my money. Thank you, and God Bless.”

That’s one e-mail that’s getting deleted. It’s true, not all scammers are geniuses. Some e-mails you receive might as well have a flashing “This is a scam” sticker. But, unfortunately, scammers are upping their game and finding new and craftier ways to get what they want: your money.

People have been stealing from other people since the dawn of time. Pick-pockets slipped into coin purses at the Coliseum, Jesse James hijacked trains to steal from the wealthy passengers, and banks have experienced hold ups since they first opened. Theft is not a modern concept. Modern technology, however, has made theft much easier than it used to be. Thieves once needed agility and weapons to steal whatever money a person had on them and the chances of getting caught were fairly high. Now, a crafty thief, using a false identity, can steal thousands of dollars from a stranger without ever leaving their home, making their chances of getting caught slim to none.

There are many strategies scammers use: fake companies falsely hiring, emails pretending to be a bank or other well known company, and yes, e-mails pretending to be a wealthy foreigner willing to give up millions of dollars for a credit card number. But just recently, scammers have broken away from e-mails and have logged on to Facebook as their newest source of income.

Read Write Web, reports that scammers are sending false notifications to Facebook users claiming they violated the terms of service and are having their page investigated. When the user clicks on the link, they are redirected to a page which requires them to fill out personal information to save their profile.

Why Facebook? It seems pretty obvious. Typical Facebook users are either in high school or college. This age group is focused on socializing and making friends. Facebook is a major social connection for many teens and young adults. Not only are these new Facebook scammers preying on younger more naïve minds, they’re also preying on social butterflies who would do anything to save their Facebook page if they thought it was going to be erased.

While Facebook is working hard to ensure such scams are erased from its site, this incident should stand as a reminder that nothing online is completely trust-worthy and personal info like credit card information should be heavily guarded. These Facebook scammers may have been thwarted, but they will be back in some other form. As more people surf the web, new thieves join the thousands of scammers already logged on.