I just got an email from a very sincere sounding gentleman that wants to actually give me $5 million USD. He took the time to give me quite a bit of detail in his intro, let me share: “Hello Dear Friend, I am Col. Hussein Harmush, An Army officer from Syria but now living with the United Nations on asylum in Canberra city of Australia. I got your contact from Syrian-American Army officer who was injured in the ongoing Syrian war but died last week while receiving medical treatment…” I remember seeing these types of scams back in 2001 and unfortunately the truth of the matter is, these scams still exist today because they work. Even after all of the media attention on cyber scams, people still fall for these sorts of tricks. Here are a few simple rules to live by.

  1. If it’s too good to be true, it’s probably not.
  2. No one you don’t know will give you 5 million dollars (and in all likelihood, no one you do know will give you 5 million dollars either – and if they do, I want an intro!)
  3. Don’t assume that this is too basic to bother going over with your loved ones. People fall for these scams everyday and a simple conversation about this could prevent a lot of heartache.