"I figured I should share the wealth"

A friend of mine recently forwarded an email to me the other day, entitled "I figured I should share the wealth".

“Yeah, sure!” was my immediate reaction. I wasn’t even convinced that the email was sent by my friend. Scammers are known to steal email addresses and pose as friends. Such was my skepticism towards messages like that.

But check the link I did, out of mere curiosity, and I found obvious signs that the whole thing was a poorly erected scam. The link led to an article that gave the impression that it was published on a respectable news website, with icons of MSNBC, ABC, BBC, USA Today, CNN, etc. But whatever icons you click, they lead to a form asking you to sign up.

The article was about a woman making easy money working online. The article never specified exactly what she did to earn a living with a computer at home. It just urged the reader to take up the time-limited offer and follow the steps of signing up and setting up an account. The first cheques of about USD500 – USD1,500 will arrive in about a week.

“Yeah, sure!”

My curiosity stopped there. My common sense reigned.