make money on the internet

Recently, I received an email, apparently for a donation of EUR 359.56 from a Paul Coelho at Verizon.net. Resisting the urge to immediately click on the “Accept Payment” link, I did a little investigation which made me suspect the email to be a phishing scam. Besides, why would anyone donate EUR 359.56 to me? I don’t think my site has that great content to deserve such a generous donation.

I’ve received several PayPal phishing scam emails before but this is the first time I’ve received one using Moneybookers. The email looked and sounded 100% legit. The email sender is seen as services@moneybookers.com

So How Could I Tell It’s A Scam?

1. Google. A quick Google found that there were such scams although these were from a year or two ago. Looks like scammers like to recycle their scamming methods.

2. Email Header Details. The email sender may read services@moneybookers.com but if the header is viewed in full, the sender return path is ken@player.playersonly.com.

3. Email Link Is Redirected. When you mouseover the link to accept payment, you can see it is redirected to another site. See image below.

Overall, this scammer is quite amateurish – for a scammer. His tell-tale signs are easily spotted and yet, I know there must be those who are not net-savvy enough to even see these signs. That’s the reason why scammers recycle their scams after lying low for a while. However, you don’t really need to be net-savvy – just good old fashioned common sense will do and to remember this oft-repeated yet always ignored adage – if something is too good to be true, it’s probably NOT true.