David Eves

Hey David, I enjoyed your post and was not aware things like that even happened. I’m sure plenty of people fall victim to such a scam. Email has most definitely changed the game for scammers. Email has provided the convenience and anonymity, along with the capability for easily contacting thousands of people at once, which enables scammers to work in high volume. Scammers only need to fool a small percentage of the tens of thousands of people they email for their ruse to pay off.

According to, “Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams” a U.S. Govt. publication, “any email scams have existed for a long time. In fact, a few them are merely “recycled” scams that predate the use of email”. The FTC has a list of the 12 most common (http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1998/07/dozen.shtm).
The list includes:
• “free” goods
• investment opportunities
• bulk email schemes
• cable descrambler kits
• “guaranteed” loans or credit
• Make a Regular Income with Online
• Put your computer to work for you!
• bogus business opportunities
• chain letters
• work-at-home schemes
• health and diet scams
• easy money

I often wonder how many people fall victim to these scams. I know that they only need a small percentage to for these to work, but then I log onto to social media and see my friends posting some stupid thing saying that they don’t give facebook the right to steal their photos or something, and they believe they are protecting their account. Then you also have the pyramid schemes.

Getting back to Dave’s post, the best way for this gentlemen to protect himself would have been to call the lender. Not the phone listed in the email, which may have been fake, but the one on his statement. They could tell him if the first contact was legit, and also where the money was to be sent. You also need to be wary of any email that says the payment system is down. Most websites will tell you to try again when you go to make the payment, but would not email you.

Laly: thanks for the comment, and the insight. At my old job with the Purchasing Department here at Temple University, we were a front-facing department to both vendors and “customers” both internal and external. I would see about six of the scam attempts you outlined a week, each one cleverer than before. To your point, I think knowing that the types of emails you identified are the ones these scams are predicated upon really help a person (or a company) in their respective defense. However, as the article revealed, these scams are evolving and randomness is only one characteristic. Now you must factor in timing and the notion that these attackers may have pre-existing knowledge (i.e. knowing that you just bought a house and need to make payments by a certain deadline), and that it is very concerning. I wonder – outside of communications – if there is any other way to defend against that?

Blake: you bring up a good point and one that I was thinking about while reading this article – who does the blame really fall on in this situation? Obviously, the lending company has an obligation, but at what point does it become the victim’s responsibility to defend themselves? In a perfect world, I am sure every company would like to boast about how they can successfully help their customers avoid these scams, but the reality is it is somewhat of a gray area because a company can only do so much. I think that the firm in this article should have / could have done more for their customers than just a notice buried at the bottom of emails, but – like you said – shouldn’t the victim have taken proper precautions as opposed to just blindly trusting an email requesting payment? It is an interesting situation when it’s not as clear-cut as the 419 scams we talked about it last week.

David, I would have to agree with you completely when you say communication is KEY. These hackers, although most likely did an efficient enough job to trick a new homeowner such as Howard here, could have easily been exposed through the simple and direct solution of communication. Sethi Partnership should have undoubtedly included more information on potential fraud in more than just their emails, and provided personal one-on-one counsel on ways to recognize and avoid scams.

Villanova’s Department of Public Safety has an information-packed article on how to recognize and avoid scams, ranging from simple tips to vetting softwares. It can be found here: https://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/publicsafety/crime/recognizing_and_avoiding_email_s.html.

According to the site, the following are some recommendations that can minimize your chances of falling victim to an email scam: filter spam, don’t trust unsolicited emails, treat email attachments with caution don’t click links in email messages, install antivirus software and keep it up to date, install a personal firewall and keep it up to date and configure your email client for security.

Great post, David. If we apply the same concept on fraud detection on an organization, the communication skills is a key also since the common drive for committing fraud is personal desired and needs, so having a close relationship with other on the same firm will help to predict who may commit a fraud and have a chance to stop him and decrease the impact.