Low-tech Internet Scams Harvest Billions of Dollars
CNN Money reports for decades, Internet scams have been as numerous as they’ve been easy to spot — but fraudsters’ tools and tricks are now becoming more sophisticated. Those poorly written spam e-mails often seem more annoying than threatening, but they can wreak financial havoc on their victims. Internet fraudsters have traditionally preyed on the vulnerable, including older victims who aren’t as well versed in computer technology. But scammers’ skills at deception have improved so greatly over the years that even seasoned Internet users often have to do a double take before they realize they’ve been duped. For instance, a widely used, relatively new scheme that’s difficult to detect, features pop-up notifications that look just like antivirus software alerts. They usually say something to the effect of, “Your computer has been infected with 49 viruses, click OK to quarantine them.”
