We all get them….Open up your inbox each day and you will see scads of worthless junk mail, otherwise known as “spam.” Their content consists of over-inflated information, sent out by folks trying to sell you something, con you out of something or get you to do something really stupid. Some common offenders I receive most are:
1. “Is Your Colon Clean?”
Apparently, somebody out there in cyberland is obsessed with cleaning out my colon. What other explanation could there be for the four or five daily emails that crowd my inbox, describing in morbid detail how my body is being bogged down with nasty old fecal matter and undigested stuff from as far back as my kindergarten years?
Of course, they always end by offering a magical product that will de-gunk me of all those decaying waste products in my overburdened colon and open the floodgates to a more fulfilled life.
I just love a happy ending, don’t you?
2.”Somebody Has a Crush on You!”
And he is probably serving hard time somewhere.
3. “URGENT!”
Irritating they are. Amazingly, as old as this scam is, there are still people falling for it!
Oh, boy! It’s another desperate email from yet another Nigerian “friend” I never heard of before, who is either the son of a murdered ambassador or a dying tribal leader or the heir to a vast fortune or in need of a second kidney operation, etc. Whichever identity he prefers to use, it always ends up with a request for my bank account information, so he can get me to agree to let him send his secret big bucks into my account, until he can escape from his country, after which I am supposed to give the money back, only he will leave me a really, really big reward for helping him out.
If you’ve been plagued by these kind of emails as often as I have, then you know how truly irritating they are. Amazingly, as old as this scam is, there still people falling for it.
4. You’ve Already Been Pre-Approved for a Card Up to $7,500!”
Okay, so I’m supposed to jump up and down at being offered another piece of plastic with high interest rates that will bring me closer and closer to bankruptcy?
I don’t think so!
5. “You’ve Received a Question about Your eBay Item?”
This is a common “phishing” email everybody with an email address receives.
The idea is to send you a bogus message, as though it really were from eBay,with a highlighted link for you to click on, so you can log in to your eBay account and “correct” the so-called problem. The trouble is that the alleged problem is non-existent and you will be carried to a phony site that looks like the real eBay, where they will steal all of your legitimate account info, when you input it, for their own unscrupulous use.
If you get this one, never click on any link. Better yet, don’t open it at all. If you want to see if somebody really has a question about your eBay item, go to the real eBay site, log in and just check your messages.
6. “Celebrities Diet Secrets Revealed!”
Gee, you mean that by buying their “breakthrough”product, I can look like one of those svelte, impossibly perfect Hollywood babes who stop traffic with their gorgeous figures? Does the price also include the personal chefs, personal trainers and liposuction procedures that are the real reason these “Stepford celebrities” probably look the way they do? Face it. Sadly, there is no pill any of us can take that will make us come anywhere close to looking like any of these folks.
Darn it!
