South Africans are notorious for being suspiciously street savvy. Yet despite this trait there are innocent victims of scams like the recent Tannenbaum, Ponzi scheme. In difficult times scamsters prey on desperation. Even the media frenzy of Michael Jackson’s death allowed for Internet scams promising last footage. I urge you to read on to avoid being scammed.

Protect yourself from scamsters with these 10 tips

My spam account is littered with emails from the UK lottery, and sob stories from strangers, asking me to put funds into their account and then I’ll get paid once their inheritance comes through. When I first came across these 419 scams my curiosity got the better of me. Luckily the bad grammar and general “fishiness” of the emails ensured that I wouldn’t fall for them. But in desperate times even the biggest cynic could be forgiven for trying their luck. The best way to avoid being caught is to be aware of recent scams taking other innocent people’s money and time.

Identify a scam

Scamsters usually advertise with these 10 things in common:

1.    No fixed addresses

2.    No fixed landline. Scamsters will opt for cell phone numbers instead. If a landline is listed, it will rarely get through to anyone.

3.    Dodgy contact details. Usually a free email will be listed, such as a yahoo, hotmail or Gmail address.

4.    No proper identification of the company such as a letterhead. Yet they will claim to be a multi million-dollar organisation. If it’s supposedly South African, an obscure town or street will be named.

5.    You’ll be promised the greatest financial secret in exchange for your money. Think about it, legitimate large companies such as banks or manufacturers could never get away with asking prospective investors for money to “reveal some secrets”.

6.    On that same note, you won’t find large companies sending spam email to everyone and their aunts.

7.    Scamsters speak of buying their first car, house, boat etc for cash within a month to a year.

8.    They’ll play on your emotions. You will “surely lose out” if you don’t participate in their dodgy operation.

9.    The grammar and spelling is usually more than suspect.

10.     If the email or SMS is sent to you ‘personally’ from a corporation that you’re not affiliated with, such as the UK lottery or a bank that you’re not a member of.

How to further avoid being caught out

• This part is easy. Don’t reply. Delete and get on with your life.
• Websites concerned with scam awareness also suggest that you shouldn’t trust foreigners. This may sound xenophobic, yet many scams are purportedly from Nigerians, Russians, Indians, Chinese and locals.
• Men should be alert to prostitutes, as they are often used as fronts.
• When it comes to phishing, the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information, type the URL directly into your browser, rather than clicking on ANY link sent in an email.
• If you receive a phonecall from your service provider or bank asking you to "just punch in" some numbers for a security check, end the call immediately. There's a fraudulent company using a device that once you press '90' or '09' they can access your SIM card. Also, if you receive a call on your cellphone from 'Xalan', cancel the call immediately, otherwise your phone could be infected by a virus.

If in any doubt, walk away and/or delete that email. Tell yourself that if someone is going to get rich from dubious means, let them without being caught up in it yourself. And remember, forewarned is forearmed!