Costa Rica Internet Fraud On the Rise – Haiti Earthquake Scams

Costa Rica Internet Fraud is Rising as more and more users learn how to use the Internet.

I got an panic email last Saturday about a small Costa Rica online store whose owner got scammed when she went to buy a product and was taken to a phishing website. She elected to pay by e-check, her second biggest mistake. Within seconds her account was cleaned out of several hundred dollars.

She asked me what we could do to get her money back? I  was sorry to say,  “Nothing.” Adding, all she could really do was report it.

As ICE gets more modern and with the Free Trade Agreement that has allowed more completion for ICE,  Internet viewing has become more available to the everyday locals. With that said, the rise of Internet Fraud has increased 100%  within the  last six months.

The term “Internet fraud” generally refers to any type of fraud scheme that uses one or more online services to present fraudulent solicitations to prospective victims, to conduct fraudulent transactions, or to transmit the proceeds of fraud to financial institutions or to others connected with the scheme. Internet fraud can take place on computer programs such as chat rooms, e-mail, message boards, or Web sites; in the ladies case, a product website.

And with Costa Rica’s friendly and very trusting people, S &S (Scammers and Spammers) are targeting the Central America country more than ever. Having many Costa Rica accounts, I have seen the increase of these phishing websites and fraudulent spam flooding their email accounts. About once a month I have to warn them not to open a particular email and to make sure they DO NOT open attachments, unless they know the sender.

Cybercrime is more  sophisticated than you think; these emails look so real,  it is easy to become a victim.

Unfortunately, being smart is NOT enough to protect yourself from dangerous Internet scams, frustrating spam, or devious identity theft.

In the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, Tico Times Directory wants to remind you that whenever there is a major natural or other disaster, scammers begin sending out charity relief scams and other scams almost immediately.

To get special update on what scams abound and how to protect you from Haiti earthquake scams here go to Beware of Haiti Earthquake Scams and Internet Scams

There are three ways to help prevent you from being scammed:

• Legit websites that take online transaction use a secure URL. That secure URS has an “s” after the html. Example: https//goodguywebsite.com, means they pay for a secure and decrypted server, where, http://takeyourmoney.com, does not
• Legitimate websites like banks, will NEVER ASK for your user ID or password. Any email you receive that asked you to do this trash the email.
• If you are have doubt about an email, take your curser and roll it over the link that will supposedly take you a legit company. Now look at the static bar at the bottom of your computer window, and if you see something like with a very long URL or with numbers in front, 345.45.1234.com/scamsite/ or  http://bad.secure-con-company.com/12345.bad.site?-454.XXX/   then delete the email … this is a redirect to a phishing website

Use common sense when using the Internet … you would not walk down a dark alley at 2am would you?

Calypso Cruises