Detect Bots, Scams, Phishing, Spam, Etc

How to Detect Bots, Scams, Phishing, Spam, Etc

It happens routinely. You get an email from a stranger, or forwarded from a friend. It seems maybe a little too good to be true. But how can you be sure? Is it safe to ignore such a great opportunity?

Steps

1.Copy an innocuous line of text in the message to the clipboard.

2.Open a web browser to your favorite search engine.

3.Paste the text into the search box and search.

4.Review the search results.

5.Know that if it's a bot or chain mail or a scam, usually it's been around the block. Normally you'll find exactly, or almost exactly the text you received in your email or chat message quoted in an article telling you why you'd be a fool to believe it, or that the cancer kid is now a middle aged man, or that email from the guy in Nigeria who needs a bank account (but can somehow wire money into it without one) really is a 'Nigeria Scam'.

Tips

1.If at first you don't succeed, try not to include any proper names or locations, because these often get changed around.

2.A hit from 'snopes' is normally a dead give-away. Check that link.

Warnings

This is no protection from a 'brand new' scam. Fortunately, most of them are recycled.

the article source:http://www.wikihow.com/Detect-Bots%2C-Scams%2C-Phishing%2C-Spam%2C-Etc