Many e-mails promise to make life easier or give large sums of money, but if it seems too good to be true, it is.
One of the most popular forms of e-mail fraud is "phishing," where scam artists will duplicate a certain Web site and use it to collect personal information from users.
James Turgal, supervisory special agent for the FBI's cyber crimes program, said the scammers "do it a lot with banking Web sites or financial Web sites."
Many of these e-mails send the recipient a notice that they have had a bad transaction with the institution. The e-mail then sends the user to another site via a link where it asks the user for their password and username.
"You've just provided someone information about your complete financial status," Turgal said. "You're not going to get unsolicited e-mail from your banking institution."
The information that is solicited from the Web site can then be used to alter and access your account. Banking fraud is only one of the many types of e-mail fraud people receive every day.
"You name it and it gets phished and it gets spoofed," Turgal said.
There is a Nigerian fraud scheme that started over 10 years ago and moved to the Internet and e-mail. Kurt Douglass, resident agent in charge of the Columbus Secret Service, said it originally started with paper letters that were sent to people asking for help funneling money out of Nigeria. Now, instead of letters, the Nigerian fraud artists send e-mails.
One of the most recent attempts by a Nigerian fraud artist is using Ebay. The scam artist will buy something off Ebay and send a check for more than it is worth, hoping the recipient will send a remittance check back.
"Don't send a remittance check before yours clears," Douglass said. The checks sent by the fraud artists are counterfeit.
Investigations and prosecutions of these Nigerian fraud schemers is difficult for the government to enforce. Since many of the frauds are occurring out of Nigeria "it creates tremendous hurdles for law enforcement," Douglass said.
Kyle Rowsey, a senior in psychology, received two fraudulent e-mails earlier in the quarter. The first one was related to the Nigerian fraud schemes and the second was the Golden Strike Sweepstakes Lottery in the Netherlands.
"I was pretty skeptical, but it would be nice to have a million dollars," Rowsey said.
Both e-mails instructed the recipient to contact them for more information and how they could collect the money. Rowsey then contacted the FBI because he said the e-mails did not seem legitimate.
"I called the FBI and they said it was a fraudulent e-mail, and there are a lot of them out there," Rowsey said. "The agent said to just delete them and check the (Federal Trade Commission's) Web site if you have any more questions."
The FBI and Columbus Secret Service said the best way for the public to protect themselves is not to give out personal information. One way to check if an e-mail is a fraud is to trace it back to the original Web site or call the business, Turgal said.
The Information Technology Association of America has started a coalition of different businesses and organizations to combat e-mail fraud. The coalitions will look at technology and try to understand what steps need to be taken to create appropriate standards for consumers to use Web sites, said Bob Cohen, senior vice-president of ITAA.
"It comes down to these companies seeing the future in terms of the Internet," Cohen said. "They all have a stake in consumer acceptance."
There are ways to help protect against e-mail fraud, Douglass said.
"Look at anything from the central-western Africa region with a very critical eye," he said. "If it seems fishy call a law enforcement agency."
"You just have to be smart about what you provide personal information to," Turgal said.
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