It can be hard to tell a scam site from the real site sometimes, as many of these crimes are very sophisticated. One of the reasons that these scams are so prevalent is that so many people fall for them.

Feeling a little paranoid? Afraid to switch your computer on? Don’t be. Although nothing is 100% safe, taking a few simple precautions will keep your data secure and make it very unlikely that you will be the victim of a cybercrime.

Protect your passwords.
Do not give your passwords out to others. Don’t write them all down and post them next to your computer, or keep the list in your purse.

Use unique passwords and log ins.
If you always use the same password, once someone knows the password for one account, they can guess at how to log in to other accounts. It can be hard to remember a lot of passwords, so use Roboform to generate and store unique passwords. (Get a free trial of Roboform.)

Know your network.
At home, use a reputable Internet Service Provider. When away from home, do not use an unknown wireless network. Be especially wary of those “Free Public WiFi” wireless networks that appear on your laptop. Often, they are run just to capture data.

Even a wired network may not be secure. The best action is to always encrypt your data.

Fire up the firewall.
Use a firewall on your computer. Windows includes a firewall (make sure it is turned on) or you can purchase firewall software from many vendors.

Encrypt your data.
When you must use remote networks and wifi, use a Virual Private Network (VPN). One that is easy to use and inexpensive is HotspotVPN.

Don’t click that link!
Never click on unknown links in emails. If you get an email saying you need to log in to your PayPal account and update information, do not click on a link in the email. Go to PayPal.com and log in to see if you have a message about your account. The same applies to any other email asking you to click on a link and log in.

Check the address bar.
When you go to a site, is the URL correct – www.payapl.com, not paypal.mynet.com, for example. Before entering personal data, check for https (instead of http), letting you know the connection is secure.

Look for the lock.
A secure site will also have a key or closed lock in the lower right corner of your browser.

Change the password on your home router.
Have a home network? Most people never change the default password and the network can easily be hacked. “1234″ is not a hard password to guess.

Keep your computer up to date.
Download and install security updates and patches when they are released. Use good anti-virus/anti-spyware software, and update it frequently

Resources
For more information and links to resources to keep yourself and your data safe, go to: http://www.IdeaLady.com/article/online_safety

In addition to an abundance of grammatical errors, there are several other clues that should get your spidey-senses tingling. First, let’s take a look at the email itself then I will tell you some of the other clues that should alert you to a possible scam.

This is the actual, unedited text of the email:

Hello there,

We are a company that conducts surveys and evaluate other companies. We get hired to go to other peoples companies and act like customers in order to know how the staffs are handling their services in relation to their customers.Once we have a contract to do so, you would be directed to the company or outlet, and you would be given the funds you need to do the job(either purchase products or required services), after which you would write a comment on the staffs activities and give a detailed record of your experience

Examples of details you would forward to us are
1) How long it took you to get the services requested.
2) Smartness of the attendant
3)Customer service professionalism
4)Sometimes you might be required to upset the attendant, to see how they react to clients why they get tensed.

And we turn the information over to the company executives and they would carry out their own duties in improving their services.
Most companies employ our assistance when people give complains about their services, or when they feel there are needs for them to improve their customer service. your Identity would be kept confidential as the job states (secret/mystery shopper) you would be paid $200 for every duty you carry out, and bonus on your transportation allowance, and funds would be given to you if you have to dine as part of the duty Your job will be to evaluate and comment on customer service in a wide variety of shops, stores, restaurant and services in your area.
No commitment is made on this job, and you would have flexible hours as it suits
you. If you are interested, do send in these information:

FULL NAME:
CONTACT ADDRESS:(NO P O BOX)
CITY:
STATE:
ZIP-CODE:
TELEPHONE NUMBER:
MOBILE NUMBER:
AGE:
OCCUPATION:
EMAIL:

So we can look at your distance from the locations which you have to put your service into, and your address would also be need for your payments.

Thanks

Yours Sincerely
[Contact information omitted.]

Let’s say that you were able to get past the absolutely horrible grammar and syntax. What else might provide clues that this is not legitimate?

First of all, why are they contacting me? There is no indication as to where they got my name or email address. Most mystery shopping companies do not contact people at random to offer them secret shopper jobs.

If you are contacted by a mystery shopping company with which you have not registered, it will usually be because of an existing relationship with another organization. For example, the Mystery Shopping Providers Association allows member companies to make limited contact with Silver and Gold Certified Mystery Shoppers when they have a need for shoppers in specific areas. Archon Development, the company behind the Prophet mystery shopping system, will allow you to complete a profile that they share with companies using Prophet. Those companies may contact you for additional information.

They say that they pay you before you have done the mystery shop. Most companies do not front funds for shop purchases and do not pay you your fee before you have done the work. This sounds like they may be running the cashiers check scam.

“Sometimes you might be required to upset the attendant, to see how they react to clients why they get tensed.” This is a common myth about mystery shopping, that mystery shoppers are the difficult customers, there to test how employees handle a stressful situation. Although this may happen on some shops, it is extremely rare. Most of the time, we are expected to be typical customers. We are to blend in with other customers, not be memorable by making a scene or “upsetting” the employees.

They pay $200 for each assignment. Not only is that way out of line for most mystery shopping assignments, pay normally varies based on what you are required to do on the mystery shop. But $200 for a typical shop? Yeah, right.

I have removed the contact information before posting this, but the company and web site listed are for a British textile company. I don’t know about you, but I seldom receive mystery shopper jobs from textile companies. Also, the name of the person the email is supposedly from does not match the email address. And that email address? It is from a free email service, not the domain of the company they claim to represent. All of these are warning signs.

Need more? By expanding the email header I see that the email came from a mail server in Indonesia. The server identifier is mail.XXXXXX.co.id. (The Xs are in place of the actual server name.) the id at the end stands for Indonesia. Although this information can be forged, it is unlikely that a British textile company doing mystery shopping forged their IP information to appear to be Indonesian. More likely, the scammers are operating out of Indonesia and didn’t bother to forge the headers.

You can avoid being the victim of a scam by asking a few questions and using your critical thinking skills. When you receive emails such as this one, just delete them. Do not click on links in the email (that can expose you to malware and other dangerous things being loaded on your computer) and do not respond. Just click the delete key.

Some scammers make their communications look more legitimate, but even poor jobs such as this one apparently succeed in procuring victims. Do not be one of them.

Why does this matter?

For one thing, there is a question of security. Do you use the same password for all of the shopper sites at which you are registered? If a scheduler for one company knows your password there, and it is the same for other company sites, that scheduler could access all of your other profiles. That is especially true because many systems use easily-guessed log in IDs. Most schedulers are honest and ethical and would not dream of doing something such as this. But it only takes one.

It can be hard to remember dozens of different passwords, one for each mystery shopping company site. (Not to mention all of the other sites you use.) An easy way to manage your log ins and passwords is to use RoboForm. RoboForm does many things to protect you, including:

• Memorizes your passwords and Logs You In automatically.
• Fills long registration and checkout forms with one click.
• Encrypts your passwords to achieve complete security.
• Generates random passwords that hackers cannot guess.
• Fights Phishing by filling passwords only on matching web sites.
• Defeats Keyloggers by not using keyboard to type passwords.
• Backs up your passwords, Copies them between computers.
• Synchronizes passwords between computers using GoodSync.
• Searches for keywords in your passwords, notes and Internet.

You can download a free trial version to see how it works, but the free version stores a limited number of log ins and passwords. The full version is only $29.95. Do you use many different computers? You might want to get RoboForm2Go. It runs on a USB drive (you know, those little flash drives you plug in to a USB port) and can be used on multiple computers. You can learn more and download the free trial version at the RoboForm site.

In addition to security issues, your password may tell a scheduler something about you. A good password consists of seemingly random letters and numbers, but most people choose familiar words. If your password includes obscenities or inappropriate, unprofessional language, that can make a bad impression. “devilgrrl” would not be a good password.

Be aware of how your password might be misinterpreted. There is a famous list of domain names that can misread as much less innocent than they actually are. My favorite is the URL for a site that tells which agents represent various performers, whorepresents.com. Did you read it as intended, WhoRepresents.com, or did you see WhorePresents.com? Make sure your passwords do not unintentionally include inappropriate language by looking at how the words and letters you choose run together.

Of course, using entire words makes your passwords easier to guess, especially if you use obvious things such as the names of your children. Another way to make up passwords is to use initials. Using the first letter of each word in a quotation is one way of coming up with a password that is easy for you to remember but hard for others to guess. For example, you might use, “fsasya” representing, “Four score and seven years ago . . .” To add a layer of difficulty, always capitalize one or more of the letters, say the third one. So now this password would be, “fsAsya.”

Keep your passwords secure with tools such as RoboForm. If you create your own passwords, do not use the same password for every site, and make sure your passwords do not create a negative image. Use initials or other “code” instead of full words.

Carnegie Mellon University has created an online game called Anti-Phishing Phil. It takes just a few minutes to play and in the process you learn the tricks phishers use to try and trick you into giving up your personal information. The game uses easy to understand tips and examples to show you how to recognize a legitimate site vs. a scam site, a simple way to use Google to avoid getting scammed by phishers and more.

Anti-Phishing Phil points out that the scammers create sites that, in many cases, look identical to the legitimate sites. Unless you know what to look for, you could be deceived into giving up your personal information.

Not sure if you would know a scam site? Spend a few minutes with Anti-Phishing Phil and make yourself scam-proof. And if you complete the optional survey at the site, you can be eligible to win a $100 Amazon.com gift certificate.

PayPal was established as a way for people to exchange money over the Internet. It is used by merchants, individuals, and eBay auction sellers to receive payments via credit card and electronic check. In fact, it is used so much on eBay, that eBay bought PayPal a couple of years ago.

PayPal also has a feature called Mass Pay where payments can be sent to a large number of people at once. Many secret shopping companies use Mass Pay to send payments to shoppers because it is faster, more reliable and less expensive than printing and mailing hundreds or thousands of checks every month.

Here is how it works: Start by signing up for a PayPal account. Or, if you already have an account, add the email address you use for mystery shopping to your PayPal account. This is important, because your email address is how you are identified as the recipient of a payment.

If your PayPal account is used for receiving funds from mystery shopping jobs, and buying stuff online, all you need is a Personal account. If you want to accept payments at your web site, or as an eBay auction seller, you will want a Premier or Business account. The type of account is not all that important, and it can be changed later.

When a mystery shopping company pays you via PayPal, they submit a file with data about all of the payments they are making. The file includes information such as the email addresses, amounts of the payments, and the currency type (e.g., USD). They also make funds available to PayPal to cover the total of the payments and the PayPal fees. PayPal then distributes the funds to the appropriate accounts. When you receive a payment, PayPal will notify you via email.I always love getting emails that say, “You’ve got cash!”

It is important to note that you will not be charged a fee to receive a Mass Pay payment. The fee is paid by the mystery shopping company.

You also will not pay to get your money out of PayPal unless you use an ATM card or request a paper check. You can have the money transferred from your PayPay account to your bank account, use the PayPal debit card as you would a MasterCard credit card, or use the money to make a purchase from any of more than 42,000 merchants who accept PayPal for online purchases.

PayPay is a safe and easy way to receive payments online. However, there are a few things to watch out for.

Safeguard your account information. Use a password that is not easily guessed, and that is different from other passwords you use (e.g., to access mystery shopping sites).

Do not access PayPal though an unsecured wireless connection. If you do not enter a password to access the wireless network (such as at many public wi-fi spots) it is unsecured and your data may be intercepted by someone. They can then use that data to access your accounts. For more information, you can read this article on wi-fi security.

Some shoppers who transfer money from PayPal to their bank accounts set up bank accounts especially for that purpose. Whenever they get a couple hundred dollars in PayPal, they transfer it to this special account, then withdraw most of the money from the bank account. That way, even if their information is somehow compromised, a thief does not have access to their primary checking or savings account. This is a little extreme, but can provide an extra layer of safety.

Do not assume that emails you get about a problem with your PayPal account are legitimate. Most likely, they are part of a phishing scheme, designed to capture your account information. If you believe there may be a problem, visit PayPal’s Security Center to learn more.

The best part of getting paid with PayPal? I can use the money to buy stuff online, and my husband will never know! Uh . . . you aren’t reading this, are you, honey?