Avoiding Internet Scams from Emails- Oprah Winfrey's Special

Don't Open the Emails!

By Christi Bowers, published Apr 30, 2007
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The internet has fast become one of the most popular ways to try and scam someone. Increasingly, this has been done through the use of fraudulent emails. Oprah Winfrey aired a show on April 13, 2007, about this devious method of making money from others. This show was quite timely, as many people are scammed out of their life savings every day by these web provocateurs. The main types of emails used for the scams include announcing someone to have won a foreign lottery, someone is dying and wants to leave you their fortune, and a company needs to update your personal information. A great percentage of these fraudulent emails originates in Nigeria. By becoming aware of the scams, hopefully you can protect yourself from becoming a victim of internet fraud.

About the Emails and How to Protect Yourself

The biggest thing to do is just not open any emails that you aren't sure of the sender. Well, that's what you would think. But when you get an email from Paypal telling you they need to update your information, and you have a paypal account, what would ever make you think this was a scam? At this point, following simple guidelines about not opening emails is not enough to protect yourself. At this point, you have to stay up to date on the email scams, and maybe even ahead of the game.

How do you do this? Keep up to date on current scams. One way to go about this is to go to different websites to learn about scams. One such website is the fbi at fbi.gov/majcases/fraud/internetschemes.htm . This website talks about the Nigerian letter or "419" scam, also discussed on the Oprah show. Other websites can be found by typing in Internet scams, or email scams, on the search engine and visiting the sites to learn more. One other useful site was internetfraud.usdoj.gov. This website doesn't focus on emails, however. It talks about not receiving merchandise you paid for after winning ebay auctions, etc.

 
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Takeaways
  • Nigerian letter or "419" fraud
  • Oprah Winfrey show on internet scams
  • fraudulent emails
Did You Know?
If you don't open the fraudulent email, the scammers will not be able to obtain any of your personal information to scam you.
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so much bitterness here. i think oprah shuld apologise ,my brothers from naija no shaking they cant stop us wit mouth or watever we r a great nation ......NAIJA RULES..... even dough some brothers may be fuckin up.

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Posted on 03/22/2008 at 5:03:05 PM

 
Am suprise and disappointed about these thing called Losefrey or what ever she call herself! she is a loser ! I am a korean marrried to a Nigeria and been opportuned to work with so many Nigerians all over the world and i must say they are the greatest people have ever met So for Losefrey to say such nasty thing about a great country like Nigeria then she must be very stupid ! All over the world there are always the black sheep so Nigeria as a country cannot be exempted. Losefrey u are very incompetent , am very angry with u and ready to burst ur head if i get a chance to meet u !

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Posted on 02/08/2008 at 5:02:03 AM

 
i don't blem them at all. our leaders dey cos all this rant. the trust is. na them they corrupt our foolish, careless leaders who have no shame. see who insult dis lost black woman dey yan. imagine that slave dey call us scammers. honestly, dis is not funny. the blood of the innonent will hunt am. i vessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. she want make we they mess the ordinary americans. see, them no se if our country settle. we go be the best in almost everything. name it, we have it. God bless our but our leaders they busy sendin them children abroad to go school so them go come back to naija come lead us. with our money. them they cos all this 419, corruption issue. but the americans no go talk anything bcos na them they give them go ahead. see even UN no agree to the war we them go 4. AMERICANS are the big 419 AND KILLERS. they justify themself on every action they take. Bcos they think they are great. We have to iron this issue once a

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Posted on 01/16/2008 at 6:01:29 PM

 
i support u. she is a slave. at least we nigerians knw where we originate, if u ask her am sure she doesn't knw. stupid first class black american woman who is narrow minded. how can she make such statement about a nation. she has no respect at all. i reckon she'll classify herself educated, but in fairness, she's not. nothing wrong in talking about 419 and scammers but summin a nation to be 419 or scammers is not human. oprah has no manners. stupid!. u can reply me ok. am ready for u. don't be a coward. oprah u heard me.

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Posted on 01/16/2008 at 6:01:29 PM

 
1) Oprah should not have generalized she should not have grouped all nigerians and labelled them corrupt. These i strongly disagree with. 2) I am a Nigerian living in Nigeria and frankly my people no dey try. Every single minute Nigerians receive either fraudulent calls or mails. Nigerians need to stand up against such things instead such people who practice such things in their communities are hailed as heroes some communities even go as far as giving such peasons titles. Currently the EFCC is being dismantled by nigerians who do not want corruption to end and good nigerians sit back and watch and do nothing about it. In the northern part of the country religous riots are frequent, just cry "JIHAD" and soon human lives and properties will be lost but cry "CORRUPTION" and everybody continues what they were doing as if nothing is happening,Nigerians have become insensitive to corruption. We need to collective stand up and say enough is enough and take the fight to the people who are in

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Posted on 01/16/2008 at 1:01:12 AM

 
operah is not true,she is fulling her self in her wealth and has become too big to respect God and a nation.every human in nigeria have their targer and pursuits in life,as it is obtainable every where in the world,some choose to be THEIFS,SCAMMERS (america is killing innocent children and women in iraq for their oil,america is scamming african oil in the face of dubious economic partnership and free aid),KILLERS(america has the highest rate of killings in the world) TV(Cnn has never in a day shown a peaceful documentry about africans but would rather show the negative aspect of us.Madam operah so big than a whole nation and having the upmost power to indict a whole nation.)DISCRIMINATION(ask george bush father what he intended in the vietnam war when he was sending only young blacks to the war including muhammed ali who refused and was jailed)Someday those who you stand againt will rise against you and fight against you.How do operah wants innocent nigerias to operate in the business

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Posted on 01/10/2008 at 7:01:05 AM

 
operah you are a DISGRACE for calling all Nigerians scammers,america has been killing women and inocent children in iraq to scam their oil,you are not talking about that,you were abuse at a early age,you did drugs like every american teenagers who's talking about that.operah is not true,she is fulling her self in her wealth and has become too big to respect God and a nation.every human in nigeria have their targer and pursuits in life,as it is obtainable every where in the world,some choose to be THEIFS,SCAMMERS (america is killing innocent children and women in iraq for their oil,america is scamming african oil in the face of dubious economic partnership and free aid),KILLERS(america has the highest rate of killings in the world) TV(Cnn has never in a day shown a peaceful documentry about africans but would rather show the negative aspect of us.Madam operah so big than a whole nation and having the upmost power to indict a whole nation.)DISCRIMINATION(ask george bush father what he i

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Posted on 01/10/2008 at 7:01:41 AM

 
do you know dat opera has worn d 2oo7 award for d most accomlished fool bcs of that reckless statement

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Posted on 11/19/2007 at 11:11:00 AM

 
it is wrong for me to say All American kill each other on the street, because that is what we see on TV,take of example the V T shooting e.t.c, So it is wrong for Oprah to say All Nigerians are Fraudster or 419ners. she don't know anything about Nigeria, she never been there. i think she is just a bitch,a slave who listens to whatever the master tells her to do.

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Posted on 11/14/2007 at 10:11:00 AM

 
I never really see Oprah as intelligent nor smart,I have always seen her as an opportunist who happened to make it in life by peddling show business that will not see daylight in a more civilised world. the only place rubbish like her so called Oprah show will sell and is selling is America. How myopic can Oprah be for not seeing nor recognise those hard working Nigerians home and abroad, even here in the US, where we have Nigerian Medical doctors, Pharmacists,engineers,Nurses just to mention a few. I'm a Nigerian and proud to be one. I have history and can trace my family tree, I do not need DNA nor some palentologist experts to tell me where I came from .Oprah is a woman without history neither can she trace her root, I hear she says she is from some place in Africa, I doubt that as well, because only a vagabound or slave will castigate her own people. oprah is a stooge of the white Americans and she will continue to be. Wait a minute why are we spending much time debating about her

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Posted on 11/12/2007 at 5:11:00 PM

 
Oprah really fall my hand a lot, i respected her i never knew she was such an ignorant fool, she was fucked several times by her relatives between ages 13-15. how bad is that to be compared to cyber-duping. shes a piece of shit for those comments of hers.

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Posted on 11/09/2007 at 3:11:00 PM

 
I used to think she was something, but i'v realised that she is just a fool that sees herself as a goddess. How can she tarnish further, the image of 150 million people without batting an eyelid. Can she prove that all the scam letters were written by nigerians? I am not saying that Nigerians do not do that, but what % are invovled? What of Enron, ebay scam, and many others? And the psychos all over America? Nobody talks about Nigerians in NASA, the likes of Emeagwali that developed the fastest computer and many more. The boys at the cyber cafes, how did they get them? They should prove to us that they were actually in Nigeria,that it was not stage managed in one corner of Oprah's studio. She is just a poor loser with all her money. See how the scandal at her South African school was potrayed, with her as the angel and the management of the school as the devils. With fake tears rolling down her dry cheeks. "I trusted her. When I appointed her, I thought she was passionate about the

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Posted on 11/07/2007 at 8:11:00 AM

 
oprah is a piece of shit

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Posted on 11/06/2007 at 3:11:00 AM

 
i don't blame, she still has the slave mentality - anything to please her 'masters'. she has been released from slavery but she has never released herself - thanks fela of colo-mentality. I thought she was smart but she exposed herself in a way the dumbest idiot in the planet will never do - every white man is a racist? is that true dumb witch? Tell your 'masters' the hard truth: their dumbness and greeds are responsible for their being conned by half-baked literate criminals who can't fool most Nigerians who are law abiding, honest and hard working professionals even in your backyard, your universities, your industries and all over the world.

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Posted on 11/05/2007 at 10:11:00 AM

 
oprah is just another confused, non-child bearing, dumb, root-forgettin "African American". I dont even know y they call em african americans. they should b called americans or blk americans. its all good people, they cant take away nuthin from us naija peeps..to hell with oprahs BLK UGLY BARREN ASS. 207 MUJA

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Posted on 11/04/2007 at 9:11:00 PM

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