How do you spot SCAM/ Phising email?

I received this email this morning

From : Erin Carter callingrobin@hotmail.com
reply-to adalia.phillips@yahoo.com.au
date Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 9:08 AM
subject Job 1280444877

Good day!
I am the senior HR coordinator at Antal International Employment Agency.

I would like to speak with you in person regarding an exclusive career opportunity that we have right now. Our client company is looking for candidate with proven track record of minimum 2-3 years experience in customer service, management or sales, with excellent interpersonal skills and relationship building abilities, and with a strong ability to be successful in both team and independent environments. In addition, you should have strong technical skills and the ability to quickly grasp new technology - wireless communication, hardware, software and project integration.

If you are interested in a new career, please forward your resume Word document or PDF to my assistant - Marita Knoll - marita.knoll@yahoo.com.au ASAP.

How did I know that it’s FAKE?
1. The language, and format is not professional for head hunter agency
2. I looked up the “Antal International Employment Agency’ website, and in their contact email address end with @antal.com . The sender of the email use hotmail and yahoo email.

For an international company , they would have their own domain email for their employee , e.g. john.smith@antal.com . In that case, hotmail and yahoo is used as personal email.

Scammers and getting smarter these days, they’re after your personal details. Why do they care to know about your life? So they could impersonate you to do bad..bad things like open a huge loan under your name , use your details as alias , …. (many malicious things that they will think of).

Listen to the story of the victim ( it’s taken from http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/victimstories)

• How online romances cost Melba and Paul more than their hearts
Melba lost her life savings to a man she met on the internet. Paul lost $200,000 to a woman he met on an online dating website when he was led to believe that he was helping her and her village.
• How an international money transfer scam targeted Lynne’s small business
Victim story: Lynne was asked to transfer money overseas to pay for a booking agent’s ‘commission’. The credit card details provided to Lynne were stolen, and the agent was a scammer.

• The holiday ‘prize’ which nearly cost Nicole thousands of dollars
Victim story: Nicole thought she had won the holiday of a lifetime. What happened next made her wish she had never called the phone number to claim her ‘prize’.

• Alan’s bad bet on computer prediction software
Victim story: Alan was pressured into buying software that promised him huge returns from betting on the horses. The software didn’t work and the only winner was the scammer.


Be really careful in sharing / sending your personal details and My golden rule: if it’s too good to be true, usually it ‘s scam .