Are the emails offering you ways to boost your brain power for real? Or, are they nothing more than BS?
Let’s take a close look at a couple of the ones I received this week. The first one had the subject “Discover Magazine: Billionaires Rely on the Brain Booster, Free-Delivery Expires Today.” Sounds like a limited-time offer, right? That, however, is one handy tools in the scammer’s toolkit. Limited-time offers are designed to put you under pressure and break down your will to wait for a time when you can be rational.
Where the brain booster email went
In fact, this email went to a site that has been blacklisted for hosting malware or is involved in phishing. Most likely, the only thing being boosted by this email is the bank account of the one who sent it.
The other email we’ll take a look at came in as “Top Breaking Update: Outlandish brain booster approved.” There was even a link in the email to a recent CNN news story. This one has to be legitimate—or maybe not. In fact, the link to the “CNN” news story went to the sender’s website. This site has also been blacklisted for sending spam and was listed on the security report I ran as “compromised.” The kicker on this one is that when I went to the CNN website to check the story, I discovered it didn’t exist.
As with other health-based emails, your rule of thumb should be “don’t trust and don’t click.” If something sounds intriguing, do an online search. However, remember that just as scammers send spam, plenty of website owners set up phishing sites that might be found in an online search. For more on that, see today’s edition of “The Snitch,” where “Avoiding scams while surfing the net” is the scam tip.
