Email health scams are on overload

If my email inbox is any indicator, my health is in jeopardy. I’m in need of male-enhancement pills, female-enhancement remedies, disease relief from a physician who is currently in jail, cures for my diabetic and neuropathy pain, and aromatherapy products. In addition, I’ve received tips about buying cheap drugs from online-med stores, how to have my blood sugar levels restored, and, should all else fail, I’m also qualified for cheap life insurance.

I should feel better just knowing that so many people care about my health and take the time to send me emails on the subject. Right? Well, let’s back up the bus for a minute. Each day we’re deluged by email campaigns intended to do nothing more than change my financial health, not my mental or physical well-being. We all know that, and yet the scammers stay in business. Why? Because there are still plenty of gullible people in the world.

The vast majority of the junk mail I receive is so bad it shouldn’t fool a fifth-grader, yet it does. No matter how many times  the “forces of good” rail against the “forces of evil,” there are always people who are in the right situation at the right time and, therefore, make the mistake of seeing if “just this once” that too-good-to-believe offer is true. With that in mind, here’s this week’s Sunday Scam Tip and it’s a two-parter.

If you didn’t go looking for it, don’t trust it.

If you did go looking for it, verify the information.

Using today’s technology, it’s easy to set up a professional-looking website for the sole purpose of scamming visitors.

My Focus on vision scams post from two weeks ago provides a good example of how a convincing sales pitch can lure the unsuspecting into making a purchase without there ever being any proof that the product works.

The bottom line Is to be skeptical of any offer and check with independent sources before you give away your money.