Paint your fence

[Elmware]

is an old saying when you are a target of scams, because the scammers would mark up the fence in front of your home to indicate to other fraudsters that you are an easy target.

With the technology age, the modern way is to pass a list of email address around and keep track of them from the list, and in some case, they even put reference numbers in the message to help them keep track of which scam you are responding to.

By responding to fraudulent emails, you are basically marking your own virtual fence for these guys.

Technology used to be very intimidating to those with such a criminal minds, but not so much any more, as they are getting clever and learning how to break-into databases and harvest any personal information that you have entered, or even phish the information out of you by either tricking you into entering personal information into fake websites or bad webmasters who give out your personal information.

When these people do get your personal information, they will call you, text your cell and even send mail to your home, as an effort to try and fool you into giving them money. If someone calls you, NEVER give them your credit card number over the phone. Be very weary and ask how they got your number and who they are. Be persistant. They don't like it when you raise such questions. NEVER cash any cheques from someone you never even met in person. Turn them in to the bank or police.

Don't let these bastards mark up your virtual fence!