Fraud Fighters: Michael

Michael, a computer programmer known for his skepticism, received an email congratulating him on winning a free laptop from a company he'd never heard of. The email looked flashy and official, complete with a generic image of a sleek laptop. Intrigued, but cautious, Michael clicked on the link – not the one in the email, but the actual website of the company mentioned.

The company website looked like a poorly designed landing page, with no information about their products or services.

A red flag went up for Michael.

He went back to the email and noticed the sender's address was a string of random letters and numbers, not a legitimate company email.

Smiling slightly, Michael deleted the email. He knew these "free prize" scams were phishing attempts to steal personal information. He'd already fallen victim to a similar scam years ago, and it was a hassle getting a new debit card and monitoring his accounts.

Later that week, he brought up the email scam at his local community center's computer class. He explained how to check sender addresses and website legitimacy, and to be wary of anything that seems "too good to be true." Empowering others with this knowledge was more satisfying than any free laptop could be.

Michael C.
Computer Programmer, Fraud Fighter

Learn about more ways ordinary people have fought fraud here.