How to Avoid Online and Email Scams

After more than 10 years in the skin care beauty industry I've had my fair share of (attempted) cons and scams, such as:

1) False trademark companies telling me my trademark has ended and I need to pay up.

Scam trademark letter

2) Bridal scam emails where some supposed 'groom' wants to make a booking on behalf of the bridal party for hours worth of beauty services and pay by check.  Usually they pay too much and want to be reimbursed before their false check has cleared.  What made me think this was unusual (and thus googled scams of this sort) is the man listing the types of services he wanted plus how long they take.  Very few men I know, know such details including my husband - and I'm a beauty technician.

3) Emails supposedly on behalf of Kevin Harrington (the first US Shark Tank) wanting to interview me regarding a media campaign they're running... but the company is As Seen On TV - a home shopping channel.  I don't ship internationally and cannot see what use I am to them or them to me.

4) Bogus invoices from companies I've never dealt with.

5) Bogus product enquiries (see below image).  At first glance this email seems harmless.  They're simply asking questions about minimum order, delivery time, payment terms and warranty (all information that is available on our site), and if they checked our site they know I'm no a sir and JOLI don't delivery to the US.  Note: Dr Dean's email address is Wilson Stevens at hotmail.com; the To: section is left blank which indicates multiple recipients.  Upon further investigation I could find no record of Dr Nicolas Dean, of the address given or of the company Metrolinks.

email scam from Dr Nicolas Dean

Research anything you think maybe a scam and don't trust all things that come to you via email or in the mail.  According to one source 45,511 people were scammed in Australia in 2016 with a loss of 9.2 million dollars.  That is far too many people being too trusting and far too many companies getting away with theft.  Even if it seems legit, research, look for feedback and reviews on companies, check and recheck emails and letters and if in doubt ask someone.

How about you?  What do you do to protect yourself from scams?  Have you been scammed?  Share your story with us and comment below.