If you regularly participate on public forums you will eventually have someone try and scam you.
I recently received this private message from Dominika:
"how are you i want to share important discussion with you write me message or send me your email for more discussion (dominikaenos@hotmail.com) what language you speak? i wait for your message through my emai"
Things to look for:
- Often scammers have brand new accounts, and often have never posted, or posted a few times. In this case, the scammers account was less than 1 hour old, and has zero posts. Tick.
- They supply a message which is "bait". You can tell bait messages because they contain no actual facts (such as what the problem is, what company they represent, etc). Sometimes they include a sob story. It may include a link to something external. Tick.
- They use a free email address. Tick.
- They try to get you to start communicating via another a different method. They do this so that they can not be observed by moderators. They can't be cut off (once they have you on the hook). Tick.
- They use a profile photo of an attrative person (not actually them of course). No tick.
If you get a private message which scores 4 out of 5 on this scale - ignore it. Don't reply.