On-line scams are out there, and yes, even spiritual people can be drawn into the craziness. The power of these things is that somewhere inside ourselves we want something for nothing. The trap for spiritual people is that we tend to look at the world from a place of love rather than suspicion.
Jaded vs loving.
Just because we look at the world through jaded eyes does not mean we can spot a scam when it comes our way. The predators behind phishing scams count on us being deceived when we receive a message which appears to come from one of our friends. They rely upon credibility through association no matter how far fetched the proposal might be. This overcomes the jaded view of the world many people have. They believe they are too smart to be taken-in by a scam. This is their blind-side. Loving people too have a blind-side. It is believing they are guided and protected by a loving Cosmos to the right decision. In both cases we have more in common than we might otherwise expect.
Read everything carefully.
At first these scams seem amazingly plausible. They are attached to a credible source, they come from our friends, and they offer hope. The scam my beautiful bride and I almost bought involved “grants” from The World Bank. The early steps did not ask for any sensitive information; no bank account or credit card numbers. When we sent a message to our friend asking if this was for real, we got an immediate reply from the friend confirming the offer. We could have paid attention to the poor english used in the pitch, but we didn’t. The next step involved sending money to claim the “free grant.” This is where the trap is triggered. If you have to send money to get a “free grant” be assured it is a scam.
Avoiding becoming jaded.
It would be very simple for a love-based person to become fearful of the world once they are drawn into such a scheme, but please don’t. I imagine your first thought when being presented such an opportunity would be to visualize who you could help. This is a laudable goal. Keep viewing the world this way, but do not fall prey to the predators. Trust your instincts (guidance.) If it is too good to be true, it probably is.