Scams
Recently, I’ve found myself doing a lot of reading on /r/Scams and felt like writing a bit of something about scams here. There are all kinds of different scams to look out for out there and I hope I can at least help someone from getting burned.
The amount of money lost every year to con artists is staggering. Reports range from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars swindled from the American public. Everyone is at risk of getting conned and technology is making it easier for the crooks.
Common Scams
There are way too many scams out there to try to list them all, but there are a lot of common scams people fall prey to. These frauds may come in the form of email, a phone call, a website, on social media, in person, or even via old fashion post.
Multi-Level Marketing
Multi-level marketing, or MLM, is a system for selling goods or services through a network of distributors. MLMs are also commonly called referral marketing or network marketing. Most people who participate in MLM will lose money (and friends!) and the only people who profit are the ones who run it.
Blackmail
There are a number of different blackmail scams going around via email, post, phone, and social media. You can’t buy silence, you can only rent it.
Email – You may receive an email stating someone has a recording of you, know your password, or even planted a bomb and requests payment to prevent the bad thing from happening. These emails are usually very badly written because they are run through a text rewriting tool to bypass spam filters. These are all sent out en masse and the scammer knows nothing about you.
Jail Bait – Some woman sends you a friend invite or you match on a dating service and not long after things get a little hot and heavy. Soon you’re told she’s underage and they want cash to keep them from going to the police. There was no girl . . .
Skype Sex – Similar to jail bait, but instead they may have gotten pictures or video of you doing something naughty. They threaten to share what they have with your friends and family or post it to an adult website. There’s really nothing you can do because even if you pay, they’ll come back wanting more money. The only thing you can do is let your friends and family know you’ve been scammed and to ignore friend requests from people the don’t know. Make sure all your social media privacy settings are locked down or even deactivate your accounts.
Parcel Mule
What could be better than earning money from home by receiving packages, slapping a new label on them, and shipping them back out? In this case you’re acting as a middleman in a scam. The goods you receive are being bought with stolen money and you’d be helping transport stolen goods.
Advanced Fee
Also known as the 419 scam or Nigerian prince scam, the advanced fee scam is one of the oldest around. Someone contacts you offering a large sum of money in exchange for a small up front payment. If the victim sends them anything, more requests for money may be made if the fraudster doesn’t simply disappear.
Fake Payment
Fake payment scams can come in many different ways. You might receive a check in the mail, an email from a payment service, or someone simply wants to buy an item you have listed for sale.
Fake Check – You receive a very real looking check for any number of reasons (applied for a job or someone wants to buy something from you) but expects a portion of the funds back (they wrote the check wrong or to pay a delivery guy). You deposit the check and it appears to clear, but long after you sent them money your bank marks the check as fake and take the money back.
Paypal – You receive an unsolicited payment on Paypal and the sender contacts you to get the money back saying it was totally a mistake. You check and find the money really is in your account. If it really was a mistake it is on them to contact Paypal to get the transaction corrected, but in reality the money came from a fraudulent transaction and when it’s found out, it will be removed from your account.
Credit Debt – Someone offers to help you pay off some debt. Everything goes through and once the payment goes through they ask you to send them money or purchase something for you. Once you do, they reverse their transaction.
Fake Retailer
It is so easy to create real-looking shopping sites nowadays that scammers have it down to a science. As soon as one is found and taken offline, a new one is up to replace it. These sites offer extremely good deals on popular products. These sites may be simple fraud where they take your money and then disappear, while others may drop ship cheap knock-off products.
Phone Scams
Warrant/Tax/Utility – Most commonly you may receive a call from someone claiming to be in the FBI or local police who will help sweep some transgression under the rug for a fee. Sometimes they may claim to be a utility provider who states your service will be shut off if you don’t pay immediately. Or they may even claim you owe taxes and must pay them immediately.
Tech support – Someone calls claiming to be from Microsoft or your ISP and tells you there’s a virus on your computer. There is no virus! They walk you through some things and use scare tactics to convince you it’s true. Then they request access to your computer to fix it. Once they’re on your computer they may simply request money for labor and software. They may also steal sensitive data or even install their own malware.
Relatives – You may receive a call from someone on behalf of a relative or even claiming to be a family member. They’ll state they need money because of an emergency like they’re in custody, there’s been a car accident, or even that they’ve been kidnapped.
Credit Cards – Someone may call you claiming to be from your credit card company. These scams can can vary widely depending on what they’re after. The caller may simply pretend there is fraud and need you to confirm your credit card details allowing them to make fraudulent transactions, or may even try to get you to give them a confirmation number that allows them direct access to your account.
Phishing
No one is safe from phishing attacks. They usually come in as real-looking emails about a service you use and normally contain some scare tactic about an account lock-out or fraudulent activity. Sometimes they may even come through text messages. There will be a link to follow to log in so you can fix the situation. The catch is that the login page you are directed to is fake and allows the phishers to capture your account details and gain access.
Money Flipping
This scam usually occurs on social media. Someone claims they have a secret way to turn a small amount of cash into a large sum. They may have flashy pictures of people with lot of money and even get comments from others thanking them for their cash. In reality, they’ll just take your money and run.
Spotting a Scam
A lot of scams may seem obvious but for a lot of people it’s not so easy to tell. Depending on how the scam is presented there are a lot of common red flags to watch out for.
“If it’s too good to be true, then it probably is.”
Be suspicious of people or situations that offer a large benefit for very little in return.
Common
There are a lot of red flags that are common among all scams. If they’re offering you something that sounds too good to be true then it probably is. Many times they will try to use scare tactics to get you nervous or they’ll rush you so you don’t have time to think about it.
Online
Online scams can be spotted through a number of different methods. Some are easier for scammers to mask than others. It is extremely important to be vigilant on the internet.
Always check your address bar. If the site address doesn’t match what you expect, don’t trust it. Make sure you’re using a secure connection, usually noted with a lock icon. If a connection is not secure your browser may even notify you.
Always verify the email address and name match. Companies tend to only send emails from a few common addresses. Scammers will try to make their email address appear to be legitimate but examining the sender address may give them away.
Only shop at well known online retailers. If you need to shop at a new online retailer do some research. A simple web search for reviews of the site may give it away.
Phone
A few of the most common red flags of phone scammers are requests for sensitive information. They may request you verify your account numbers or request some form of payment.
Avoid Getting Scammed
Never give out sensitive information or account details to any unsolicited contact. Your bank doesn’t need to know your credit card number. No company will ever ask for your username and password over the phone, email, or text.
Always verify contact information independently. Many times the number you’re called from or asked to call doesn’t match what’s on your bill or online.
Never take transactions off selling service. If someone wants you to use a different payment service than is offered through a website like eBay, you lose the protections they offer. Money services like Western Union and MoneyGram offer no protections, once the money is sent, it is gone.
Avoid cold calls/emails. Legitimate companies will not call or email you unsolicited offering you services. Even if the offer is something you would be interested in you should be wary of anyone you did not initiate contact with.
Legitimate companies will not ask you to pay with gift cards or money services. Always use a credit (not debit) card when you are wary of a transaction because they offer much better protections against fraud.
When in doubt, Google it! The internet is a really good way to verify something is legitimate. A simple search like “Is _____ a scam” or “______ review” might help save you time, money, and troubles.
