In todays’ modern world, we’re connected 24/7 with the internet and most of our sensitive information is synced one or another way. Scammers may attempt to make use of the internet to steal personal and sensitive information or some sort of trick to snitch money from you. Online frauds/scams are getting more and more sophisticated. Below are some common types of online money transfer frauds/scams:
1. Fake Virus Scams
While surfing online, you often come across warnings saying “Your computer is Infected-Download this tool to clean your computer”. When you end up installing such tools, these tool will monitor everything you do on your computer and also sends some of the very sensitive information to those scammers who have built such tools. Any reputable site will never show such warnings messages. Make sure you be aware with all these pop ups and do not end up installing any tool on your computer.
2. Catfish Scams
Catfish scams take days and days to be executed. Scammers will set up online social media profile using fake names and other people’s profile photos and using such profiles, they message people in a flirty way to establish a fake relationship. They create even a fake love affair that will last for days and suddenly they start asking you for money as they’re in urgent need or even sometimes they start to blackmail you in multiple ways. As soon as you pay them, they simply deactivate the fake profile and you never hear back from them ever. To protect yourself from such scams, do not add such fake profiles in your social media networks.
3. Room/Rent Sharing Scams
Often when you put out a request of either subleasing your apartment or sharing your apartment, you would be contacted by scammers using fake social media profiles or email IDs asking for all sorts of information about your apartment, neighborhood, transportation services, amenities to sound convincing. Then they ask the rent amount and your bank account details to send you money. Sometimes they even send you extra money and ask you to repay the extra money they paid accidently. When you pay them back, they cancel the initial transfer and you would end up losing your own money to the person whom you never met in your life. Most often, students fall prey to such traps and international students are advised to verify information while booking student housing in London and other famous cities. To stay away from such scams, book rented houses through trusted accommodation providers and refrain from sending money before the contract is finalized.
4. Lottery Scams
Once a while you receive an email saying you have won a lottery and ask you to send your personal information and small amount of payment in order to claim the lottery amount you have won. Most of the time, we don’t fall for such scams but these emails look like they’re from governmental agencies as scammers fake the domain from which the email has come from which makes it look legitimate. Be aware if you never played for a lottery and have received such emails.
5. Free Gift Card Scams
Multiple websites offer free gift cards if you agree to participate in their survey questionnaires. In those questionnaires, you end up providing them your personal information either throughout the survey or at the end of the survey all at once to claim the gift card. Then all the information you provided would be sold to other scammers and that becomes a serious question of identity threat in future.
6. Job Offer Scams
Job offer emails and ads are being targeted to those who are either unemployed or not happy with their current jobs. Such emails and ads offer large amount of salary just by working from home. These emails and ads look legitimate as they send emails from the real domain and show ads on multiple famous websites. They might pay you as well for short period of time but later on they sell your personal and banking information.
7. Apple Product Scams
Apple products are pretty popular but because of their high price point, many people try to search for offers and deals online. Many fake social media accounts are out there on internet which circulated fake offers saying “Get a brand new iPhone in a $1” & when you provide them your bank/debit card/credit card details for paying $1, they would actually steal a lot more money from you using those payment details.
8. Long-lost Relative Scams
You get a call from a random person saying your long-lost relative has just passed away and you are one of the few persons on his will. Scammers do a proper research through your social media account before making this move to sound extra convincing. They ask you to provide your bank details by saying they would deposit the money left by that relative but instead they drain your account very fast before you actually come to know about the scam.
9. Online Pharmacy Website Scams
There are a handful of fake website claiming that they deliver drugs to your home at cheaper rate compared to other stores and websites but instead of delivering anything, they would just take your payment details and charge heavily on them. Such scammers spend hand full of time in building such website so it looks legitimate but actually they’re not. Make sure you only use website built on secured domain to shop anything online. Also, sometimes such scammers send you an offer link on your email but make sure you don’t open any suspicious links directly from your email.
10. iTunes, Netflix, PayPal Scams
You receive fake emails which looks like genuine emails with “Your service has expired” or “Your account is locked” as subject lines to grab your attention. Then they ask you to provide your personal information including your payment details through a link provided in the email. Be sure that such companies would never ask for your personal information ever via email. Do not attempt to click any of these links inside this fake emails. If it looks legitimate then before responding to such emails, contact the company directly to confirm if they have sent this email or not.
Google Source: Beware of these 10 Online Frauds/Scams
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