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What is considered scam?
SCAM IN ITS SIMPLEST DEFINITION:
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If you have to pay money to get money,
it's probably a scam. |
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If it is too good to be true, it's probably not true |
Definition of Scams, from Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
A confidence trick,
confidence game, or con
for short is an attempt to intentionally mislead a person (known as the mark) usually with the goal of financial or other gains. The confidence trickster, con man, scam artist or con artist often works with an accomplice called the shill, who tries to encourage the mark by pretending to believe the trickster. In a traditional con, the mark is encouraged to believe that he/she will obtain money dishonestly by cheating a third party. They are stunned to find that due to what appears to be an error in pulling off the scam, he/she is the one who loses money. In more general use, the term con is used for any fraud in which the victim is tricked into losing money by false promises of gain.
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Some confidence tricks exploit the inherent greed and dishonesty of their victims. It has been said by confidence tricksters that it is impossible to con a completely honest man. Often, the mark tries to out-cheat the conmen, only to discover that he/she has been
manipulated into it.
Sometimes conmen rely on naïve individuals who put their confidence in get-rich-quick schemes such as 'too good to be true' investments. It may take years for the wider community to discover that such 'investment' schemes are bogus, and usually it is too late as many people would have lost their life savings by then.
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| Common
forms of scam:
Physical forms where transactions are done in person using schemes such as:
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" Magic Stone & "Expensive" Computer
Chips cheats |
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| Online world where cyber-crimes
were transacted online via: |
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Email Scams |
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Phishing: (Stealing of
Internet Banking Account Information via Fake
Websites) |
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Online Scams on Websites with FAKE
Advertorials |
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| Other means via the use of mobile
phones or cell phones to reach a victim: |
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SMS Scams(on
mobile phones) |
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| What
is the motivation behind a scam?
Through understanding the definition of what a scam is, it's probably not too difficult to figure why people want to come after your money. Since history, human beings have always been the weakest link and will easily succumb to greed. Preying and exploiting on this alone gives rise to quick cash opportunities where one can easily be tricked into believing something amazing but end up parting with his/her hard earned money.
Thus, the wider the reach, the greater chance of it becoming a successful scam and more money will be rolling in from fallen victims.
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| How can one easily fall into a scam trap?
This is due to the ancient art of Social Engineering...
But hang on, what's Social Engineering
then?
Let's study the following equation: What do you think is missing in that box?
| Devious Idea +
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+ Careful Execution |
= Someone Got Conned, Swindled
or Deceived |
Answer:
The meaning of Social Engineering is contained in that box.
There are well-known successful scams such as the advance fee
fraud or often known as the Nigerian
money transfer fraud, Nigerian
scam or 419
scam after the relevant section of the Nigerian Criminal Code that it violates. This is a fraudulent scheme to extract money from investors living in rich countries in Europe, Australia, or North America.
Originally, the schemers contacted mainly heads of companies and church officials. However, the use of e-mail spam and instant messaging for the initial contacts has led to many private citizens being targeted too, as the cost to the scammers for initial contact is much lower.
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| How
can i prevent myself from becoming the next scam
victim?
Commonly done via Social-Engineering through e-mails
A hacker sends out bogus e-mail, or phish
that looks like it's from the billing or security department of a popular Web destination, advising the recipient that his or her credit-card information is needed to clear up a billing or security problem. The recipient is advised to click on a link that typically looks like it might be from that destination. After he or she clicks the link, the hacker can then collect his or her credit-card data.
Phishing attacks use spoofed or harvested e-mail addresses and fraudulent websites to fool respondents into entering personal financial data such as credit card numbers, account user names and passwords. These can then be used for financial or identity theft. Usually, the bogus e-mail looks as if it comes from a bank or payment service, requesting confidential account information for verification. Often, they threaten to discontinue service if the information is not provided.
Sometimes, the phish makes the link look even
more authentic by using a quirk of Internet addressing
that allows for a redirect away from a legitimate
site - if you put an "at" symbol after a legitimate
address, then follow that by another URL, the
browser will send the user to the other URL.
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| Sophisticated e-mail scams are potential disasters for internet commerce
Scams:
As scammers will try to reach out to as many potential victims as possible, they will typically spam and hence, you have to guard your email address and exercise caution when acting on such scam emails.
How to guard your email address?
Treat it the way you treat your telephone number: don't give it away easily, don't publicise in public places like websites or chat rooms. In addition, you can also set up different email addresses for different purposes: use one or two for more public purposes such as subscribing to newsletters or registering at online stores. Also, keep one that you only reveal to family and close friends.
Furthermore, you should always exercise caution when dealing with emails. Malicious actors often send emails in the name of your friends or colleagues. They also try to bait you with convincing stories or juicy contents to fool you into giving information. For example, you may be tricked into opening email attachments that contain viruses. If not, you may be asked to click on links in emails that send you to hacker websites or banking website look-alikes. Be alert at all times and do not succumb to greed. More often than not, what appears too-good-to-be-true is probably out for your money.
Before
Before acting on emails, you can always apply the KRESV test:
K now: Do I know the sender?
R eceived: Have I received email from this sender before?
E xpect: Am I expecting email from this sender?
S ense: Is this email something that I expect from this sender?
V irus scan: What will my anti-virus software say about this email?
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