Scams online are scams. Individuals do that intending to take your money or data. However, some scams can hurt you badly, and it is not easy to recover from them financially and emotionally.
Identity theft
Individuals who manage to use your data for their good can make your life a misery and a dark place to live in it. Why?
Thieves can open new accounts with your name, using social security number, get loans, buy things, pretend to be you.
It takes time to prove to authorities that you do not have anything in common with these bad guys.
What do you need thieves to take from you for making things up?
Usually, your data like name, credit card numbers, social security number, driver license, data of birth, bank account number help for crooks, and gangs to harm your livelihood and reputation.
How can this data be reached?
Most people do not shred documents after reading them. Crooks can access data from computers using email scams. People use their passwords, PIN, or electronic signatures for access, and not recognizing that email is fake, they can freely give their data to scammers.
What is damaging that victims do not know about the theft? They can learn about that after some time when somebody applied for a loan, took money from the account, or bought expensive things using stolen card numbers.
Usually, thieves use malicious software, which can be easily achievable for everybody who wants it. For example, a program called Zeus created to infect computers is a hacker-friendly.
This program can steal credit card information, valuable documents. Not so much fun, isn’t it?
Consequences
You can recover from identity theft, but it cost emotional health, money. It takes time to persuade authorities that you are you, establish new credit lines, and move on.
How to protect yourselves?
- Shred documents that you do not keep
- Use websites shopping online that have reputation and protection measures
- Do not write passwords everywhere
- Use password managers. You need to pay for that, but it is nothing with peace of mind.
- Do not brag about your dangerous and expensive purchases on social media because of attracting bad guys.
One story that happened a few weeks ago is about Hushpuppi, who, with other accomplices, took financial data from individuals and companies. He did more bad things, but without data, he could not launder so many millions to his and other gang accounts.
Romance scams
This type of scams is financially and emotionally harmful to victims.
Overall, it is not difficult to pretend to be somebody on the Internet. Men and women who know how to press on weak spots of potential targets can take thousands of dollars or euros.
Overall it is annoying when somebody poses with the army uniform and pretends to be in service. When a couple decides to meet, usually he or she creates obstacles that interfere with the victim’s wishes to see the desired object.
Crooks create stories about stolen luggage, lost tickets, provide fake documents with the logos of UNICEF, asking for monetary help.
Emotionally not stable people want to believe that now they got the best life chance and cannot let it go away.
Sadly, victims do not know about individuals who hide in dark corners of the Internet. Big fish usually does not have time for a constant chat.
The potential victim does not imagine that usually, teenagers do this work, luring naive and hungry for human connection targets.
I know many couples who met each other on the Internet. Here is one big difference between online dating scams and dating online to meet somewhere live.
How to avoid online dating scams and keep money in your pocket?
There is no reason to avoid dating on the Internet. However, if you decided to meet somebody online and want to take it seriously, do not give any data about yourself.
Besides keeping your financial situation, exact address, family names are useful to avoid stalking if something goes wrong.
What can be wrong?
The Internet is a place where plenty of space for everybody. You do not know who hides on the other side of the screen. People can use fake pictures and pretend to be somebody else.
Of course, gender and appearance are a must to know because of the possible confusion when you imagine your object is thin, and you met an overweight person. It is nothing wrong about that, but tastes are different, and you trust a description of what the individual posted online.
He or she does not need to know in which area of the city you live, that kind of car you have.
If you will connect and want to take things further, it has opted for you. However, common sense is a valuable tool in this situation.
Meeting in the public place, telling your family or friends where do you go, it is simple protection that does not cost anything.
Making money online scams
These types of scams are popular because of the necessity for everybody to make a living. Plenty of people hesitate to believe that money does not fall from the sky.
Somehow, deep inside, they hope that maybe he or she will be a special one and will get a successful ticket to prosperity.
Yes, tickets are, and usually, you do not need to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for lessons on how to make money online.
However, scammers are smart, and they know human psychology. They target weakest groups such as students with loans, moms at home, or retired people.
Overall, everybody can be a target. Many years ago, I wanted to learn about online business. I paid ten hundreds of dollars through Paypal for one guy from the Warrior Forum.
Thankfully, I reacted fast when I saw plenty of scamming websites that come together with his so-called invitation. Paypal returned my money, but who knows if I did wait longer?
Wrapping up
For me, these types of scams are worst.
Besides, there are
- Bank loan scams
- Credit card scams
- Greeting cards scams
- Travel scams
- Threat emails with the purpose to expose you
- Social media scams when somebody pretends to be you
- Lottery scams
You see that there is no shortage of scams of fooling people and taking advantage of them. Using a commons sense, not rushing without checking facts and feedback, helps to avoid unnecessary headaches and monetary loss.
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