Looking for the easiest ways to spot online scams? Here w bring you 5 clues to help you spot online scams. These are signs or Red flags indicating that you are dealing with scammers online.
No one is safe from the scammers who are rampant on the Internet. Whatever your profile ( player, investor in crypto-currencies, or simple online buyer ), you have certainly been confronted at least once with a more or less sophisticated scheme intended to get you out of money.
Fortunately, some way can put you in the ear. Today, let’s take a look at the five most common techniques cyber scammers use and learn how to spot the danger before it’s too late.
5 Ways to spot online scams
1. The carrot and the stick
Greed or fear are usually the favorite weapons of fraudsters. In the first case, they promise mountains and wonders to their victim (for example, large government payments or free cryptocurrency ).Â
In the second case, they resort to intimidation (such as threatening to send a video of the victim watching porn to all their contacts or undermining the reputation of their company’s website ).
In both cases, the goal of cybercriminals is to short-circuit the victim’s ability to react rationally. If, after reading such an email, you feel like doing exactly what the sender asks (follow a link, send money, call a number, etc.), take this as a signal to alarm. Take a deep breath and read the message again. More often than not, you’ll see it for what it is: a bluff.
2. The countdown
While emotionally charged situations can lead to loss of critical thinking, the sense of urgency only compounds the problem. And fraudsters know how to take advantage of this situation by setting tight deadlines. When a message says you only have a few days, hours, or even minutes to claim a prize or purchase a highly coveted item before it sells out, it’s likely a scam.
3. A hobbyist’s design
Another distinctive sign is the presence of gross errors in the message. These may include intentional misspellings or the substitution of letters with similar-looking digits, or optical equivalents of other alphabets in order to fool spam filters. In some cases, the sender may be illiterate, something not uncommon among scammers and not found among employees of respectable organizations.
Whatever the reason for these typos, the promises of “0ne мilIion d0llars” undoubtedly indicate that there is danger.
4. A search in the database
When a potential victim visits a fraudulent website from an email or chats message, scammers usually try to trick them into performing a series of simple tasks. This can be answering a short survey or selecting a number of boxes that are supposed to contain prizes. The victim often sees some sort of animation that purports to prove that there has been a search in a database (for their laureate status, for example) or is asked to fill out a form. Sometimes they may be asked to read (fake) reviews or comments from ‘past winners.’ We’ve recently seen chats with a bot impersonating a lawyer, consultant, or tech support agent.
Whatever the nature of the process, the end is simple and clear: to make the person invest a little time and effort to stay on the page because the more they feel invested, the less likely they are to close the page. When demand for payment arises, which is sure to happen, feel like a website promising you a large sum of money is trying to save time? Beware!
5. Minimal fees
After spearing a victim, another very widely used technique is to ask them for a small sum of money, a wire transfer for card verification purposes, or a payment for registration in a database. Without this amount, insist the crooks, it is impossible to receive the promised reward.
The amount requested is usually very small and negligible compared to the incredible riches that are promised to you. It can even come with a money-back guarantee at a later date. This sum is the first thing that is stolen, of course. There will be no prizes, only the likelihood of losing even more money due to giving your bank details to the scammers.
An endless circle
Cybercriminals are never short of new ways to abuse your trust and weaknesses. Just pay attention to these five red flags to avoid falling prey to most internet scams. We will, of course, continue to keep you informed of the best ways to protect yourself (and your data and money) from intruders.