Four Convincing Scams To Watch Out For

As technology advances, so do the tactics employed by online scammers to deceive unsuspecting internet users. In this article, we uncover some of the most sophisticated and convincing scams that have emerged in recent times. Our goal is to provide you with insights into these fraudulent schemes, empowering you with knowledge to protect yourself against cybercriminals. By staying informed and vigilant, we can collectively strive towards a future free from fraud.

Fake appeals for help

Silver alert!’ says a post on your local Facebook page. An elderly man with dementia has gone missing – you’re asked to keep an eye out for him and also share the post more widely. Most of us wouldn’t think twice about sharing something like this, as it feels like a really helpful and useful thing to do, but, sadly, it often isn’t. There’s been a spate of viral fake posts in community pages worldwide about missing children or elderly people, plus bizarre community ‘warnings’ such as there being a rattlesnake on the loose. We know they’re fake because you can find near-identical posts in community pages all over the world, simply with the location changed Comments are invariably turned off on the posts to avoid people pointing out the inconsistencies. The wording can also be a bit odd (‘Flood your feeds!’) and they are often posted by people with new accounts who have very few Facebook friends.What’s the scam? Well, after the post has gained a large number of likes, the contents are edited into something completely different, such as a straightforward investment scam. The large number of likes and shares that stay on the post will then lend credibility to the fraud.This despicable scam relies on responsible citizens liking and sharing posts in an attempt to help – which they do, in large numbers.

What you can do? To avoid perpetuating a scam or unwittingly participating in stalking or harassment, you’re best off only sharing official posts, such as those posted by a police force account or the Missing People charity.Police warns that you should never like or share a post that has the comments turned off.

Beware pig butchering

This horrible hybrid of romance and investment scams called ‘pig butchering’ by scammers. That's because fraudsters ‘fatten up’ the victim with loving words before executing the investment part of the scam. It begins as a dating scam, with the scammer and victim typically meeting on a dating site and the victim being ‘love-bombed’ over a period of weeks by someone who appears to take a great interest in their life. The scammer will often encourage their victim to move from the dating platform to a private messaging service, thus removing them from the protections of the dating site.When the victim is sufficiently groomed, the scammer claims they’ve been having success investing – typically in property or cryptocurrency – and they offer to invest some of the victim’s money. If the victim consents, they’re sometimes shown a crypto trading platform controlled by the scammers, and encouraged to sign up and begin depositing funds.What you can do?When you’re dating online, one of the biggest red flags is ‘love-bombing’, where the scammer swiftly declares their love for you and bombards you with kindness and affection

PayPal Scams

Most of us have received fake emails claiming to be from PayPal. But what about scam emails being generated from a genuine PayPal address? That could trip up many of us, and it’s frighteningly easy to do – we replicated it easily.The scam starts with you getting a ‘money request’ from a genuine PayPal email address – [email protected]. This might seem above board, but scammers are exploiting PayPal’s service to send out fake payment requests, often for high-value items, or posing as HMRC to demand ‘overdue’ tax payments. The latest email states: ‘HMRC Tax Payment Overdue. Please send a balance of [£] within 48 hours to avoid a warrant being issued for your arrest or call [phone number]’. In other versions of the scam, the fake invoice states the victim’s PayPal account has been compromised and urges them to call a fake fraud hotline.If you call the phone number, you’ll be connected directly to the scammers, who then trick their victims into compromising their own PayPal account and personal details. We tested the money request function and found we could send a request for a payment to an email address with no associated PayPal account. We could even send requests to 20 different emails in one go. Our request claimed to be from HMRC and threatened the recipient with arrest if they didn’t pay. We were then able to pay the invoice without creating a PayPal account and without encountering any on-screen fraud warnings. What you can do?Don’t pay PayPal invoices you don’t recognize, and don’t call phone numbers in those invoices.

Fake app alert

Downloading apps from the Apple App Store or Google Play, you’d probably assume that these stores are safe places to be, and that the apps they stock can be trusted.Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case. The stores do screen apps before they upload them, but that doesn’t stop a few malicious ones slipping through the net. These can install malware on your phone, steal your data and perpetuate scams.Last year, online security firm Praedo discovered a so-called security app on Google Play. Calling itself 2FA Authenticator, it actually stole users’ banking information – and had been installed more than 10,000 times before it was discovered. What you can do?When installing an app, click on the developer’s name and check what other apps it’s made to see if these seem legitimate. See if there’s a privacy policy – legitimate apps will always have one – and read the section on data collection if you can.