Americans are more likely than any other nationality to be targeted by scammers. Every year in the U.S., one in ten adults fall victim to a scam or fraud according to FTC statistics from 2019. What’s even scarier is that half of all people contacted by a scammer will engage with them and 30% of those will become a victim, resulting in $2.7 billion in losses annually, a large majority of that from older people. Here are some important terms to know so that you can watch for fraud and scams.
Phishing Scams
- Spoofing – Emails and websites made to look like they are from friends or mimic legitimate websites, but in reality belong to scammers.
- Social Engineering – the act of using media and media sites to manipulate people so they give up confidential information or giving them access to personal accounts. Hackers can also manipulate information and images in an attempt to extort the information from a victim. According to Webroot every month around 1.5 million new phishing sites are set up.
- Conversation hijacking – a hacker poses as a legitimate friend, business or customer to build a relationship and they then use that trust to convince the victim to click on a malware link or pass on sensitive information.
- Spear Fishing – Personalized attacks based on researched targeting of one individual. They might know your name, employment, title, email address and other personal info before they contact you.
- Vishing – attacks involving phone calls. These often pose as an investigator, your bank, credit card company or IRS, or will try to pose as a friend or family member who needs financial help. They can also play on the victim’s familiarity with automated phone systems to collect sensitive info like PIN numbers, social security numbers or birthdates.
- Smishing — attacks involving texts that try to send you to a fake website.
- Angler phishing – criminals use social media sites, fake URLs, cloned websites and posts and tweets to trick people into divulging sensitive info or download malware.
- Pharming – the victim finds or is sent to a fake website that appears real in the hope of collecting the user’s personal information.
- Catfishing – Setting up a profile, usually on a dating site, that lies about personal information in order to cause emotional pain, get revenge, or seeking financial gain and fraude. It’s believed that over 53% of online dating profiles contain lies and 1 in 10 free dating profiles are a scam. In there are up to 80 million face Facebook accounts.
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Other Scams
- Charity Scams – There are a lot of people out there creating Go Fund Me pages to make a quick buck off of someone else’s tragedy. Other more legitimate charity sites may only send a small percentage of your donation to the people you want to help. Be sure you fully research charity opportunities before you pay.
- Shopping scams – Online shopping is almost a $5 trillion dollar market which makes it a huge target for scammers. Fake advertising and fake shopping cart sites are designed to con people into buying then collect personal information and charge credit cards which immediately send the money to international accounts. The victim won’t receive the goods they payed for.
- Winner scams – someone claims you have won a prize, but you have to give them your personal information and even bank information to get it. `
- Gift card scams – these became popular in 2018. If anyone tries to convince you that you can pay a bill with gift cards – it’s a scam.
- Money laundering/Overpayment offers – this happens on sites like Ebay and other virtual yard-sale sites. A buyer offers to send a check for more than the amount of the item if you will cash the check and send them back the difference with the item. The check inevitably bounces and you’re out the money and the item.
Software Hack Dangers
- Malware – this includes keyloggers, ransomware, browser spying software, trojan codes to take over your computer system or phone, hijacking your camera and microphone, and software to punch holes in your firewalls so that hackers have full access to your device.
- Malvertising – which is advertising designed to get a user to click and download unwanted content or malware. Adobe PDF reader and Flash update warnings are two popular malvertising attacks. More frequently it’s seen in shopping scams.
- Tracking Cookies – while less malicious than computer software, a hackers ability to trace your browser searches and read your password information is valuable data. Many seemingly regular online links can install an unwanted tracker in your browser, and they can even be installed automatically if you visit an infected page. It’s important to set your privacy settings in each browser you use to limit cookie installation and tracking. VPN browsers can help with this problem.