3 Most Common Online Scams in 2021. What You Need To Know
Cyber scams are estimated to be a $6 Trillion a year problem and will be over $10 Trillion by 2025, according to cybersecurity ventures.
After conducting a short survey of 4,000 people via CyberSafe, we found over 95% of the audience said they had received either a text, email or phone scam attempt in the last 12 months. Yesterday I received a robot phone call from the “government” saying I owed them $1200. This was the motivation behind writing this article.
In this article, we’ll cover What are scams & how do we avoid them?
Online Scams are:
“a fraudulent invitation, request, notification or offer, designed to obtain someone’s personal information or money or otherwise obtain a financial benefit by deceptive means.”
Scams involve fake websites that suggest users click on a link. They often involve money orders or credit cards and identity theft but are the most common scams so we can know what to look out for?
The 3 Most Common Online Scams
Phishing is the name given to scams that focus on getting your personal details, with the end goal of being able to impersonate you online, usually to make money. The less personal information you share online publicly, the more you are protected from these sorts of scams, as they often rely on piecing together enough information to seem genuine. Phishing usually comes in the form of Calls, Texts or Emails.
Text Phishing
Have you ever received a text message that says something like, “Congratulations! you just won $1 million dollars!”?. According to Phishing activity trends, these types of texts have doubled in the last year alone, and nearly 95% of people who own a phone have received a message like this.
What to do?
The best thing you can do when receiving these messages is not replying. If you do reply, your details go onto a secondary data list which will continue to text and sell your details to other hackers. When you text back, whether you like it or not, you’re giving the hackers more information and ammo to use against you, like your phone number, name and showing gullible behaviour.
Email Phishing
Email scams have been the most popular way to gain access to another person’s computer. A link to a website can automatically download malware or suggests a “security check” by typing numbers that actually give remote access to a scammer.
How to spot a scam email
- Scam emails often have spelling or grammatical errors. This is by design to find and secure oblivious and gullible email recipients.
- Scam emails often provide clickable links with prompts for the recipients to click on and interact with, like the one mentioned above.
How to counter scam emails
- Disable all email notifications from all social media sites: this way, you’ll be able to identify any future social media related emails as hacks
- Only check notifications from the official social media apps themselves
- If you do receive an email with a link attached, hover over it to make sure the website is spelt correctly. If in doubt, copy and paste the link into Google to double-check.
Scam Calls
If you have owned a phone for more than six months, chances are you have received a scam call. Scammers will try to claim to be apart from the government or debt collectors. They urgently need to contact you about tax or bills which, if not paid, will land you in deep trouble. They try to create urgency and fear. By invoking emotion, a lot of us don’t think clearly.
My own PA, who now works at cyber safe, scammed thousands of dollars years before working with me. She received a call saying her tax bill was never paid. They asked her for his email & sent a very real looking invoice – which she paid.
And it’s not just individuals. Banks and even governments get scammed on a regular basis. According to Market Watch, 1/10 Americans are scammed per year.
How to Spot a Scam call
- Calls often come from unknown numbers.
- When you pick it up, the dial tone often takes 5 seconds for the caller to start speaking. This is their operating system transferring the pick up to an available scam-caller within their organisation.
- Often English as a second language.
- They often start by asking you to identify yourself as they usually do not have information about you.
How to counter scam calls
1. Make sure to ask upfront what the call is in regards to and what department/organisation they are from.
2. Search the organisation online while on the call and match the incoming phone to what is listed on the actual website. If it is a real and trustworthy organisation, proceed to contact them with the number listed on their website (not the number that was given to you from the original callers).
3. Confirm the identity of your original caller and whether or not the claims made about you are legitimate.
Online scams are not going away and are predicted to double over the next five years. They continue because they make money. The best thing we can all do is understand the size & popularity of these types of scams and know the basics of how to both protect our online reputation and keep safe online.
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