5 Top Tips to Identify Scams
Identifying fraud is getting trickier by the day. Scams and frauds are coming cleverly camouflaged. With sophisticated technology at their disposal, fraudsters are able to trick people more effortlessly. They are also tasting more success after making their scams focused.
Scams are now targeting specific groups in our society. The vulnerable cross-section of the society is threatened with a death-threat scam. Loan defaulters are enticed with foreclosure scams. The student community is duped by phishing frauds.
It seems to be part of their new game plan to target only those who are most likely to fall victim to their scams. Since the scam would appeal to the targeted individuals, they may be reluctant to question its authenticity. This prevents word about the scam from spreading around.
But, enough said, about fraudsters and their guile. Here go, the five top tips that will reveal any and all of their scams:
- Take time before committing anything on an offer. If you are asked to respond immediately to an impossible offer, then take it as an indication that the individual/company is pressurizing and counting on you to make a hasty decision. Well, Don’t!
- Discuss the offer with friends. They might be aware of the offer being a scam. If that is not the case, then, being unaffected, they might at least be able to read between the lines better.
- Search for the company, the individuals or the offer on the internet. If it is a scam, chances are you will find all about it online.
- If the offer is from a popular company, then confirm the offer with them through independent means. Do not use phone numbers/links/addresses that came with the offer for this purpose.
- Use an analogy described in a previous post: Before revealing any personal information to an online request, think whether you would reveal the same to a stranger you met on the street. There is no reason to treat an online request differently.
The proliferation of scams on the internet commonly leads us to view even genuine offers with suspicion. But straining any offer you get, whether online or offline, through these tips will help you to separate the genuine offer from the scam.
Related posts:
- Prevent Scam: Use the Man on the Street rule!
- Who are the people most vulnerable to scams? Surprisingly, even you could make the cut…
- Buying through Online Auctions? Be aware of the frauds you are exposed to!
- Fraud Internet Sites Swindling Consumers
- LifeLock Identity Theft Protection program under the scanner
March 28th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Great tips, i found all information i was looking for, i will use some of them.
October 18th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I was approached by “Michael Stasse” of Wingas Petroleum to receive cashiers checks to cash and send via Western Union earning 10% as a commission. It sounds very much like the same scam perpetrated by Orchard Vale Trust…please advise.
October 19th, 2008 at 2:55 am
@ stronghold crusader extreme…
Thanks for dropping by and taking the time out to leave a comment!
Best Wishes!
October 19th, 2008 at 2:59 am
@ Jerry Walter…
It has SCAM written all over it.
Don’t waste your time on these people!
Best Wishes!
November 4th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
I was approached by two guys who was emailing me on my space. Both started out by talking about being friends. They wanted to know all about me. Then they both on different occasions said they loved me and wanted to spend their lives with me.
I let them keep going.
Then within 2 days, they both on separate occassions claimed to need money staing that they had money in their bank account but were out of the country. They wanted to have someone send me a check on their behalf, wanting me to cash it then wire them money in whatever country they are in.
I refused them both thinking it sounded like a scam.
One of them even gave me banking info to get acces to his account when I called a certain phone #. I told both of them I was broke and had no money. The first one I haven’t heard from since.. The second one I turned down an hour ago and he disappeared out of the chat whwere we are.
January 20th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
yes its called the nigerian scam deal? no wonder the united states is broke?
best thing is going to federal burue of investigation…
January 21st, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I have been talking to this girl that I met on Tagged, she seems very nice and we have talking for a week.
She told me that she is from Georgia, but when her father passed away she moved to Nigeria with her mother, because her fathers family didnt like her mother because she is from nigeria, she says that she has been there for 3 yrs and cannot get a job there and wants to come back to the United stated, but she would like me to pay for her plane ticket and passport.
I’m not sure if I want to do this for her, because, when I offered to pay and send to the airport, she said that it would not work, because of scams at the airport and that her friend and her new husband, who now live in england had the same problem.
there is a longer storie to it and I have been investigating the whole thing and everything she has told me so far is true, but there is some cliches to some of what she and her mother say, like being good christians, but they go to a catholic church and getting mad when I wonder if I do send money, if she would make it here and wanting to send the money under her mothers brother name, which, he is on a top list of people not to send money too
she says she has no id, because she is not a citizen of that country and they wont let her receive that money in her name. Any suggestions for me…
I will play along and figure, after a month or so, she will probably dissappear if she does not get what she wants
February 15th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
[...] more information on 5 Top Tips to Identify Scams and How to spot a Nigerian Email Scam! please visit our [...]
February 17th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Dear Allen, its a scam for sure, dont trust those people.. they will say anything and everything, to make you believe and pay money, DON’T TRUST!!!!
Its a fraud for sure. Nigeria, England its where they come from…
Save your money and time….THey are looking for a kind people like you who has a good heart, and take advantage of you.
Delete that letters from her,. call local Police Dept,. they will tell you the same thing, they are all after those scammers….
Hope my information will help you to deal with this situation
Good Luck
K
February 17th, 2009 at 11:35 am
SCAM!!!! SCAM!!!! SCAM!!!!
DON’T TRUSH!!!
You will lose your money….
February 17th, 2009 at 11:35 am
SCAM!!!! SCAM!!!! SCAM!!!!
DON’T TRUST!!!
You will lose your money….
February 20th, 2009 at 5:07 am
[...] more information on 5 Top Tips to Identify Scams and How to spot a Nigerian Email Scam! please visit our [...]
February 20th, 2009 at 8:25 am
I have received a note or certification by federal ministry of finance / foreign exchange control department sign by DENIS EDEH is it true or not they have send me a certification God Bless
Ramil Collados
March 7th, 2009 at 11:22 pm
[...] more information on 5 Top Tips to Identify Scams and How to spot a Nigerian Email Scam! please visit our [...]