Here are the worst scams people fall for!
7 – The Nigerian prince
Is there anyone out there who hasn’t received an email from a Nigerian prince?!
It usually goes something like this.
A lawyer from Nigeria writes to you in a super-official tone, informing you that some mega-rich Nigerian
prince has inherited ALL of his family riches after everyone d1ed in a weird accident.
But there’s a twist.
He needs help to get that money out of the country.
In exchange for the victim’s help, he’ll gladly share a part of the money!
Amazingly enough, out of everyone in the world they decided to contact THIS special victim
for help!
Ever notice why the email from the prince is always super long and chock-full of grammatical
errors?
It’s not because the scammers themselves are dumb.
This is actually done on purpose, as the long email filled with spelling errors is a filter
for people with common sense.
Scammers are looking for the small percentage of people that are either so desperate to
want to believe in miracles or simply not smart enough to recognize scams.
Scammers don’t want to actually deal with people with common sense because they simply
waste their time.
This is an advance-fee scam, a fraud that’s one of the most common types of scams out
there that people STILL fall for.
It typically involves promising the victim a significant share of a large sum of money,
in return for a small upfront payment.
If a victim makes the payment, the scammer either invents a series of further fees for
the victim, or simply disappears.
Those unfortunate souls that are willing to “help out” the scammer are usually asked
to provide their banking info for "safekeeping" the funds along with any other identifying
details the victim is willing to provide such as a Social Security number or birth date.
Victims never see their money again, and the con artist also tries their best to empty
their bank accounts and steal their identity.
This modern scam is similar to the Spanish Prisoner scam dating back to the late 18th
century.
In that con, businessmen were contacted by an individual allegedly trying to smuggle
someone connected to a wealthy family out of a prison in Spain.
In exchange for assistance, the scammer promised to share money with the victim in exchange
for a small amount of money to bribe prison guards.
6 – Long Distance buying on Craigslist
Craigslist is pretty much the first place people think of when it comes to weird things
happening.
However, it IS actually a decent website that a lot of people use to find housing, roommates,
or even jobs.
There are probably certain sections that people should just generally avoid, such as the personals.
Anyways, a typical Craigslist scam involving money goes like this.
The victim lists something for sale, for example, a computer for the price of 500 bucks.
A response comes from some dude who’s pretty hyped about it and wants to buy it NOW.
But, there’s just a small twist to that story – that dude isn’t local, but he
really wants it.
He’s more than happy to cover the shipping expenses and offers to send a check over.
But when the check arrives, it’s way over the asking price of both the purchase and
the shipping.
He somehow accidentally sent a check for something like $1500!
Of course, he asks for the money to be sent back, along with his new computer.
Obviously, this is a scam.
People who fall for the scam will find out later know that the check was fake, and now
both the money they had sent along with the computer are gone.
There are other variations of this scam of course, such as getting people to send cash
via western union.
The first big clue that it’s a scam, no matter which website it’s from, is that
the offer is more than you’re asking.
That or there’s a check involved.
The second big clue is that the buyer wants you to ship the item.
Although this IS something that can be legitimate, if you ever decide to go this route, make
sure the payment has completely cleared before sending anything out!
5 – Instagram Money Flip
If you’ve spent even just a few hours on Instagram, then no doubt you’ve probably
came across a few posts showcasing the money flipping scam.
This scam is biggest on Instagram, but it’s present on other social media sites as well.
It pretty much goes like this.
The scammer shows someone who has a bunch of cash in a picture, and is showing off some
sort of lifestyle that’ll inspire the victim.
The profile then tells the victim to text the number in the profile or direct message
them to ask for more info on how to make money.
Once contacted, the scammer will pretty much then tell the victim that if they send them
money, they can flip the money in 24 hours, such as $100 dollars into $1000, $200 into
2000 dollars, and so on.
They’ll give some story of how some cousin of theirs works at some place that can edit
the number in a gift card by adding an extra 0 to the amount.
The classic scam is with prepaid money cards.
They’ll tell the victim to go out & buy a Green Dot Moneypak card and top it up with
the amount of money they want to flip.
They’ll then ask the victim to provide the numbers off the card so that they can access
it and add extra money for the victim.
They’ll usually also tell the victim that in order for them to add money, they’ll
want to take a cut of the profits, something scammers will say just to make everything
sound more legit.
And then bam…..as soon as the victim follows all the instructions, they’ll just block
em and they’re out with the money.
The thing is…..if these guys can just change the numbers on the card, why would they actually
need cash in the first place?
And if they had so much money, why wouldn’t they just use their own?!
4 – The Stranded Traveler
This scam’s especially confusing for some people because the message comes from someone
the victim knows.
The fraud starts when the bad guys hack into a friend or family member’s computer and
mass email, facebook message, or text everyone in their contacts – which can sometimes
be thousands of people, depending on the person.
While the details vary, the problem usually revolves around that person getting mugged,
losing all their credit cards and money.
Of course, they need help flying back home or help paying their hotel bill.
But obviously, none of it is true.
The person who allegedly sent the cry for help has zero idea about it.
What happened is that the hackers planted software on the victim’s computer or phone
that sent the same sob-story email or text to everyone in their address book.
The easiest way to verify if your friend is actually in trouble is to obviously ask them
questions only they know the answer to.
In the off chance that your friend is ACTUALLY in trouble…...wellps, at least they’ll
know that you’re not gonna be scammed anytime soon!
3 – The Account Verification
As one of the first internet cons to surface, this scam seems to have been around forever.
The victim usually gets an email from PayPal, saying that there’s a problem with their
account.
The victim is then encouraged to click the link to fix the problem, and there’s usually
a scare tactic involved.
Most of the time it’s the good ol’ “your account will be suspended” line.
Of course, nothing is wrong with this person’s paypal account – someone is just trying
to phish for sensitive data from the victim.
Phishing is typically carried out by email spoofing and it often directs users to enter
personal information at a fake website which has the exact same look and feel of the legitimate
website.
The email usually targets banking sites, paypal, or any other online payment processors.
The victims are often taken to a spoof site where they’re asked to enter their username
and password.
Usually, you can tell at a quick glance that these emails are fake.
They’re filled with misspellings and are written in the wording of a non-native English
speaker.
The easiest way to find out if you have an issue with any account, is to pull up the
official website in your browser and login there instead.
You’ll quickly find out that 99% of the time, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with
your account!
2 – The Super Hot Girl on Tinder
Ahhhh the good ol’ romance scam.
Remember, if anything seems too good to be true, it’s because 99.99% of the time, it
is.
This trick involves faking some sort of romantic interest towards a victim by gaining their
affection, and then using that goodwill to commit fraud.
Romance scammers tug at the victim’s heart to somehow get them to send money.
It all starts innocently enough, with guys being tricked into thinking they’ve found
a super hot girl who genuinely likes them.
The girl can come from pretty much any place online, from actual legitimate sites such
as Tinder or Instagram, to completely fake sites such as Ashley Madison.
Usually the girl is extremely attractive.
She’s got the whole package: looks, brains, you name it, she’s got it.
However, there’s one thing she doesn’t have – money.
She needs money to get to the first date because, wouldn’t you know it, she lives out of state.
Somehow that first date never happens and she never stops asking for money.
The reality is that this is a con artist who’s stringing along a few dozen guys at the same
time.
The thing is, sometimes there IS a real girl on the other end.
The girls are either professional con artists themselves or working with one.
The scam can come in a whole variety of ways.
Request money from the victim so the girls can visit them.
Send a gift card so the girl can buy something she needs at some shop.
Basically any variation of getting a guy to send money.
The scam can even go so far as extortion!
The girls will build a relationship with a guy, and send nudes to him.
They then will try to get the guy to do the same.
Once they have the pics of the guy, the scammers threaten to send the pics to the guy’s friends
and family, or threaten to post the pics on social media.
Here’s the moral of the story.
Basically it’s always a bad idea to send money to a stranger.
If you’re gonna send d*ck pics, at least don’t put your face in it okay?!
1 – Your computer is infected
This classic scam uses the threat of danger in order to manipulate users into buying unwanted
software.
Scareware is part of a class of malicious software that includes rogue security software,
ransomware and other scam software that tricks users into believing their computer is infected
with a virus.
Although back in the day most of the software were filled with malicious software, now the
software that the victim buys is actually something that’s not malicious at all, although
the victim probably doesn’t need it.
Usually, the story goes like this – the victim is surfing the internet when a pop-up
message appears.
The message claims that their computer might be infected by a virus.
Then, they’re invited to click a link that apparently scans their system for infections.
Surprise, surprise—the scan discovers a virus.
Obviously, it’s not a virus.
The virus is totally fictional but the software will mostly be something that actually works
anyways as pop up ads are just another way for affiliate marketers to try and get people
to download and install legitimate software!
Although it’s truly a malicious attempt, it’s still not exactly the most ethical
way to get someone to buy real software!
Here’s what’s next!