You can become a victim of a scammer not only on the street. With the development of technology, profit hunters have quickly mastered the virtual space. Let's consider what schemes work on the Internet and how you can protect yourself from theft.
Location: ad service
If you decide to buy a product from your hands or sell an item you do not need, be careful - scammers often play the role of buyers or sellers. There is an extremely interested buyer for your product, who is ready to transfer the advance payment to your account and asks you not only for the card number or phone number, but also for the card verification code (three digits on the back, for example, CVV or CVC). This approach should alert you - after all, to transfer money, you only need to know the card number.
If you buy goods from hand, you may be asked for a prepayment and provide all the card details. If you have a fraudster in front of you, then at best you will be left without the money that you sent in advance. At worst, if you were asked for all the card details, you risk being left without funds in the account.
How to prevent?
Be careful when shopping handheld through social media or special sites. Always try to check a potential buyer or seller for reviews. Communities and services usually have a blacklist (of both buyers and sellers) and moderators. Check the seller's profile - often scammers create fake pages with a minimum of information.
Scene: social networks and messengers
Your friend sent you a private message asking you to borrow money or with a strange link. This means only one thing - your friend's account was hacked.
A stranger writes you a private message in which he offers a stable and high income for some simple job. There is no specific information in the message, but there is a link where you supposedly find the details. There is no dream job following such a link - perhaps a computer virus.
Fraudsters often pose as employees of well-known brands and companies from any field. You are promised low interest loans, big discounts, free products, or they say you won a competition. To receive a prize or a discount, nothing is required of you - provide the details of your card, passport, or all at once.
How to prevent?
If your friend sends strange messages via social networks, call him as soon as possible and find out if he really needs help. Or scammers have hacked into his account - and they can deceive someone else. For example, his grandmother!
Links from strangers' posts are not the best way to look for money on the Internet, because free cheese is only in a mousetrap.
If strangers write to you on behalf of a company or brand, it is better to clarify the information on the official website of the company or its page on the social network - large companies rarely hold contests in which you can win without even participating, and they never just ask for your personal data. and even more so card data.
Scene: Email
Letters are sent to your mail with the promise of gifts, money and loans. The scammers try to lure you with anything: they offer a job with a large salary that you were not looking for. They write that you won the car. They send a response to your alleged letter. They just want to "get to know each other better."
The sender's line can contain a person unknown to you (often a foreigner), or a well-known website, payment system, online service or bank. Nothing bad will happen if you just open the letter, but do not follow the links and do not download attachments from the letter - this way you risk infecting your computer with a virus that will allow fraudsters to control it. Moreover, do not enter your card details.
How to prevent?
The mail has a built-in spam filter - some suspicious messages always end up in a special folder. But despite this, always pay attention to the header of the letter, its sender and content. Companies always send mailing lists from the same addresses and rarely make mistakes in letters - but scammers often write with a lot of errors, unreadable characters and misinterpret the name of the company in the address. Do not follow the links from such emails and do not download attachments from them.
Scene: twin site
Fraudsters copy well-known sites using a similar company name and design. For example, you want to know if you have fines in the traffic police or how to get a loan online, but you find yourself on a phishing site, that is, a clone site. If you enter your data on such sites, they will fall into the hands of cybercriminals.
How to prevent?
Always pay attention to the address bar of the browser: a mistake will be made on the clone site. Pay for purchases only through sites with a secure connection and a payment system icon. Carefully study the content of the site - attackers are often inattentive to the content of the site. Bookmark sites that you frequently use so you don't have to type in the address manually - this way you won't mistake the name and get to the site you need.
Scene: your smartphone
Malicious programs can disguise themselves as mobile banks and hide in various applications that you download to your phone.
How to prevent?
Download applications to your phone only in the official store. Pay attention first of all to the developer of the application - the bank itself is indicated in the official banking applications. Read the application description carefully. Do not download third party apps.
Location: ad service
If you decide to buy a product from your hands or sell an item you do not need, be careful - scammers often play the role of buyers or sellers. There is an extremely interested buyer for your product, who is ready to transfer the advance payment to your account and asks you not only for the card number or phone number, but also for the card verification code (three digits on the back, for example, CVV or CVC). This approach should alert you - after all, to transfer money, you only need to know the card number.
If you buy goods from hand, you may be asked for a prepayment and provide all the card details. If you have a fraudster in front of you, then at best you will be left without the money that you sent in advance. At worst, if you were asked for all the card details, you risk being left without funds in the account.
How to prevent?
Be careful when shopping handheld through social media or special sites. Always try to check a potential buyer or seller for reviews. Communities and services usually have a blacklist (of both buyers and sellers) and moderators. Check the seller's profile - often scammers create fake pages with a minimum of information.
Scene: social networks and messengers
Your friend sent you a private message asking you to borrow money or with a strange link. This means only one thing - your friend's account was hacked.
A stranger writes you a private message in which he offers a stable and high income for some simple job. There is no specific information in the message, but there is a link where you supposedly find the details. There is no dream job following such a link - perhaps a computer virus.
Fraudsters often pose as employees of well-known brands and companies from any field. You are promised low interest loans, big discounts, free products, or they say you won a competition. To receive a prize or a discount, nothing is required of you - provide the details of your card, passport, or all at once.
How to prevent?
If your friend sends strange messages via social networks, call him as soon as possible and find out if he really needs help. Or scammers have hacked into his account - and they can deceive someone else. For example, his grandmother!
Links from strangers' posts are not the best way to look for money on the Internet, because free cheese is only in a mousetrap.
If strangers write to you on behalf of a company or brand, it is better to clarify the information on the official website of the company or its page on the social network - large companies rarely hold contests in which you can win without even participating, and they never just ask for your personal data. and even more so card data.
Scene: Email
Letters are sent to your mail with the promise of gifts, money and loans. The scammers try to lure you with anything: they offer a job with a large salary that you were not looking for. They write that you won the car. They send a response to your alleged letter. They just want to "get to know each other better."
The sender's line can contain a person unknown to you (often a foreigner), or a well-known website, payment system, online service or bank. Nothing bad will happen if you just open the letter, but do not follow the links and do not download attachments from the letter - this way you risk infecting your computer with a virus that will allow fraudsters to control it. Moreover, do not enter your card details.
How to prevent?
The mail has a built-in spam filter - some suspicious messages always end up in a special folder. But despite this, always pay attention to the header of the letter, its sender and content. Companies always send mailing lists from the same addresses and rarely make mistakes in letters - but scammers often write with a lot of errors, unreadable characters and misinterpret the name of the company in the address. Do not follow the links from such emails and do not download attachments from them.
Scene: twin site
Fraudsters copy well-known sites using a similar company name and design. For example, you want to know if you have fines in the traffic police or how to get a loan online, but you find yourself on a phishing site, that is, a clone site. If you enter your data on such sites, they will fall into the hands of cybercriminals.
How to prevent?
Always pay attention to the address bar of the browser: a mistake will be made on the clone site. Pay for purchases only through sites with a secure connection and a payment system icon. Carefully study the content of the site - attackers are often inattentive to the content of the site. Bookmark sites that you frequently use so you don't have to type in the address manually - this way you won't mistake the name and get to the site you need.
Scene: your smartphone
Malicious programs can disguise themselves as mobile banks and hide in various applications that you download to your phone.
How to prevent?
Download applications to your phone only in the official store. Pay attention first of all to the developer of the application - the bank itself is indicated in the official banking applications. Read the application description carefully. Do not download third party apps.
