Fraud on the Internet is gaining momentum. As money transactions and electronic stores increase, the number of ways to illegally steal money rises proportionally. Deception can be different: it can be very cunning (using various advanced schemes and programs) and very superficial. Speaking of the second type, here is an example. Suppose you conducted a transaction on some unscrupulous cryptocurrency exchange, and it sold your data to third parties sometime later.
To avoid having your information declassified, you can use cryptocurrency mixers. They will guarantee that no one can trace your wallet’s exact number of coins. Regarding mixers, the first one that comes to mind is https://yomix.io. This service allows you to mix coins in the shortest possible time. But what’s most impressive is that you can influence the commission level yourself. The minimum is 0.7%, but you can increase it up to 5% to get the highest level of privacy. As for the other methods of fraud, we can highlight the following.
Phishing
This is a rather non-trivial scam method. It is old but quite working. Suppose a specific page on the Internet is dedicated to some lottery contest. The “organizers” of this event ask visitors to register with their data, which will be stolen in the end. The fact is that this page is nothing but a stand-in – people go to it hoping to get to the actual fair, but the scammers copy the look of the original site. Once enough information has been stolen. The site is usually deleted immediately.
Social engineering
Also, a widespread method of fraud, mainly used on gullible and inexperienced users. For example, scammers offer job vacancies with large salaries and ask for an initial investment in exchange for complete instructions on earning money. The problem is that person receives a different thing in the end – it can be a letter with general recommendations (which can be freely found on the Internet), just a bunch of spam, or nothing at all.
Another example is when some malefactors hack a user’s page on a social network and start spamming it. They send messages with malicious links to that person’s friends, who, in turn, click on them, after which their accounts are also cracked. This is between social engineering and phishing as it implies using both approaches.
Ponzi schemes
This type of Internet scam involves asking a person to deposit money for a profit, which is made up of the contributions of all subsequent participants. Such fraud schemes are enshrined in the criminal code as fraudulent in many states. The essence of Ponzi schemes is straightforward: the user will be offered to create a personal account, which will display a constantly growing sum of money.
But to withdraw this cash so quickly, of course, is impossible. The administration will argue that it will be possible to do this once a certain amount of money is in the balance, but as practice shows – this is a complete and utter lie. Money from financial pyramids will not be withdrawn, and you will just be fed with promises.
Fake goods
It often happens that scammers offer a variety of products on condition that prepayment is made. Still, when the buyer sends the money, he receives a much lower-quality product. Sometimes it also happens that the product needs to be sent, and the buyer is left with nothing.
How not to evolve a victim of scammers?
If you adhere to the following simple rules, you can protect yourself from fraud on the Internet:
- Under no circumstances should we trust unverified sites with sensitive topics. Such pages can include dating sites, earnings, gambling, etc. If you need to visit such a page, check the information carefully–ensure the site has a legal address, contact phone numbers, etc. Don’t provide personal information about yourself if you doubt the site’s honest intentions.
- Never send text messages to numbers listed in the unblocking and virus protection instructions. If it so happens that your computer has been infected with a winning locker, it is better to contact a computer repair shop right away. If you know electronics well enough, you can do it yourself.
- Purchasing from an online store, check for reviews of the store and the product. Refrain from trusting a place with no genuine reviews or other information that could help in identification.
If you do become a victim of online fraud, you need to contact the police, and you need to do it as soon as possible. Draw law enforcement’s attention to the proofs. This can be the data of the site from which the scammers contacted you, correspondence, details to which you transferred money, phone numbers, etc.