In a world where advances in technology are expected to make life easier, safe use of the internet has become a major concern with the increasing number of online fraud and scam.
Below are the top 10 most popular successfully executed Internet scams.
10) Student Scholarship and Financial Aid Scam
Fake research companies/organizations offers to conduct a customized search for scholarships or grants/ students loan. Scammers take the money and run or provide a worthless list.
9) Lottery/Low Price Offer Scam
This is the type of fraud which begins when you receive an unexpected email notification, phone call, or e-mail of usually a total of a few million dollars or explaining that “You have won!” a large sum of money in a lottery.
8) Online Dating Scams
Scammers target victims by creating Fake profiles of scammers posing as attractive men and women on popular internet dating services including but not limited to Facebook social network. Once you are in contact with these scammers, they will express strong emotions for you in a relatively short period of time. Then they claim to need money to help in an emergency, typically when they claim to be out of the country on a business trip.
7) Phishing Scams
This involves Emails designed to masquerade as a critical business email from a company, organization or government agency but ask you to enter or confirm your personal information.
6) Disaster Recovery Aid Scams
This involves non profit or non governmental organizations who claim to help disaster victims and in a country’s time of need. They set up fake donation websites that diverts donations made on the site to their private accounts.
5) Job Offer Scam
Job and employment scams target people looking for a new job. This type of scammers often ask for some money to get some registration form etc.
4) Free Trial Scam
What often starts with a free trial might end up costing you real money. You see an Internet offer for a free one-month trial of some great product – often a weight-loss program or some amazing software, be sure to thoroughly investigate them as a good number of them are indirectly scamming you.
3) Work From Home Scam
If you see an Ad that says you can work from the comfort of your home and make hundreds of dollars per hour, chances are you are getting scammed. If this were to be true, all of us will probably be working at home.
2) Fake Auctions Sales with Paypal Scam
This occurs when you purchase something via an online store or an online auction and your purchased item are either never delivered or it is not what they claimed it was, or is defective.
Also, sellers/marketers get scammed when a scammer responds to an online ad they placed on free classified sites like craiglist and most times promising to pay more money than what the seller asked for in the first place via paypal. They usually send a fake paypal payment alert prompting the marketer to ship and loose their items.
1) Nigerian 419 Scam
The Nigerian 419 scams are one of the most common types of financial fraud today, and the number of scammers who use this tactic continues to grow. The scam typically involves promising the victim a significant share of a large sum of money, which the fraudster requires a small up-front payment to obtain. If a victim makes the payment, the fraudster either invents a series of further fees for the victim, or simply disappears. The number “419” refers to the article of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with fraud.
ALSO READ >> Top 10 Cities with The Most Internet Fraudsters In Nigeria.
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