Scams and scams are commonplace in everyday life. But they are constantly increasing on the Internet via social networks, e-mails or by telephone. Very convincing, these 2.0 thieves are geniuses in the art of deceit.
Daily usurpers invent new techniques to extract our personal information from us. Because we are all concerned with these scams but some people seem to be easier and accessible targets.
Scams and scams on the internet, who are the main victims?
Indeed, the main victims of this type of digital and telephone fraud are the elderly. Despite increasingly modern techniques, crooks are primarily targeting seniors because they have a lower level of Internet skills as a rule and higher purchasing power. In addition, seniors suffer easily from cognitive problems that alter their judgment or isolation problems, which make them more credulous.
But young adults can also be victims of such scams because they unknowingly facilitate access to their personal information. They are the ones who pay the least attention to preventative measures regarding updating their passwords and checking their credit card statements and bank accounts.
To help prevent these types of attacks, here are the most common scams:
The fraudulent use of bank card data to make purchases or direct debits on the internet,
Nigerian scams and their variants to receive money via Western Union by placing you in confidence through exchanges by mail, the object of which is a call for donations or an advertisement for example,
“Phishing” is a technique where the scammer masquerades as your bank and calls you to ask for your bank details in order to collect money from your account,
The “Ranking” or Crypto-Locker that allows fraudsters to spread malware through an email attachment or a compressed file. They send you an e-mail by posing as institutions (Police, Gendarmerie Nationale) and use the graphics of the State. They then ask you for a ransom in exchange for the release of your data.
Of course scams are created daily, so the American police warns about this new fraudulent method!
US federal services, including the Federal Communications Commission, which manages telecommunications regulation, warn of the phone scam, worrying that it is spreading in Europe.
They have identified several cases of strange phone calls that take place: you receive a phone call and the person at the other end asks you “Can you hear me? Except that the sound is bad or hatched.
In fact, scammers are waiting for you to say “yes” to record your voice and use it as a voice signature to sign contracts or make payments over the phone.
This is the bad experience of Teresa Thomas, a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota. She gets a call from an unknown number, and a young woman tells him with a sneer, “I did not expect you to get out! You hear me ? “. Instinctively, Teresa answers “yes”, then she gets herself.
In the worst case, the hustler can extract your bank details. The authorities therefore decided to warn about this new method of scam by recommending to follow these tips:
Do not pick up when an unknown number calls you. If the call is important, the person will leave a voice message.
If you answer a call and the caller asks you to use your phone keypad, do not do so.
If you receive a call that you suspect is fraudulent, record the number before hanging up and notify the police.
At the moment no case has been registered in France, but stay alert as soon as you are asked for personal information!
