5 types of scams to not fall and keep your money safe

With the advancement of technology, these scams changed and started to be done through postal systems and telephones, where the scammers had access to a greater number of targets.

As the internet has developed and expanded to its current state, a whole new world of opportunities has opened up for scammers. Read on to discover the most prevalent online scams and learn how to avoid them to save your money.

5 types of scams for you to avoid

To avoid falling into scams you need to know them well, otherwise you will be easily deceived, and your money will go away. Check the list of the main ones:

1. Vishing

This is one of the scammers’ darlings, very famous, but a lot of people still fall, trusting them and of course, giving precious money to scammers—don’t do that.

Unfortunately, not knowing the type of scam, many people are taken by surprise with this tactic. In this case, a fraudster calls you, pretending to be a bank employee or service provider. During this call, he seeks to trick you into giving them confidential information. It starts alleging that you have outstanding debts, and may even threaten you with prison if you don’t cooperate and return the money.

The bottom line here is this: your bank or service provider will never threaten you with arrest. If anything looks or looks suspicious, hang up. Contact your bank or service provider and verify that it was a legitimate call. Chances are it won’t – banks will never ask for personal information over the phone.

2. Smishing

This is the second type of scam you can fall for, the so-called: The smishing. It is done via SMS and occurs when criminals send a text message claiming to be from your bank (or another institution you recognize and trust). In the text, they ask for personal information such as your PIN number.

In addition, they can also likely send you a text that accompanies fraudulent links that can lead you to a ‘spoofed’ website that asks for your confidential banking information.

3. Phishing

The third scam is the famous phishing, where it is done through e-mail, a modality that has greatly decreased due to the low use of users with e-mail.

However, it is still considered active, where an official-looking email accompanies a link to a spoofed website and requests confidential banking information. This information goes straight to criminals who can use it to access your real bank account. To avoid these scams:

• Check the email address. Often, even though these emails appear to come from an institution, the email address is an offer.
• Check for spelling mistakes or errors in the company name or logo.
• Be very careful about the links you click on in an email.

If you need to visit your bank’s website, do not click on an emailed link. Instead, type the URL into your browser or log into your app.

4. Credit Card Scam

There are some financial frauds that can be carried out with your credit card. Among the most common are:

• Cloning, which is when the criminal copies data from one card, inserts it into another, and makes use of it. It is more common on credit cards without chip technology.
• Data Confirmation, a scam where the criminal impersonates a bank employee or credit card company and, with a convincing story, asks the customer to confirm a series of data (including their password) over the phone.
• Duplicate Purchase, which is when the seller simulates an error in the machine and makes the buyer repeat the transaction believing that the first one did not work. When the customer realizes, he paid twice the same amount.
• Purchasing on Fake Sites, where the criminal creates a mirrored electronic address of an e-commerce or bank website and, when the victim enters their data, sends all the information necessary for the theft to be completed (pishing).

5. Scam and financial fraud on WhatsApp

This is one of the most popular types of scams, even more so with the advancement of WhatsApp and new payment options within the platform.

The interesting thing about this practice is that before the scammer applies any scam or one of the various financial frauds through the application, criminals study their victims well. They access their open social networks, identify their friends, place of work and other information that can be used to make sense of the scam.

So, they clone the device and impersonate the WhatsApp owner asking for urgent money in their contact list. In this situation, not only the owner of the application, but their friends and relatives are at a loss.

In other cases, it is only the cell phone owner who falls for the scam. The scammer convinces you to send a WhatsApp code that gives you full access to the device. Chip cloning by providing SIM Swap is also not uncommon.

How to protect yourself from scams

Now that you know the warning signs of scams, you’ll be better able to avoid them. Practice the following safety habits to avoid scams whenever you’re online:

• Always search for companies and websites before purchasing any product. No matter how urgent the offer is, or how badly you want the item or service, do your research first. Read the website’s corporate information, terms of service and privacy policy.
• If you have a credit card, always choose to pay with it. Compared to debit cards and bank transfers, credit cards are much safer.
• Never download attachments or click on links from unknown contacts. Scammers can use attachments and websites to infect your computer with malware.
• Keep personal information to yourself. Remember how many websites ask you to answer a series of security questions in case you need to recover your password? Memorize the information that you have defined as security measures and do not share it.
• Protect yourself online. If a website offers two-factor authentication, use it. It’s not foolproof, but it’s better than nothing. Use strong and unique passwords on the websites you frequent and store them securely with a trusted password manager.