Charlatans expertly extort money by preying on our weaknesses. But this can be resisted. In this article, we declare war on everything that prevents people from living and becoming better, breaking laws, believing in nonsense, deceit, and fraud. If you come across a similar experience - share your stories in the comments.
Do you think that only narrow-minded people fall into the clutches of scammers, and this does not threaten you? Who now believes that he won an iPhone or inherited an inheritance from an unknown wealthy uncle? But swindlers do not just make their living on bread and butter; they can find an approach to just about anyone.
How is it most often bred?
1. Fees for treatment
Fraudulent scheme
Information about a seriously ill child who urgently needs expensive treatment, medicine, equipment, or something else is posted on the Internet. The ad contains photographs and even medical documents, but the images are often unclear, and medical history is incomplete. And, of course, the card number to which you need to transfer money.
Unfortunately, children suffer from serious illnesses, including cancer, and their relatives raise funds for treatment. By the beginning of 2018, registered in medical institutions were malignant neoplasms in Russia in 201725,000 children. Therefore, desperate parents can indeed sponsor finance advertisements on the Internet.
Read also: How Not to Suffer From a Financial Pyramid.
But there is a rather big chance that scammers are behind such posts. False charity or how scammers make money on someone else's grief who stole other people's photos and scans of documents, possibly changed the graphic editors' data and used it for profit. Sometimes they even create clones, not a crook. But the scoundrel!
How not to get caught
Check information; request a full package of documents and reports on funds received and spent, skip pictures and scans through a photo search in Google. You can find out the number of the hospital where the person is being treated and call there to check if they really have such a patient. If the collection is carried out on behalf of a charitable foundation, it is worth finding official contacts and establishing the organization's involvement in this, if any.
2. Fake Buyer
Fraudulent scheme
You display your goods on Avito, Yulia, or other Internet sites to sell used things. A potential buyer calls you, asks a couple of questions. Sometimes, even at this stage, you can suspect something was wrong; the questions are superficial and give out that the interlocutor does not understand what he wants to buy. Then the “buyer” starts to complain about how far away he lives or that he is now away. And he offers to send a courier or a taxi driver and transfer the payment to the card.
Further, for some reason, he needs not only your card number but also the date of issue, the owner's name and surname, and, most importantly, the three-digit CVC code. The explanations are usually rather vague; supposedly, the funds are transferred from the organization's account, there is a more complicated procedure and stuff like that. This data may already be enough to leave you without money, but sometimes con artists may still ask you to reveal the SMS code to them.
Often all this happens in a hurry and nervous, and it's because an irritated taxi driver or courier is already standing nearby. Having seized the code, scammers can pay for purchases with your card or transfer money to another account.
How not to get caught
Never divulge your CVC to anyone, and even less the code from SMS. Only a 16- or 18-digit number is needed for the transfer. If you still fell for the bait of scammers gave them all the information, call the bank right away and block the card.
3. Downed pedestrian
Fraudulent scheme
The victim backs up or drives slowly through the yards. Suddenly, someone falls to the ground in front of the car, screaming. The driver jumps out of the car in horror and sees a crumpled man who claims that he was hit and that he is going to contact the police.
How not to get caught
First, put a video recorder, which will show that you did not violate the traffic rules, and the pedestrian himself threw himself under the wheels.
No registrar, but are you sure you are not to blame? Themselves insist on calling the police; the scammers then retreat. If possible, look for witnesses and ask security cameras, sellers, and management company employees for recordings from security cameras - depending on where the incident occurred.
4. Bottle under the bumper
Fraudulent scheme
This trick is used to lure a person out of the car. Fraudsters discreetly place an empty five-liter plastic bottle under the front bumper. The driver hears a crunch and rattle, gets out of the car, looks under the bumper. Meanwhile, money and valuables are being pulled out of the car.
Many such techniques; they can puncture a wheel and throw a kefir bag onto the windshield. And all with one goal: for the driver to come out to see what was going on and leave the door unlocked.
How not to get caught
Always block the car doors, even if you go out, as it seems to you, for a second.
5. Costumed gasmen and other specialists
Fraudulent scheme
Swindlers walk around the apartments, posing as insurers, employees of gas services, management companies, and so on. They check stoves, pipes, and communications, always find a breakdown and offer to install expensive equipment, such as gas analyzers or meters, which will respond to a leak and help avoid fire and explosion.
Scammers can crush, manipulate, intimidate. For instance, they say that without a specific device, a gas leak may occur shortly, which threatens with an explosion and collapse - as during the tragedy in Magnitogorsk.
Also read: 5 Ways to Develop Emotional Intelligence
If the tenants nevertheless agree to install the device, it later turns out that it is completely useless. And this, one might say, is still a positive outcome of a meeting with such swindlers. In some cases, the case may end with a robbery of the apartment.
How not to get caught
Do not open the door until you find out from which organization they came to you and the visitors' names. Then call the management company or the gas service to see if such employees have been sent to your home.
Adapted and translated by The Cop Cart Staff
Sources: Life hacker
