You can become a victim of a fraudster not only on the street. With the development of technology, profit hunters quickly mastered the virtual space. Let's look at what schemes work on the Internet and how you can protect yourself from theft.
Location: ad service
If you decide to buy a product with your hands or sell an item you don't need, be careful — scammers often play the role of buyers or sellers. There is an extremely interested buyer on your product who is ready to transfer an advance to your account and asks you not only for the card number or phone number, but also the card authentication code (three digits on the back, for example, CVV or CVC). This approach should alert you — after all, it is enough to know only the card number to transfer money.
If you buy the goods by hand, you may be asked to pay in advance and provide all the card details. If you have a fraudster in front of you, then at best you will be left without the money that you sent in advance. In the worst case, if you have been asked for all the card details, you risk being left without funds on the account.
How to prevent it?
Be careful when buying goods by hand through social networks or special sites. Always try to check a potential buyer or seller based on reviews. Communities and services usually have a "blacklist" (both buyers and sellers) and moderators. Check the seller's profile — fraudsters often create fake pages with a minimum of information.
Place of action: social networks and messengers
Your friend sent you a private message asking you to borrow money or with a strange link. This means only one thing — your friend's account has been hacked.
A stranger writes you a personal message in which he offers a stable and high income for some simple work. There is no specific information in the message, but there is a link where you will allegedly find details. There is no dream job on such a link — except for a computer virus.
Scammers often present themselves as employees of well-known brands and companies from any field. You are promised low-interest loans, big discounts, free goods, or they say that you have won a competition. To get a prize or a discount, all you need to do is to provide your card details, passport details, or all at once.
How to prevent it?
If your friend sends strange messages via social networks, call him as soon as possible and find out if he really needs help. Or scammers hacked his account — and can deceive someone else. For example, his grandmother!
Links from strangers' messages are not the best way to look for earnings on the Internet, because free cheese happens only in a mousetrap.
If strangers write to you on behalf of a company or brand, it is better to clarify the information on the official website of the company or its page on a social network — large companies rarely hold contests in which you can win without even participating, and never just ask for your personal data, much less card data.
Place of action: Email
Letters are sent to your email with the promise of gifts, money and loans. Scammers are trying to lure you with anything: they offer you a job with a big salary that you were not looking for. They write that you won the car. They send a response to your alleged letter. They just want to "get to know each other better."
The sender's line may contain a person unknown to you (often a foreigner), as well as a well-known website, payment system, online service or bank. Nothing terrible will happen if you just open the letter, but do not follow the links and do not download attachments from the letter — so you risk infecting your computer with a virus that will allow fraudsters to control it. And even more so, do not enter your card details.
How to prevent it?
The mail has a built-in spam filter — some suspicious emails always end up in a special folder. But despite this, always pay attention to the title of the letter, its sender and content. Companies always send out mailings from the same addresses and rarely make mistakes in letters — but scammers often write with a large number of errors, unreadable characters and misrepresent the company name in the address. Do not follow the links from such emails and do not download attachments from them.
Place of action: the twin site
Scammers copy well-known sites using a similar company name and design. For example, you want to find out if you have fines in the traffic police or how to apply for a loan online, and you get to a phishing site, that is, a clone site. If you enter your data on such sites, they will fall into the hands of intruders.
How to prevent it?
Always pay attention to the browser address bar: an error will be made on the clone site. Pay for purchases only through sites with a secure connection and a payment system icon. Carefully study the content of the site — attackers are often inattentive to the content of the site. Bookmark sites that you often use so as not to type the address manually — so you won't make a mistake in the name and get to the site you need.
Place of action: your smartphone
Malicious programs can disguise themselves as mobile banks and hide in various applications that you download to your phone.
How to prevent it?
Download apps to your phone only in the official store. Pay attention first of all to the developer of the program — the bank itself is indicated in the official banking applications. Read the description carefully and do not download third-party applications.
Location: ad service
If you decide to buy a product with your hands or sell an item you don't need, be careful — scammers often play the role of buyers or sellers. There is an extremely interested buyer on your product who is ready to transfer an advance to your account and asks you not only for the card number or phone number, but also the card authentication code (three digits on the back, for example, CVV or CVC). This approach should alert you — after all, it is enough to know only the card number to transfer money.
If you buy the goods by hand, you may be asked to pay in advance and provide all the card details. If you have a fraudster in front of you, then at best you will be left without the money that you sent in advance. In the worst case, if you have been asked for all the card details, you risk being left without funds on the account.
Be careful when buying goods by hand through social networks or special sites. Always try to check a potential buyer or seller based on reviews. Communities and services usually have a "blacklist" (both buyers and sellers) and moderators. Check the seller's profile — fraudsters often create fake pages with a minimum of information.
Place of action: social networks and messengers
Your friend sent you a private message asking you to borrow money or with a strange link. This means only one thing — your friend's account has been hacked.
A stranger writes you a personal message in which he offers a stable and high income for some simple work. There is no specific information in the message, but there is a link where you will allegedly find details. There is no dream job on such a link — except for a computer virus.
Scammers often present themselves as employees of well-known brands and companies from any field. You are promised low-interest loans, big discounts, free goods, or they say that you have won a competition. To get a prize or a discount, all you need to do is to provide your card details, passport details, or all at once.
How to prevent it?
If your friend sends strange messages via social networks, call him as soon as possible and find out if he really needs help. Or scammers hacked his account — and can deceive someone else. For example, his grandmother!
Links from strangers' messages are not the best way to look for earnings on the Internet, because free cheese happens only in a mousetrap.
If strangers write to you on behalf of a company or brand, it is better to clarify the information on the official website of the company or its page on a social network — large companies rarely hold contests in which you can win without even participating, and never just ask for your personal data, much less card data.
Place of action: Email
Letters are sent to your email with the promise of gifts, money and loans. Scammers are trying to lure you with anything: they offer you a job with a big salary that you were not looking for. They write that you won the car. They send a response to your alleged letter. They just want to "get to know each other better."
The sender's line may contain a person unknown to you (often a foreigner), as well as a well-known website, payment system, online service or bank. Nothing terrible will happen if you just open the letter, but do not follow the links and do not download attachments from the letter — so you risk infecting your computer with a virus that will allow fraudsters to control it. And even more so, do not enter your card details.
How to prevent it?
The mail has a built-in spam filter — some suspicious emails always end up in a special folder. But despite this, always pay attention to the title of the letter, its sender and content. Companies always send out mailings from the same addresses and rarely make mistakes in letters — but scammers often write with a large number of errors, unreadable characters and misrepresent the company name in the address. Do not follow the links from such emails and do not download attachments from them.
Place of action: the twin site
Scammers copy well-known sites using a similar company name and design. For example, you want to find out if you have fines in the traffic police or how to apply for a loan online, and you get to a phishing site, that is, a clone site. If you enter your data on such sites, they will fall into the hands of intruders.
How to prevent it?
Always pay attention to the browser address bar: an error will be made on the clone site. Pay for purchases only through sites with a secure connection and a payment system icon. Carefully study the content of the site — attackers are often inattentive to the content of the site. Bookmark sites that you often use so as not to type the address manually — so you won't make a mistake in the name and get to the site you need.
Place of action: your smartphone
Malicious programs can disguise themselves as mobile banks and hide in various applications that you download to your phone.
How to prevent it?
Download apps to your phone only in the official store. Pay attention first of all to the developer of the program — the bank itself is indicated in the official banking applications. Read the description carefully and do not download third-party applications.