SCAMES

First of all what is a scam?

Scams are a type of fraud or a way of triking someone or forcing someone into giving people money, personal information and more. Here is a definition of scams. 'A fraudulent scheme performed by a dishonest individual, group, or company in an attempt obtain money or something else of value. Scams traditionally resided in confidence tricks, where an individual would misrepresent themselves as someone with skill or authority, i.e. a doctor, lawyer, investor. After the internet became widely used, new forms of scams emerged such as lottery scams, scam baiting, email spoofing, phishing, or request for helps. These are considered to be email fraud. Also see phishing, scheme.' quoted by http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/scam.html

What types of scams are there?

There are many different types of scams which have differnt intentions some of these are attempts to gain peoples personal information buying and or selling different products, fake charities, investments, jobs and employment,threats and extortion, unexpected winnings and more.

Stastistics

So far in 2019 all throughout the world people have lost $9 814 470 due to being scammed, there have also been over 6 390 reports of people claiming that they have been scamend. Statistically speaking 52.2% of the reports have come from females 45.9% from males and 1.9% from x. Here are the main ways scams can be carried out as well as their popularity in percentages out of 100%

• Phone = 49%
• Email = 23%
• Text message = 14.6%
• Internet = 5.5%
• Social networking = 3.5%
• Mail = 1.7%
• Mobile applications = 1.3%
• In person = 1.1%
• Not provided = 0.2%
• Fax = 0.1%

How to tell if something is a scam.

You can tell if something is a scam by seeing if it is actually realistic and if or if not it is too good to be true. Generally, if you ever win a large amount of money, or some expensive product it will be almost 100% a scam. You can also tell if something is a scam if there is poor language and spelling on either the website, app, email, text and more. If the greeting to you is personal and not generic. For example, if the greeting says 'Hi, your name' rather then 'Hi there' etc.

Tips on how to make sure you won't get scammed

• Never give out personal information on untrusted websites.
• Download an anti-virus protector on your devices. For example, Norton Security, Total AV, PCProtect and Bitdefender.
• Use PayPal when entering card details into websites and apps.
• If you have won something, ask your self if it is too good to be true? For example, if you have won a lot of money it is almost 100% a scam.
• Don't download pirated movies, songs and so on.
• know who you are dealing with.
• Do not open weird or unusual texts, emails, ads, pop up windows and more. These would usually be asking for to turn your laptop or computer on and will start to download viruses that will give people access to your personal information.
• Hang up on phone calls that are suspicious even if they are from big well-known companies such as Telstra, NAB and more.
• Make sure to keep your personal information a secret. You can do this by changing your passcode often.
• When choosing passcodes to make sure that they are not easy to guess. For example, your pets name, your name, your birthday and other details that are personal to you as these are easy to guess.
• Look over the privacy and security policies on social media, apps and websites.
• Be cautious when shopping online.

Images

This image is of a man that is 'fishing' for someone else's personal information. The reason why he is using a fishing rod is that it is a metaphor.

Protect yourself today

Use one of these websites to help protect your self from being scammed and hacked.

Bibliography