Imagine this. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) received nearly 792,000 reports of suspected online crimes in 2020 alone. That was a colossal jump from just under 300,000 complaints in 2016, five years earlier.
The FBI’s 2020 Internet Crime Report found that the rising numbers also led to a record $4.2 billion in losses through various online scams.
Now imagine this.
The IC3 report showed that cases increased rapidly between 2019 and 2020, increasing by 325,000 complaints and $700 million.
These Internet fraud statistics indicate an exponential increase in the number of Internet frauds involving ever-increasing amounts of money.
With internet scams on the rise, how can you protect your financial life from ruin?
Here are five ways to avoid online scams based on new statistics.
1. Avoid sending money to people you just met
Love scams have been the most widespread and expensive in the last three years.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also found that the median amount of money people lost due to online dating scams was $2,500 in 2019.
People trying to find love on social channels and online dating apps/sites lost over $300 million in 2019 alone.
Victims told the feds that scammers who asked for financial support appealed to their sympathy and promised to pay them back, but never did.
Scammers have also avoided face-to-face meetings, using the advice of social distancing during the pandemic to avoid revealing their true intentions.
Therefore, you’ll want to avoid sending money to new friends and acquaintances in the hope that they’ll pay you or like them.
2. Meet in an open and friendly area
What does an open and friendly area look like in real life?
- Choose a location for the public meeting.
- Avoid carrying cash if you are expecting a delivery. Instead, pay over the phone, not even with a credit card.
- The goal is to prevent you from showing signs of cash, so you don’t encourage a criminal to commit fraud with your information.
- Also, invite a friend along, especially if you’re meeting someone for the first time.
- Decline all invitations to pay in advance to reserve a seat at a restaurant or other venue. Do this by hovering over the link in the message. Make sure the popup link matches the link you submitted.
- If they are different, leave it at that. Maybe it’s a fraudulent connection.
Use reverse lookup sites to find out who they are
- You can look up someone’s number using a reverse lookup website. You can look up the identities of unknown people using a reverse phone number lookup.
- Or you can do a quick or more thorough background check on someone to make sure they are who they say they are.
- Major reverse lookup services may provide more details attached to a specific phone number, email, or physical address.
- However, legitimate reverse lookup sites use publicly available information in accordance with the rules of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
- After all, you don’t want to engage in illegal searches, stalking, or be tempted to invade someone else’s privacy with the information you’ll collect.
Some of this information includes:
- Find out if there are phone scams related to this number
- Arrest and criminal record
- Name and address of the holder of the number
- Alternative phone numbers
- Marriage or Divorce Records
- property records
That is powerful information.
4. Reverse Image Search
In 2020, many scammers have found refuge by hiding behind screens and avoiding physical contact.
Others downloaded images from the Internet to create pseudo accounts on social media.
They would then use fake accounts to court unsuspecting victims for sums of money.
One way to avoid falling into that trap is to reverse your online image search to reveal more details, such as where they came from, associated social media accounts, and other online presence.
How to reverse image search?
It’s a perfect step when using a laptop or desktop computer. Go online and search for an image on Google.
- Type images.google.com in the URL field.
- Press or tap the camera icon
- Drag the image from another window if you opened it in another browser window. Or click Upload an image to download it from your computer storage.
- Alternatively, copy the online URL of the person’s image and paste it in Paste Image URL.
- Press Search by image
Result: The search results will show images related to the one you uploaded or searched for. Or you can find similar photos.
Is that what you want.
Now compare the different images to see if there are any inconsistencies.
Keep in mind that if you can’t find more similar photos that point to the person’s actual online presence, you don’t want to continue that relationship. Similarly, you can perform a reverse phone number lookup.
5. Keep all your cards close to your chest
You don’t want to reveal any personal information, even to friends, and especially to colleagues at work or that cool circle you’ve wanted to be a part of for years.
The biggest online scams of 2020 involved stolen personal information:
- Phishing scams targeting an increasing number of people who work from home
- Non-delivery scams that victimized online shoppers who preferred to shop from the safety of their homes
- Direct extortion involving threats to reveal personal information that has already been collected
You know better than to display your social security number, credit card information, and consumer credit information.
But did you know that giving out your full name, personal phone number, and email address can lead you to an online scam?
If you use dating apps and sites, pay attention. The report shows that you are more likely to discover these details while building a relationship with a potential lover.
So take it easy. Keep your financial life out of the romantic picture until you know a lot more about the other person and you’ve seen eye to eye a few times.
For example, you can mention that you have a job or a company. But keep your earnings, loan repayments, assets, and deep financial plans to yourself.
Envelope
Online crime reports have tripled in recent years.
They reached an all-time high in 2020 when fraud related to COVID-19 was rampant, including fake online offers, delivery/payment scams, among others.
However, you can avoid online scams by proactively knowing what to do and when to do it.
Start by not sending money to people you don’t know well. Then use the top reverse lookup sites to verify phone numbers, addresses, emails, and even shared images.
Also, keep all information that identifies you private.
Categories: How to
Source: HIS Education