Recognize Five Signs Of Online Fraud To Watch Out For

There is always a way to spot a scam before it's too late. (photo: doc. unsplash)

JAKARTA - As technology continues to develop, no one can be free from the threat of scammers or fraudsters in cyberspace.

Be it gamers, cryptocurrency investors, or people who like online shopping. These scammers can target anyone regardless of their social status.

There is always a way to spot a scam before it's too late. Kaspersky security expert Roman Dedenok tries to share five common signs of online fraud to help you avoid harm, VOI quoted from his official statement on Monday, January 10.

1. Offer Attractive Gifts To Invoke Fear

Scammers often take advantage of critical feelings in humans such as greed or fear. The first scheme, usually promises potential victims extraordinary rewards, for example, large government benefits or free cryptocurrency. The second scheme involves intimidation, such as threats to send videos of the victim watching porn to all contacts or damage the reputation of their company website.

In both cases, cybercriminals try to undermine their victims' ability to respond rationally. If, after reading such an email, you feel like doing exactly what the sender asked you to do (follow a link, send money, call a number, etc.), that's actually a warning sign. Kaspersky recommends that you reread the message carefully. Most likely, you did see a scam message, so ignore it.

2. Driven in a Very Short Time

If situations involving emotions can cause people to lose their critical thinking skills, so does a sense of rush. Scammers exploit that feeling too, for example by setting tight deadlines. If a message says you only have a few days, hours, or even minutes to claim a gift or purchase an item before it sells out, again, it's probably a scam.

3. Amateur Design

An obvious error in a message is a red flag. Some scammers may point to intentional misspellings or the replacement of letters with similar-looking numbers to the point of using optical counterparts from other alphabets to trick spam filters. As it says "0ne ilIion d0llars", this is an attempted scam.

4. Searching the Database

When potential victims visit a fraudulent website from an email or chat message, the fraudster usually tries to entice them through a series of simple tasks. They may involve a short survey or selecting a number of boxes that are thought to contain prizes. Quite often, these online scammers will display an animation that allegedly shows a database search (for their prize-winning status) and ask the victim to fill out a form.

Sometimes victims may also be invited to read (fake) reviews or comments from previous winners. Recently, Kaspersky has seen chats with bots posing as lawyers, consultants, or support employees.

Despite the details of the scenario, the overall goal is simple and clear. Get the person to invest a little time and keep them on the page, so the more investment they put in, the less likely they are to close the page when payment is requested, and it will. When a website that promises huge benefits asks for too much confidential data that you don't need, Kaspersky advises you to close the page immediately.

5. Asking for a small fee up front

Another favorite trick after hooking a victim is to ask for a small fee, these online scammers will usually ask the victim to make a transfer for the purpose of card verification or registration payments in several databases. Without it, the fraudster will insist, that the victim cannot receive the promised reward.

The amount demanded is usually quite small, insignificant and may even come with a guaranteed return at a later date. This fee, of course, is the first thing that can be stolen from the victim. In the end there will never be a reward, but only the possibility of losing more if the victim shares credit card details with the fraudster.

Cybercriminals are constantly finding new ways to monetize users' trust and weaknesses. Therefore, users or cyber explorers should pay attention to these five common signs of online fraud by Kaspersky.