Fraud Talk: Unveiling the Scam Artist

Can you relate to any of these scenarios?

• Your Amazon package has been delayed, kindly click the link below to make changes.
• Congratulations you’ve won the Publisher’s Clearing House sweepstakes, please give me your personal information.
• [Unknown Number] Hey, Sarah, how are you doing?
  A virus has been detected on your device, click YES to start scanning
  

We are constantly inundated with scam calls and texts, and then bombarded with warning articles about how to protect ourselves from scams. Even with the warnings, millions of dollars get lost to scams every day. If we have all the resources and information on how to protect ourselves, why are people still falling prey to scammers?

Scam artists work hard to adapt and are constantly devising ways to trick their victims.

Scams have become common place in our society and if we haven’t fallen victim, we believe we must be doing something right. Then, we get comfortable, we relax, we get complacent, and that is exactly when we open ourselves up to the fraudster. Additionally, we constantly hear the same messages: don’t send money to people you don’t know, protect your identity, have strong passwords, etc. These surface level recommendations are so common, we tune them out.

Instead of reiterating the same warnings, let’s review the vulnerabilities that fraudsters exploit and unveil their thinking.

Throughout this 5-week series, I will be using the term fraudsters and scammers interchangeably. Not all fraudsters are scammers, but all scammers are fraudsters. A scam is a type of fraud, but rather than the fraudster directly stealing your money, they socially engineer you into handing over the money yourself. What does socially engineer mean? Social engineering is the use of deception to psychologically manipulate individuals into divulging confidential or personal information that may be used for fraudulent purposes. I recommend scrutinizing every monetary interaction you have with anyone, sometimes even family. Don’t ever think you are too smart to get scammed, because that’s exactly the mentality scammers prey on.

On this journey, we will talk about the vulnerabilities that scammer’s target. There are some good resources on all the different types of scams at https://consumer.ftc.gov/scams. If you would like further information on how to proceed after a scam, please talk to your local banker.

Many times, when you have given a scammer your money, it is irreversible. If the bank does have the ability to stop or reverse the transaction, there is a very short timetable to do that. Once the money is gone, very little can be done. That is why so much emphasis is put on protecting yourself against scammers.