Internet scams

The people most affected by the scams appear to be the youngest, between the ages of 18 and 23; this is followed by young people aged between 24 and 27 and those aged between 28 and 32.

The Internet today is a powerful tool that offers great advantages, including the rapid acquisition and dissemination of knowledge in any field and the possibility of keeping us in constant contact and communication, it is also true that it favors the risk of incurring increasingly sophisticated scams , dangerous and difficult to recognize.

The Codacons:

has released a decalogue including simple but important rules to follow to recognize and defend yourself against scammers, with particular attention to scams that are spread by email:

1 Avoid sharing your email address by posting messages on blogs, forums, and other websites.
2 Avoid using your email to subscribe to suspicious or little-known websites.
3 Use only certified mail services, such as Yahoo Mail and Gmail, for strictly personal communications or in any case deemed important.
4 If you want to send an email to multiple recipients, enter the names in the appropriate field in clear text but hidden with BCC mode.
5 Do not reply to emails that the mail service puts in the spam box and never click on pop-ups displayed when opening the email received.
6 Install a valid antivirus and run antivirus scans periodically.
7 Browse websites with a secure connection.
8 Do not enter your personal data upon request if the open site is not entirely reliable.

Recognize scams on the internet: the most widespread and dangerous scams

But what are the main types of scams we can run into while browsing the internet?
It is useful to know that scammers who use the network as a vehicle for spreading fraud tend to leverage the weaknesses and needs of Internet users, such as the urgent need to find work or the desire for a satisfying love life.

This is why, among the most widespread online scams, we find, alongside phishing, scam emails and bogus messages on Whatsapp, also fake job advertisements and so-called sentimental scams.

How to recognize scam emails
Most scams on the internet are conveyed through fake emails: this channel allows scammers to deceive millions of people with a single email.

How to recognize scam emails? Among the clues that should immediately make us suspect we find first of all the foreign sender (American, Chinese, African) and the subject of the email: winning money, notice of blocking of the mail account or bank account, withdrawal of products they have never been purchased

The risks of whatsapp

WhatsApp has expired” or “your subscription is about to expire”.
As the Postal Police explains, the message requires the user to enter their telephone number; in this way, instead of subscribing or renewing the subscription to the application, he activates a subscription for a cost of 20 euros to a wallpaper application for the mobile phone.
After receiving one of the two messages, it is necessary not to answer and immediately switch off and restart the mobile phone.
WhatsApp Gold.
In this case, the bogus message reads: “Hey, the secret version of WhatsApp has finally arrived. This version – the Gold – is only used by big celebrities. Now you can use it too”.
In reality, the promised service hides malware, which, once installed on the phone, allows the scammers to control the device.
No audio message.
It may happen that while using Whatsapp, a message arrives announcing the presence of an audio note on the answering machine: it is malware that allows scammers to control the apps installed on the device and acquire photos to then blackmail the user.
“Download the new emoticons”.
In reality, the message is just a gateway used by scammers to install viruses on the device.

Internet scams: fake job postings

In this case, the scammers use sites recognized as serious and reliable ( Subito, Bakeca, Ebay) , such as Linkedin, considered equally reliable, to publish and disseminate advertisements containing bogus job offers, with the sole purpose of obtaining large payments .

After obtaining the bank transfer, presented to the victims as necessary to obtain the much desired job, the scammers also request bank details, with the excuse of having to obtain personal information to complete the hiring process: this is how the victims suffer a theft of ‘identity.

To recognize this type of scam, it is necessary to keep in mind the characteristics of a serious job offer:

The sender of the job offer is usually not a single individual, but a company, which presents itself with an identity made easily recognizable by information such as name, location, company name, VAT number and company email address.
A serious job advertisement contains all the information about the type of job offered; it is therefore necessary to be wary of generic messages such as those that read “if you want to earn money contact me” or “write me for information”.
A non-false job advertisement will never present a request for payment of the material necessary to start the work activity.

The sentimental scam through the internet

Among the scams that are becoming more and more widespread, we find those that can be defined as “sentimental scams”. The channel used in this case is, in most cases, Facebook.

After assuming the identity of a charming and cultured gentleman, usually of foreign origin, the scammer contacts the female profiles on the social network.

After a close courtship that can last even months, pretends to need a huge amount of money to get out of a serious inconvenience that occurred in some foreign country.

To give the fake story the semblance of truth, the scammer sends the unfortunate people photocopied documents on other profiles on the site and rigs video calls on Skype with special software.

Once he has received the requested sum, he will ask for more or cut off all contact with the victim. According to an FBI report, in 2011 the sentimental scam, behind which real criminal organizations are now hiding, led to about 10,000 women, mostly aged between 40 and 60, going into debt.

It is essential to “study” the suitor’s Facebook page: among the first warning signs, the very low number of friendships, the scarcity or total absence of news in the field of personal data, and the rarity of updates on the page.

To precise questions, the character will always answer vaguely and imprecisely and will provide bogus telephone numbers, usually starting with the prefix +4470.

Facebook:

also offers a further tool to investigate the character: by clicking with the right mouse button on the profile photo, it is possible to search for the image on Google and thus find out if it has been copied from other websites.

However, the criminal’s identikit is quite recognizable: the scammers usually present themselves as widowed middle-aged men, successful managers dejected by the sadness of their love life and in search of their soul mate.