Since before the internet age, people have been trying, one way or another, to help you lighten your wallet. Things are not so different now. The only differences are the ease of money transactions, huge personal networks and thus, potentially higher returns (or losses).

Scams generally follow a few basic steps

  • Establish trust and build rapport
  • Gather information
  • Exploit weaknesses
  • Profit

Of course, this is very simplified, and scammers use a myriad of methods to get into your pocket. Let me elaborate.

Establish trust (or pity) and build rapport

Would you be willing to give a few thousand to a total stranger you happen to meet on the streets? What if it was a poor, kind-hearted soul who lost his all is belongings in some disaster? Or what if it was a friend whom had a short-term setback? Or a lover who seemed to have so much in common with you?

Many scammers also employ the use of websites that look *almost* like the official websites and trick you into trusting them. Or Instagram and Facebook. I’m sure many of you have experienced this before, where you add a friend whom you were fairly certain was already in your friend list. They use the same profile pictures, names and background information as your friend. These are collectively known as phishing, when scammers attempt to trick you by masquerading as someone trusted.

Gather information

Do you remember this movie, Now You See Me? It is a film about a group of magicians and how they went about performing a heist. In one of the scenes, they showed how they extracted personal information from their target through the performing of magic and mentalism, and from there gained access to his bank account. This is the key concept that scammers employ.

Our personal details are very important, and should not be easily shared with others. The reason being, these are information that many institutions use in order to verify our identity. If they can convince you to give up these information, they can impersonate you and gain access to a lot more of your details and finally your wallet. Here are some examples of information (not exhaustive) you should be careful of revealing:

  • Credit card number
  • Credit card CVV number (the 3 numbers at the back of your card)
  • One-time passwords (OTP)
  • Mother’s maiden name
  • Passwords
  • NRIC

We also tend to give up our personal details to people whom we think are people of authority. Such as financial institutions, the police, government officials, etc.

Always remember to verify the identity of the people you’re interacting with and don’t be too quick to give up personal information.

Exploit Weaknesses

When we react through fear or greed, we tend to act first and think later. There was a time when scammers would pretend to have kidnapped the victim’s child, calling them with some kid crying in the background, asking for ransom money. When in fact, the child is on the way home. A recent one was when victims are tricked into believing that they were selected for prizes, and in the process, they lost even more money. Some would use the fear of authority, in order to scare the victim into paying for a phantom crime. The key takeaway is this. Whenever possible, verify, verify, verify!

Profit

Self-explanatory. Basically, you lose your hard-earned money.

Below are some recent common scams:

tldr; Anytime you are asked to give out sensitive information or money, stop, consider and verify before you act. This could save you a lot of heartaches and headaches!