5 Most Common Online Scams of 2013 and What You Can Do to Avoid Them
In 2012, the Huffington Post estimated that Americans lose nearly $2.9 Billion a year to fraud. To put that in perspective, that is just a little less than all of the money that the Salvation Army brings in each year, or $9.24 per person in the US. With a little caution and more awareness, much of this could be prevented. Here are five of the most common online scams of 2013.
The Nigerian Scam
This scam continues to be in the top five year after year. There are always a few people who fall prey to it. An email arrives from a Nigerian government official who has a large amount of money and needs to transfer it in secret to the United States. He needs your bank account number and will give you a percentage of the money. Never give out your banking information in response to an email.
You won a lottery!
This scam comes to you as an email and informs you of the good news. You will need money, of course, to collect. Most of these lotteries claim to be European. You will never win a lottery that you did not play, and winners are not notified by email when they do win.
Natural Disasters
Every year there are natural disasters and every year there are scams to take your money. Emails go out quickly to get your donations and victims of this scam often do not know they were taken. In 2013 one of the top scams related to typhoons was Yolanda that hit the Philippines. Legitimate charity groups will be listed as non-profit organizations with the Internal Revenue Service.
Verify your Paypal information
This scam takes the form of an email. The email looks legitimate and Paypal is only asking you to verify your user name and pass word. The scammer then takes this information and empties your account. The same scam is done with bank account holders, but information like this is never asked for by an email.
Your computer is infected with a virus
This is a scam, but it is also a vicious attack on your computer. An internet user inadvertently downloads a small program that begins to run and overrides all other programs and pretends to be a virus, but it is actually a terrifying message to go to a particular website to get anti-virus software to fix the problem. This type of scam is online extortion. One of the most common in 2013 was the FBI virus. This malware locked up your computer for copyright issues and attempted to get you spend money to fix the problem. When this type of malware infects your computer, it is best to get professional help. A company that does computer repair in NYC or elsewhere can help you fight this type of attack and save your information. They can fix the problem and recommend a good anti-virus program to install in your computer to prevent this situation from happening again.
Many people fall for scams because they think that they are going to get easy money, but others are simply fooled into giving out their financial information. The best attitude to have is to know that if it seems too good to be true it is a scam. Most important of all, never believe that you are too smart to fall victim to a scam. Once you think this, you become vulnerable.
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Category: Consumer Complaints, Identity Theft
