Different Types of Money Fraud You Should Know About

We all work really hard to make money and the onus is on us to take the required efforts to protect it. There are a number of scammers on the web who have devised really smart methods to rob unsuspecting users. If these scammers are successful, it usually results in money fraud. It could happen in a number of different ways:

1. Advance-fees scams: Here the prospective victims are made to believe that they have received a huge amount of money as a complimentary prize. But before this prize amount is claimed, one will have to pay a certain amount in advance for postage and other processing charges. These amounts are initially very small but keep on increasing and the more one is tempted, the more he becomes trapped by the scam.
2. Check cashing money fraud : Never help a person in cashing their check. They may take the advantage of your friendship and ask you to do so on their behalf. A lot of people fall for this type of money fraud since the scammer offers huge amounts of money in terms of commission.
3. Cyber criminals have started finding out newer ways to make people illegally part with their money. The brains behind these crimes are stealing personally identifiable information (PIIs) of the prospective victims and using them for their own personal gains. This kind of communication is the precursor to money fraud and should be dealt with care,

In addition to the above methods, a lot of security companies have been raising awareness on phishing scams and other types of money fraud. Here is a look at how these scams could impact online customers.

1. Phishing: The scammers send emails to their intended victims by posing as the representative from a major financial institution like a bank or credit card company. The victims are asked to respond to the emails in various ways by either sending a return email or clicking on a particular link. Anybody who responds is bound to become a victim. Often clicking on the links provided in the mails, leads to a situation where the person ends up revealing his confidential log in details of his online financial account.
2. Vishing: With the inception of Voice of Internet Protocol, an alternative to telephone service, criminals have found it very easy to collect the confidential information about their targets. They sound like someone calling from authorized places and compel people to give out their credit card information.
3. Smishing: A fraudulent message is received by the victim, charging him of some service which he has never availed. To cancel the order, one should call on a certain number and while one does that, he becomes highly vulnerable to money fraud.

Investment schemes can also attract people towards getting trapped. These are meant for targeting the stock investors who are vulnerable to this type of money fraud. The money and the identity of the investors are stolen by online newsletters. In these newsletters information of stocks is provided in exchange for a fee. Thus online bulletin boards which seem real should be paid attention to only after adequate research has been done.