If a person happens to be a victim
of online hoax, then they need to report a scam immediately to the authorities.
They can also file these reports to the police, so they can investigate
immediately. According to the UK Office of Fair Trading, scamming is usually
defined as “an act of persuasion based on misrepresentation”, and “a misleading
or deceptive business practice where you receive an unsolicited or uninvited
contact and false promises are made”. The Australian Bureau of Statistics also
has this to say about the online scamming phenomenon, describing it as “a
fraudulent invitation, request, notification, or offer, designed to obtain
someone’s personal information or money or otherwise obtain a financial benefit
by deceptive means”.
If a person frequently uses the Web
and checks their emails on a regular basis, then they may have already
encountered or are completely aware of the most common email scams. Here are a few examples, which can allow them to report a scam immediately once spotted:
Report
a Scam on the Following Types of Dupery
1.)
Nigerian Scams – This online scam could provide them
with a huge amount of cash, as long as the victim is willing to help transfer
funds out of their country. And since they helped out with the money transfer,
the victim is promised a small percentage of the cash amount, which is usually
equivalent to hundreds, even thousands of dollars. The scammers might request
their victims for their personal or bank account information, so they can use
this to ‘transfer’ the ‘money’ – But instead they will end up stealing the
victim’s funds.
Sometimes, these
Nigerian scammers might request their victims to pay their fees, taxes, or
charges, as a means of releasing or moving the money out of the country by
transferring them to the person’s bank. The fees will sometimes be sent in
small amounts at first, then will keep on growing. Once the scammers have been
paid, they might create new fees that will require their poor victims to give
them even more cash, before they can obtain their rewards in the end. They will
ask their victims to keep transferring more cash to their accounts, as long as
they are willing to cooperate with the scammers. In the end though, the
scammers won’t give their victims the promised cash. If this happens, the victim
has to report a scam to the authorities.
2.)
Email Phishing – After Nigerian scams, email phishing
is the second most common type of money-swindling trick on the Internet.
Phishing is an attempt created by an Internet scammer, which allows them to
trick people into disclosing their private information, such as their bank
account numbers, credit card numbers, or passwords. These scammers will contact
their victims through email or text messaging, and will pretend to be a
legitimate corporation or business, like a renowned bank, a telephone company,
or an Internet service provider. The scammer will ask the person to hand over
their personal information, and if the victim is able to do so, they will then
use it to perform fraudulent activities like stealing the victim’s cash. It is
important to report a scam right away, so these scammers won’t trick any more
victims.
