Extortion schemes on the Web continue to plague many users around the world. Many victims lose huge sums of money to this type of cyber fraud each year, while others end up with ruined relationships and tainted reputations due to similar financial frauds. Some have lost their jobs, racked up huge debts and ruined credit scores because of the most widespread extortion scams today.
Solo fraudsters and criminal syndicates constantly change their schemes to circumvent the latest online security protocols, user verification procedures and Web protection technologies. They integrate improved social manipulation tactics, new malicious technologies, advanced distribution and targeting systems to victimize as many users as possible with little to no resource cost on their part. These are some of the main reasons why more unsuspecting users with unprotected devices are continuing to fall for financial frauds and extortion scams on the Internet.
Online Extortion Scams & Similar Financial Frauds in the USA Today
More than 600 online scam reports were filed by American users in 2015, most of which involved extortion scams and other relevant financial frauds. This grew by 30% last year when an average of 800 Web crime cases were reported across the USA per month. According to the newest scam complaints and fraud alerts from BigScammers.Com this 2017, significant numbers of American users are still reporting growing incidents of extortion schemes, credit card scams and identity theft throughout the country.
A lot of US-based cyber security firms and financial analysts also predict an unbelievable 125% growth in card not present scams, identity theft and similar types of financial frauds within the next couple of years. In 2014, $8 billion of losses were reported across the USA because of credit card fraud, identity theft and other types of online money scams. A 125% growth spells out over $19 billion of losses by the end of 2018.
Most Prevalent Online Extortion Scams This Year
Online dating fraud is still leading when it comes to the number of victims who fell for extortion schemes on the Web in 2016 and the first few days of this year. The objective of criminal syndicates and solo fraudsters for financial frauds on the Internet like this online extortion scam is to lure unsuspecting users into their cyber traps. What they've been reported to do is target middle-aged married men and women who hang out in the most popular dating sites and apps in the USA, Canada, Australia, the UK, certain Asian countries and some EU territories.
They pose as legitimate users of their target Web dating platforms. They then entice their intended victims by creating fake profiles with details that exactly match the ideal dates of their targets. These scammers then contact their unsuspecting victims and trick them into engaging in intimate conversations with them. Similar to other financial frauds and extortion scams, some fraudsters try to come up with all types of sob stories that can convince victims to send cash to them.
However, the majority of scammers and criminal syndicates that operate similar extortion scams and financial frauds want bigger sums of money. They need to put more serious stuff at stake just to force their victims to comply with their demands. So, what they do is threaten to publish recordings of their voice chats and screenshots of their messaging logs all over the Internet. If that doesn't work, then what they do is threaten to directly send those recordings and screenshots to their victim's spouse, children, employers, friends and colleagues. That usually works, in most cases.
Fake tech support is next in this list of today's top online extortion scams and financial frauds. This is where solo scammers and criminal syndicates distribute malicious code all around the Web to penetrate their target systems, which are usually Microsoft, Android and iOS-powered devices. This malware freezes the OS (operating system) and the default Web browser. It then displays a pop-up message that can't be easily closed.
Similar to other financial frauds like phishing scams, this pop-up is laced with fake urgency claims and scare rhetoric. This forces many victims to call the toll free number in the pop-up, which is falsely advertised as the official support number of household tech brands like Microsoft, Apple and so on. When their victims call this number, scammers who pose as legitimate tech support agents of these credible companies trick users into paying hefty sums of money for the fake service of removing non-existent malware from the victim's device. In reality, they just simply remove the malicious code that they placed in the victim's device.
It might be in your best interest to share this with those around you. By doing this, you can help them avoid these extortion scams and other related financial frauds today. You might also want to remind them to sign up at BigScammers.Com to receive instant email notifications and real time fraud alerts about the newest online extortion scams and Web crimes this year.