Written by: Aarav Timilsina - 28028, Grade VIII
Posted on: 28 August, 2023
Scams are defined as dishonest schemes and scandals that deceive or trick individuals into sharing personal information, sending money or buying phoney subscriptions or items. They often exploit trust, fear, or ignorance to achieve their goals. Scammers use various methods such as sending emails, fraudulent phone calls, fake websites, and social tactics to scam their targets. Common types of scams include lottery scams, romance scams, investment scams, and identity theft. All of these scams can be conducted via the internet. In fact, the internet is a great place for con artists and scammers to set their business because it is easier to trick people into scams when there is no human contact needed. Catfishes also fall under the category of “romance scams”, catfishes are people who pretend to be someone famous or conventionally attractive to profit off of matches by asking them to send money.
Frauds and Scams have become more popular and common over the years, studies and statistics show that in the last 5 years almost 42% of people from India received scam alerts, texts or any sort of scam. India has one of the largest known, scam businesses in the world . They mainly rely on call centres. A call centre or call centre is a managed capability that can be centralised or remote that is used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of enquiries by telephone. A lot of Crimes can be committed by the help of call centres. Scammers disguise themselves as tele-marketers and deceive vulnerable people. By vulnerable people I mean, aged people and young children. They are the type of people that can be easily blackmailed, deceived or tricked into these scams. Some even use threats and aggravation to intimidate the receiver. There are also ‘Mobile Scams’ that target children, even though most mobile games are free, almost all of them have an in-game payment system often labelled as VIP passes or subscriptions. These passes consist of eye-catching rewards and benefits that can draw a child’s attention. Some of these games don't even have a pre-pay system, the game charges you money after a certain amount of time. Some prices are reasonable but still I believe it’s still a scam because it encourages unsupervised children to spend their parents money without their notice. Children cannot be trusted and if a company takes advantage of a child’s incapability to think for themselves and poor financial decisions I believe there needs to be action taken against them.
To avoid scams, remember to be extremely cautious of offers that sound too good to be true, scammers often promise huge rewards. Never publicly share your personal information regarding social security , bank credentials unless there is a believable privacy and safety policy attached, double-check URLs and emails for spelling errors, as scammers use fake websites and emails. We all should spread awareness about this issue as scammers can ruin a person’s life by stealing something like their credit card info . We need to take action and report to the authorities if any scam call was received . Always remember to stay safe from scammers in real life and virtually .
Reference:
Online-scams
