Phone scam has been reported worldwide. Victims are everywhere and of any age groups. Everyone needs to be on guard. Knowing some of the most notable types of scam can be useful.
1. Online payday loan
When getting phone call offering this kind of loan, people who are truly in need may not think about it through. With a very short term and high interest rate, it will be hard to return the loan.
Not only that, the personal data provided during the application process can lead to a scam, which means double trouble.
2. Call back scam
Without accessing personal information, scammers can still take away your money. This type of scam is quite popular as it only requires scammers to ring the victims’ phones for a few seconds and leave some convincing made up voice messages informing some kind of urgency. If the victims fall for the trap and call the scammers back, they will charged (usually international call or premium rate) and lose money. A high number of this kind of phone scam was reported in Australia in 2019.
3. Study or job offer scam
Targeting low income family members, the culprit tries to lure the victims by offering a study program or a job. The scammers will either ask a lot of questions or ask the victims to fill out a form to collect their personal data, which usually includes bank account details. Sometimes the victims are even required to pay a small amount of money in the recruitment process.
4. Fake telemarketer
The scammers of this type will pretend to be a part of a committee, non-profit organization or charity or a sales agent. The victims will be encouraged to pay, invest or donate while providing personal data, as well. Winning a prize and big financial profits are the common bait for this type.
5. Spoofing
It is one of most common cyber crime. The fraudsters pretend to be individuals or organization representatives that the victims are familiar with. Spoofing comes in various forms: emails, phone calls, text massages, and websites. All the criminals need is clicking a link and pressing a button.
6. Payment protection scam
Payment protection ensures the possibility of not paying credit card bills due to unemployment, disability or death. Scammers of this type will pretend to be companies’ staff and ask for personal data details to proceed with the payment protection claim.
Therefore, proposing this protection claim directly to the company is the only way to avoid this scam.
7. Phishing
It means voice phishing and it occurs via voice calls. The criminals try to entice their victims in attempts to access their confidential data (identity theft). Just like any other kinds of scam, a financial gain is what they are after.
8. Tech support scam
A lot of people cannot quite keep up with the pace of more advanced technology and sophisticated communication devices, which makes it easier for scammers to hide their true, mean intentions in the name of technology support. In this case, scammers will inform that there are some problems with the victims’ devices (this is of course made up), then suggest and offer solutions. When they believe the drama, they will be asked to pay a certain amount of money, usually via money transfer applications.
9. Lottery and winning scam
The criminals will use their enthusiastic voice to convince people that they have won a large amount of money, then they will continue talking with a sense of urgency, forcing their victims to believe that they have to do what is asked immediately. While this may be hard to spot behind all the enthusiasm, there are these three signs which will tell you that it is, for sure, just a scam:
- Having to pay for “shipping, processing or handling charges and taxes” before the prize is given
They will say things, like “if you do not pay or transfer now, you will lose the prize.”
- Having to pay increase the chance of winning
Winning a lottery is by chance, and no amount of money can secure a winning place.
- Being asked to reveal personal financial information, like bank account and credit card number.
10. Pension Liberation Fraud
Pension is usually accessible when employees are at least 55 years old. Pension liberation scheme allows people to use their pension funds before the age of 55. Things that people tend to overlook when offered this kind of fraud are the high fees, tax consequences and the interest rates of pension loans.