We’re curating a list of Top 100 common internet scams used by cyber criminals and fraudsters. Go through them and be wise to safegaurd yourself when you see something similar.
If you’ve uneathered a scam and its not in our list, feel free to submit it 🙂
0Email scams are the most common ways of scamming people dated back to when the hotmail and yahoo's of the world started.
The current email spam filters are strong enough to establish malicious or fradulent emails. However, a few of those make way into our inbox - all credit to the creativity used by the cyber criminal in making it seem legit.
Here are a few examples of Email Scams:
1. The Fake Social Network Email.
The cyber criminal will send you an email stating that your account is being accessed by someone else. To stop this activity you have to immediately login to your account and secure it with a two-factor authentication.
As you read this, there is a sense of urgency created in your mind. Your heart is pumping and you want to take action as soon as possible. So you click the button and land on a site that looks exactly like the real one. You enter your credentials and it works exactly as the original social networking site would. Just that it's not the original site. Its a phishing site created by the hacker which will save your login information and then redirect you to the original site - as if nothing bad happened.
2. Nigerian 419 scam
This is a simple scam. Someone contacts you stating they have millions of dollars that they want to move out of their country and into your bank account. To do that, they have to pay a fee which is a very nominal amount, eg: $100. You are asked to pay that fee if you want $10 million in your bank account. You pay the nominal amount and then you never hear back from the person again. This scam started and was very popular in Nigeria and hence it got the name the Nigerian 419 scam. It is also called as the advance fee scam - a scam which lures you by promise of a large return if you paid a small advance fee.
0The infamous chain letter that swoop the US back in 1930's keeps coming back again and again in history in various forms.
The original chain letter is known as Send-A-Dime or Prosperity club. This is possibly the first version of the Money Chain Letter which requested people to send a dime to the name and address of the person via snail mail and replace the name with their own at the bottom and forward it to 5 people.
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Prosperity Club
In God we trustMiss Jeanne Paris, 404-5th Street, Bismarck, N. Dak.
Miss Isabel Clark, Capital Commercial College, Bismark, No. Dak.
Mr. Jimmy Lies, Fessenden, No Dak.
Mr. Marvin O Miller, Fessenden, North Dakota
Miss Emma Keiper, Fessenden, North Dakota
Miss Caroline Billingmierer, Fessenden, North Dak.Hope--Faith--Charity.
This chain was started in the hope of bringing you prosperity. Within three days make five copies of this letter leaving off the top name and address and adding your own name and address at the bottom and mail to five of your friends to whom you wish prosperity to come.
Im omitting the top name, send that person ten cents as a charity donation. In turn when your name reaches the top of the list you will receive 15,625 letters with donations amounting to $1,562.50.
Is this worth ten cents to you?
Have the faith your friends had and this chain will not be broken. [1935-05]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A similar version was started by crypto currency enthusiasts. Since the blockchain enables complete anonymous payments, this seems to be more successful than the original one.
Below is an edited version of the same. Instead of snail mail or facebook messages, this one seems to have gone viral on WhatsApp.
Bitcoin Club
In Satoshi we trust
1KmnQCHnRjPkCopjEzxzmZ1tJrsYKmA9mp
1DeSoSVT1E6AR6rUdA4iDkNncW9MbmG3rE
1Bwxoo48W6NkJnMipmnecXL3CyDixDWpWz
1BvXFd1M9tzWNKLFoXDentuMu65AX1BxgV
1N19dkoT1h8BY1EuAQjQMYVWEy8az7khre13tWU9MenFDBG2EvD89QbprCGUm6WBYm4t
Hope--Faith—Prosperity.
This chain was started in the hope of bringing you prosperity. Within five hours of receiving this message, forward it by deleting the top bitcoin wallet number and adding your own bitcoin wallet number at the bottom and send it to five of your friends to whom you wish prosperity to come.
In deleting the top name, send that person $10 as a goodwill gesture. In turn when your name reaches the top of the list you will receive goodwill amounting to $156250
Is this worth $10 to you?
Have the faith your friends had and this chain will not be broken.
