How To Spot Internet Scammers

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After existing on planet earth for some time, it’s safe to say that almost every adult has encountered a scammer in their life (I know I have!). People who you meet on the streets and they start selling you fake or expired products, people who receive your payment and run away without delivering services or goods you paid them for, etc. The reality is that we are all too aware of scammers in the physical world. After existing on planet earth for some time, it’s safe to say that almost every adult has encountered a scammer in their life (I know I have!). People who you meet on the streets and they start selling you fake or expired products, people who receive your payment and run away without delivering services or goods you paid them for, etc. The reality is that we are all too aware of scammers in the physical world.

Our reality now is that we live in a world of the internet! As such, we have to open ourselves to the idea that internet scammers exist on the World Wide Web. These days, especially now with the Covid-19 pandemic, most of us spend a lot of time online either working, playing games, social networking, online dating, social media, and even plain communication with family and friends. As easy as it is to do all of the aforementioned, so it is for us to become victims of internet scammers.

One of the popular ways this has happened is through accepting Facebook friend requests. The scammer does their research on your profile once they have established you as the target, they may guess that you won’t accept their request for obvious reasons so they randomly choose one of your other Facebook friends and become their friends. Once that happens then they can request your friendship and like me in the past, one will accept the request since they have a mutual friend.

Almost immediately after accepting the request, the scammers try to build momentum by chatting you up. The innocent chats gradually start evolving into flirtations, endearing terms just to hold your attention while they do their background check on you. You know like in the spy movies when the bad guys or good guys want to get the other person’s location, they call then and begin chatting them up long enough for them to trace their location? Sorry been watching lots of movies 

Anyways, during that time they ask you what you do for work or/and other personal information but in an ever so smooth way that you won’t be suspicious! Then they say that they want to send you expensive gifts from overseas just because. Usually, at this point, you are not a complete victim yet, until you send over your personal shipping details expecting gifts. What ends up happening is that since you’ve taken interest in their free gifts, they try to scam you by asking you to pay for some taxes, duty fees, etc that come with international shipping. They tell you that the gifts got stuck at a certain country border and only you can pay for them, but they will reimburse you as soon as the gift arrives. And, alas! this is how people have been manipulated into sending substantial sums of money to strangers not knowing that they are being scammed. Some people even go to the airports to pick up their packages only to realize then that it was all too good to be true and that in that story there is no HEA (Happily ever after).

How do you sniff out internet scammers? If something sounds too good and too easy, think very carefully before committing to it in any way. Even if the offer has a limited timeline, STOP, consult with someone you trust, research, and research! More often than not, one or two Google searches will lead you to an answer or someone else asking about the same thing. In one case that I know of, the scammer claimed to be from the UK, but their English writing was not adding up. Because these scammers are usually targeting multiple people, the chances of them missing a step are usually high, but they count on you not noticing the tiny details!

I hope that was helpful, stay safe and avoid internet scammers!


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