What are some common types of scams?

1. Advance fee fraud

A scammer requests fees upfront or personal information in return for goods, services, money or rewards that they never supply.

Scammers invent convincing and seemingly genuine reasons for requesting payment, such as to cover fees or taxes. 

They often ask for payment by international wire transfer.

These scams are commonly mass-marketed with scammers sending them out to thousands of people all over the world at the same time, usually by mail or email.

2. Lottery, sweepstakes and competition scams

An email, letter or text message from an overseas lottery or sweepstakes company arrives from out of nowhere.

It says you have won a lot of money or fantastic prizes in a lottery or sweepstakes competition you did not enter.

These scams try to trick you into giving money upfront or your personal details in order to receive the prize.

Scammers typically claim that you need to pay fees or taxes before your winnings or prize can be released. 

You may also have to call or text a premium rate phone number to claim your prize. 

Remember you cannot win a prize if you haven’t entered.

3. Dating and romance scams

Scammers create fake profiles on legitimate dating websites. 

They use these profiles to try to enter into a relationship with you so they can get a hold of your money and personal details.

The scammer will develop a strong rapport with you then ask for money to help cover costs associated with illness, injury, travel or a family crisis.

Scammers seek to exploit your emotions by pulling on your heart strings. Sometimes the scammers will take months and months to build up the rapport.

4. Computer hacking

Phishing emails are commonly used by scammers to trick you into giving them access to your computer. 

They ‘fish’ for your personal details by encouraging you to click on a link or attachment. 

If you click, malicious software will be installed and the hacker will have access to files and information stored on your computer.

A phishing email often appears to come from an organisation that you know and trust, like a bank or financial institution, asking you to enter your account password on a fake copy of the site’s login page. 

If you provide your account details, the scammer can hack into your account and take control of your profile.

5. Online shopping, classified and auction scams

Scammers like shopping online for victims. Not getting what you paid for is a common scam targeting online shoppers. 

A scammer will sell a product and send a faulty or inferior quality item, or nothing at all. They may also pretend to sell a product just to gather your credit card or bank account details. 

These scams can also be found on reputable online classified pages. 

An online auction scam involves a scammer claiming that you have a second chance to buy an item that you placed a bid on because the winner has pulled out. 

The scammer will ask you to pay outside of the auction site’s secure payment facility.

If you do, your money will be lost and the auction site will not be able to help you.

6. Banking, credit card and online account scams

Scammers send emails or text messages that appear to be from your bank, a financial institution or an online payment service. 

They usually claim that there is a problem with your account and request that you verify your details on a fake but convincing copy of the bank’s website.

Card skimming is the copying of information from the magnetic strip of a credit card or automatic teller machine (ATM) card. 

Scammers skim your card by putting a discreet attachment on an ATM or EFTPOS machine. They may even install a camera to capture your pin. 

Once your card is skimmed, scammers can create copies and make charges to your account.

7. Small business scams

If you own a small business you can be targeted by scams such as the issuing of fake bills for unwanted or unauthorised listings, advertisements, products or services.

A well-known example is where you receive a bill for a listing in a supposedly well-known business directory.

Scammers trick you to sign up by disguising the offer as an outstanding invoice or a free entry, but with a hidden subscription agreement in the fine print. 

Scammers can also call your business pretending that a service or product has already been ordered and ask for payment over the phone.

8. Job and employment scams

These scams involve offers to work from home or set up and invest in a business opportunity. Scammers promise a job, high salary or large investment return following initial upfront payments.

These payments may be for a business plan, training course, software, uniforms, security clearance, taxes or fees. 

These scams are often promoted through spam email or advertisements in well-known classifieds, including websites.

9. Golden opportunity and gambling scams

Scams often begin with an unexpected phone call or email from a scammer offering a not-to-be-missed high return or guaranteed investment in shares, real estate, options or foreign currency trading. 

While it may seem convincing, in reality the scammer will take your money and you will never receive the promised returns. 

Another scam promises to accurately predict the results of horse races, sports events, stock market movements or lotteries. 

Scammers promise you huge returns based on past results and trends. In order to participate, you may be asked to pay for membership fees, special calculators, newsletter subscriptions or computer software programs.

10. Charity and medical scams

Scammers are unscrupulous and take advantage of people who want to donate to a good cause or find an answer to a health problem.

Charity scams involve scammers collecting money by pretending to work for a legitimate cause or charity, or a fictitious one they have created.

Often scammers will exploit a recent natural disaster or crisis that has been in the news.

They may also play on your emotions by claiming to collect for a cause that will secure your sympathy, for example to help sick children.

Medical scams offer a range of products and services that can appear to be legitimate alternative medicines, usually promising quick and effective remedies for serious medical conditions.

The treatments are often promoted using false testimonies from people who have been cured.

The best website to Upload scam details:  https://www.scamalert.sg/

Customs Scam Alert

The Person behind the below story

Name: Henry William, the most dangerous customs cheater sends friend requests to unknown persons mainly targeting woman.

Slowly makes them trust towards him and he will say that he will send you gifts and parcel and sends this type of pics after that you will get a call to clear customs clearance once you paid that amount you will be asked to pay other amount this process continues, it's happen to one of my friends. Please be care of this person, please share to save others from his trap.

New Delhi, Dec 31 (PTI) If you get a phone call or email claiming customs officers have stopped clearance of gift or parcel for want of a certain amount towards import duty, then beware, you are being duped.

The customs department has been getting a number of complaints from across the country on this latest modus operandi of fraudsters, following which a precautionary alert has been issued.

"Instances have come to the notice that number of persons are getting telephonic calls as well as e-mail and letters by post asking them to deposit money in individual bank accounts claiming that customs officer have stopped clearance/release of gift parcels/rewards unless a certain amount is deposited towards customs duties, penalties etc. and a bank account number is also given where the money is to be deposited," the Delhi customs said in a public notice.

Another common modus operandi is to send an e-mail stating that the recipient has won a prize or a parcel has been sent and money needs to be deposited, it said.

"All such calls/mail are fake with the sole intention of cheating the public. The general public is hereby notified and forewarned not to respond to such fake calls/mails as customs officers do not make telephonic calls or send such mails to deposit amounts in individual bank accounts," the recently- issued notice said.

The customs department is not responsible in any way for such fraudulent incidents and complaints, if any, in this regard may be made to the police, it suggested.

In a recent case, a daughter of a senior IPS officer has been duped of Rs 50,000, a senior custom officer said.

He said the victim was asked to deposit Rs 50,000 in a bank account of a person she befriended on the Internet.

"The accused claimed to be a native of London and chatted using a fraudulent ID. The girl said that the accused claimed to have been stopped by customs officers for want of clearance of an expensive gift brought by him for her. The girl then deposited the money in his account only to realise it later that she was duped," the officer said.

Another such case had come from Hyderabad where a woman was duped of a large amount of money following the same modus operandi, he said.

"What is happening in a majority of cases is that accused pose as a single girl/woman living abroad. After befriending victims over the Internet and at times through phone calls,the accused would then seek money in a bank account for payment of customs duty against a precious gift claimed to have been brought by her. People get in this trap and deposit money in the account only to lose it," the officer said. PTI AKV AAR

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