Do You Feel Guilty About Being Scammed?

There are many crimes for which the victim is likely to feel angry, upset, threatened and so on but there are also crimes for which the victim may feel partially or completely to blame.

Fraud is one of those crimes that leaves many people feeling foolish for having fallen for it and this is a key reason why a high percentage of frauds are thought to go unreported.

A recent Barclays survey of 1,500 people who have been victims of fraud shows that one in four fraud victims has not even told their partner what happened. The same number feel that being scammed would be more embarrassing than doing a live performance or being stood up on a date.

The words “stupid” and “angry” are commonly used. Yet the survey also suggests that it happens to all of us. For this reason, Barclays ran a series of “Embarrassing Fraud Clinics”, in places such as shopping centres, where the public could talk about their concerns. The idea was to get the message out that we are all potential victims but there is no shame in being defrauded.

Barclays Advice on Dealing with Fraud

  1. Don’t feel guilty

Do not feel ashamed and guilty. Instead remember that fraud happens to people from all walks of life.

  1. Contact the police

Report it to Action Fraud and your bank (if relevant). The quicker you do this, the more likely you are to recover any losses.

  1. Get advice from your bank (if relevant) e.g. Barclays say they are happy to offer such advice.
  2. Talk about it with friends, relatives, colleagues. Spreading the word raises awareness of fraud and helps other victims to deal with it.

Advice on Protecting Yourself Against Fraud by Scammers Claiming to be from Your Bank

  1. Never give your online banking PIN, passcode or password to anyone, even a caller claiming to be from the police or your bank.
  2. Your bank or the police will never ask for your details by text, email or phone, or request that you transfer money or make a payment to a “safe” account.
  3. Don’t rely on the caller display on your phone or SMS messages claiming to be from Barclays – fraudsters can manipulate these.
  4. Always cover your PIN to prevent anyone from seeing it, and don’t let anyone distract you during a transaction

Stay safe!

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Fake Emergency Help Messages

For some time, people have been receiving fake emergency text messages from scammers.

Often, the message seems to be from a friend and claims the sender is in an emergency situation and desperately needs money to get home or to pay hospital bills or to pay hotel bills etc. Usually the sender claims to have been mugged or their hotel room robbed or their phone has been stolen so they have had to borrow one etc.

It’s always an emergency and only you can help.

Most people have learned that these scams happen and will either ignore such a message or attempt to verify it rather than simply sending out money.

Here’s an example of an email version of this scam, where the scammer has taken the trouble to learn the name of a family member (probably from social media).

I’m hoping you get this on time as i’m writing with a troubled heart i knew it was a long shot and i should have thought of all this sooner,i couldn’t inform everyone Hannah has been diagnosed with advance liver cancer. We have been going through a lot with the Chemo it’s been very challenging for us so we both decided to get away from this saddening times just the two of us we are in Istanbul, Turkey everything was fine until on our way back to the hotel we were attacked and robbed all cash, credit card and mobile phones were stolen.

 We are working with the local authorities providing details for investigation this process might take days due to some paper works, I’ve also made contact with my bank in order to block our cards also it would take 3-5 working days to process funds into my account which i can’t access from here, the bad news is our flight will be leaving very soon but I am having problems with the hotel bills. I need your help i am sorry if i got you at the wrong time but could you please loan me some money  I’ll appreciate whatsoever you can give if you can’t help with everything and I promise to make the refund once I get back home safely.

If you receive an emergency message from someone you know, asking for money – do verify it’s real before sending money.

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.

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Emergency Help Messages – Real or Fake?

For some time, people have been receiving fake emergency text messages from scammers.

The message seems to be from a friend and claims the sender is an emergency situation and desperately needs money to get home or to pay hospital bills or to pay hotel bills etc. Usually the sender claims to have been mugged or their hotel room robbed or similar, their phone has been stolen so they have had to borrow one etc.

It’s always an emergency and only you can help.

Most people have learned that these scams happen and will either ignore such a message or attempt to verify it rather than simply sending out money.

This case is the same kind of message but by email.

The email is from someone I know but he is not a close friend and he would have dozens of people he’d turn to in an emergency before turning to me.

I’m hoping you get this on time as i’m writing with a troubled heart i knew it was a long shot and i should have thought of all this sooner,i couldn’t inform everyone Hannah has been diagnosed with advance liver cancer. I’m still trying to digest this very bad news whether with the will to live or not we have been going through a lot with the Chemo it’s been very challenging for us so we both decided to get away from this saddening times just the two of us we are in Istanbul, Turkey everything was fine until on our way back to the hotel we were attacked and robbed all cash, credit card and mobile phones were stolen.

They had a knife poking my neck for two minutes i was scared and felt the deepest fear I’ve never felt before, we took precautions to ensure our safety and we are working with the local authorities providing details for investigation this process might take days due to some paper works, I’ve also made contact with my bank in order to block our cards also it would take 3-5 working days to process funds into my account which i can’t access from here, the bad news is our flight will be leaving very soon but I am having problems with the hotel bills. I need your help i am sorry if i got you at the wrong time but could you please loan me some money  I’ll appreciate whatsoever you can give if you can’t help with everything and I promise to make the refund once I get back home safely.

An obvious scam and hopefully no-one who received it will send any money.

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.

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What Are The Most Popular Spam Subjects?

Bitcoin is really popular with scammers currently – endless scam messages with titles such as “Ride the wave of Bitcoin”. That’s likely to keep being popular till Bitcoin crashes (if it ever does)

Herpes cures – titles such as “Get rid of it fast” sent from dozens of different names.

The ever popular Flight Simulator game is still on Clickbank paying very high commission to anyone who can get you to click onto their site and buy:-
“Are you a Good Pilot?”

“Learn to Fly Any Plane”

“Fly Anywhere in the World”

Then there’s always Shark Tank best product ever examples, such as :-

“Get Your Weight Back With This Shake”

 “Super Slimming”

“This Product Changes Everything”

Although Shark Tank is a perfectly good American TV series, the name is used extensively by scammers  so a mention of Shark Tank almost ensures the message is a scam.

Russian girls love you. Endless emails claiming to be a Russian girl who thinks you are cute. More likely it’s some ugly guys in a garage, churning out this trash, looking for victims.  ”My name is Maria and I’m from Russia”.

“Earn a guaranteed $13,000 in 24 hours” If it was true then the scammer wouldn’t need to send out such messages to catch desperate people.

Then there’s hair restorer claims still popular with scammers – gives you a full head of hair within days.

The basic scams stay the same but are often dressed in new clothes to con new people.

All very sad.

Do you have an opinion on this matter? Please comment in the box below.

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