10 tricks of scammers that even smart people fall for

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Charlatans play on our weaknesses and masterfully extort money. But this can be resisted.

This article is part of the "" project. In it, we declare war on everything that prevents people from living and becoming better: breaking laws, believing in nonsense, deceit and fraud. If you've come across a similar experience, share your stories in the comments.

Do you think that only narrow-minded people fall into the clutches of scammers, and you are not in danger? Who now believes that they won an iPhone or inherited an inheritance from an unfamiliar rich uncle? But swindlers do not just make their living on bread and butter: they can find an approach to almost anyone.

How is it most often bred

1. Fees for treatment

Fraudulent scheme

Information about a seriously ill child who urgently needs expensive treatment, medicine, equipment or something else is posted on the Internet. The ad contains photographs and even medical documents, but often the images are unclear and the medical history is incomplete. And, of course, the card number to which you need to transfer money.

Unfortunately, children really suffer from serious illnesses, including cancer, and their relatives are raising funds for treatment. By the beginning of 2018, 25,000 children were registered in medical institutions. Therefore, desperate parents can really be the authors of ads on the Internet.

But there is a rather big chance that behind such posts are scammers who simply stole other people's photos and scans of documents, possibly changed the data in graphic editors and use it for profit. Sometimes they even create clones of charity sites.

How not to get caught

Check information: request a full package of documents and reports on funds received and spent, skip pictures and scans through a photo search in Google. You can find out the number of the hospital where the person is being treated and call there to check if they really have such a patient. If the collection is carried out on behalf of a charitable foundation, it is worth finding official contacts and clarifying whether the organization is really involved in this.

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2. Fake Buyer

Fraudulent scheme

You display your goods on Avito, Yulia or other Internet sites for the sale of used things. A potential buyer calls you, asks a couple of questions. Sometimes even at this stage, you can suspect that something was wrong: the questions are very superficial and give out that the interlocutor does not understand at all what he wants to buy. Then the “buyer” begins to lament that he lives far away or is now away. And he offers to send a courier or a taxi driver, and transfer the payment to the card.

Then, for some reason, he needs not only your card number, but also the date of issue, the owner's name and surname and, most importantly, the three-digit CVC code. The explanations are usually rather vague: supposedly the funds are transferred from the account of the organization, there is a more complicated procedure and stuff like that. This data may already be enough to leave you without money, but sometimes fraudsters still ask you to tell them the code from the SMS.

Often all this happens in a hurry and nervousness, because an irritated taxi driver or courier is already standing nearby. Having seized the code, scammers can pay for purchases with your card or transfer money to another account.

How not to get caught

Do not tell anyone CVC, and even less the code from SMS, only a 16- or 18-digit number is needed for the transfer. If you still fell for the bait of scammers and told them all the data, urgently call the bank and block the card.

3. Downed pedestrian

Fraudulent scheme

The victim backs up or drives slowly through the yards. Suddenly, someone falls to the ground with a scream in front of the car. The driver jumps out of the car in horror and sees a crumpled man who claims that he was hit and that he is going to go to the police.

By the way, there is a "random" witness nearby, who, of course, filmed everything on video and agrees to help the victim. They demand money from the driver for a peaceful solution to the conflict, he agrees, otherwise he will at least be deprived of his rights and obliged to pay a fine.

How not to get caught

To begin with, put a video recorder, which will show that you did not violate the traffic rules, and the pedestrian himself threw himself under the wheels.

There is no registrar, but are you sure you are not to blame? Themselves insist on calling the police: the scammers then retreat. If possible, look for witnesses and ask security cameras, sellers, employees of the management company for recordings from security cameras - depending on where the incident occurred.

4. Bottle under the bumper

Fraudulent scheme

This trick is used to lure a person out of the car. Fraudsters discreetly place an empty five-liter plastic bottle under the front bumper. The driver hears a crunch and rattle, gets out of the car, looks under the bumper. Meanwhile, money and valuables are being pulled out of the salon.

There are many such techniques: they can puncture a wheel, throw a bag of kefir onto the windshield. And all with one goal: for the driver to come out to see what was going on and leave the door unlocked.

How not to get caught

Always block the doors of the car, even if you go out, as it seems to you, for a second.

5. Costumed gasmen, ZhEKovtsy and other specialists

Fraudulent scheme

Swindlers go from door to door, posing as insurers, employees of gas services, management companies, and so on. They check the stoves, pipes and communications, always find a breakdown and offer to install expensive equipment, for example, meters or a gas analyzer, which will react to a leak and help to avoid a fire and explosion.

Fraudsters can press, manipulate, intimidate. For example, they claim that without a special device, a gas leak may occur in the near future, which threatens with an explosion and collapse - as during the tragedy in Magnitogorsk.

If the tenants nevertheless agree to install the device, it later turns out that it is completely useless. And this, one might say, is still a positive outcome of a meeting with such swindlers. In some cases, the case may end up with an apartment robbery.

How not to get caught

Do not open the door until you find out from which organization they came to you and what the names of the visitors are. Then call the management company or the gas service to see if such employees have been sent to your home.

6. An acquaintance in trouble

Fraudulent scheme

On the page of a friend on the social network, it appears that he had a grief. A close relative dies, someone had an accident, someone was arrested. I urgently need help, transfer money, here is the card number. Sometimes even photos of medical documents are attached to the post.

Mailing to friends begins. Anyone who responded to a request for help and sent some amount soon finds out that he helped scammers earn money: the page was hacked, and the images of documents were stolen from other sources and changed in graphic editors.

There is another, more dramatic version of the same divorce. The scammers call or write to the victim, saying that her loved one is in trouble and in order to help him out, money needs to be transferred. The options may be different: caught on drugs, hitting a person, killing someone, fighting. Now he is detained and cannot speak himself. The most advanced adventurers call as if from the personal phone number of the "culprit" - using programs that substitute numbers.

How not to get caught

Check the information carefully, ask questions, the answers to which only the real owner of the page can know. Contact your friend or his loved ones by phone, email or other social network.

7. Chickens of the city of N

Fraudulent scheme

A stranger writes to a girl on a social network; he introduces himself as an administrator of the group "Chickens of the city of such and such", "Whores of the city of such and such" and similar dubious communities. She says that a post about her was thrown into the proposed community news. Its author claims that she is not too picky about sex and, in general, a woman with reduced social responsibility. To be sure, the fraudster shows a screenshot of the very news: there is a photograph of a girl and a couple of unflattering epithets.

Then the swindler offers to delete the post - of course, for a fee. The victim, although he knows that this is a lie, is afraid for his reputation and transfers the money.

How not to get caught

Alas, in no way, except perhaps not to use social networks. But if they try to blackmail you in this way, the best strategy is to write a complaint to tech support and block the scammers. Or threaten them with a statement to the police for libel and insults.

8. Blocked card

Fraudulent scheme

You receive a message that the card is blocked. To unblock it, you need to call the phone number indicated in the SMS.

Further events can develop in different ways. For example, the call will be paid and you will be charged money. Or you will be taken to a "bank employee" who will try to extract from you full information about the card, including CVC and SMS confirmation code. And then, you know, the bill can noticeably lose weight.

By the way, such messages and calls do not always come from unknown numbers. Sometimes fraudsters use programs that imitate real bank numbers.

How not to get caught

When you receive a message or call, take your time to follow the instructions. Dial the phone number on the back of your card and tell the staff what happened. In addition, no real bank employee will ask you for a code from an SMS.

9. Tea shenanigans

Fraudulent scheme

On the street, promoters approach the victim and persistently invite him to a free tea tasting. After the treat, they offer to buy a product with a big discount: "Only today, only now, only for you, you are such a pleasant customer." And the sums are not penny - about 2,000 rubles for a pack of tea.

When people refuse, they are asked to pay at least a little for the tasting. They press on pity: allegedly the manager is fined if the client does not buy anything. During tea drinking, manipulative techniques are used: they chatter with a tongue twister, touch a person, often call him by name. And in this way - by blackmail, threats, requests and complaints - they still extort money from the victim.

A similar scheme is used by beauty salons. They invite people for supposedly free cosmetic procedures and, with the help of psychological pressure, force them to buy a whole suitcase of “unique” and “very effective” cosmetics worth a monthly salary. Often on credit.

How not to get caught

Perhaps there is only one piece of advice. Do not go to any procedures in unfamiliar salons and categorically refuse offers from street barkers. Because if you are still lured into some action or tasting, it will be quite difficult to leave with a full wallet: the scammers are good at various manipulation techniques. You yourself will not notice how you give them your money.

10. Money or fine

Fraudulent scheme

The fraudster finds a car that is parked in violation of traffic rules. Under the janitor, he puts a note demanding to transfer money, for example, 500 rubles, to a Qiwi wallet. He threatens that if the owner of the car does not do this, then the photo evidence of the violation will be sent to the traffic police and then you will have to pay a fine of up to 5,000 rubles.

How not to get caught

First, park by the rules. Secondly, throw out the leaflet with a threat: even if you pay the scammers, nothing prevents them from fulfilling their promise and sending pictures. It is worth accepting in advance that you may receive a fine for incorrect parking.

How to resist the tricks of charlatans

All fraudulent schemes are always based on speculation with our own fears and vices. Swindlers first build up tension, cause feelings of anxiety or greed, and excessive excitement appears. In this state, a person feels the need to perform actions in order to get what he wants as soon as possible.

And here the fraudster, as it were, offers help, acts as a savior, a support in a critical situation. A person is taught what needs to be done to save himself from problems with the law, big waste, or, conversely, to make a profit. Our threshold of criticality decreases, sympathy arises, an unconscious trust in the interlocutor.

What fears do scammers most often speculate on?

• Fear of saying “no” and, as a result, seem rude, ill-mannered, insensitive.
• Fear of making a decision. By doing this on our own, we become vulnerable: we are not always sure that we are right, we are not always ready to bear responsibility for the consequences. Scammers offer a ready-made solution.
• Fear of being deprived of freedom, money, or familiar comfort.
• Fear of losing loved ones.
• Fear of missing out on opportunities to improve your life.

The scam scenario is always based on the predictability of human behavior in stressful situations. Thus, the plot is, as it were, predetermined from the very beginning. If you fall under the influence of deceivers, your task is to change the script so that everything does not go according to their plan.

What should you do?

• Maintain physical and emotional distance from adventurers.

  Critically evaluate each intervention and ask yourself the questions: "Why am I going to take this action?", "What will they get if I do this?"

• Behave contrary to expected reactions. Take the initiative away from the scammers, start directing this show yourself. For example, someone who faked a traffic incident expects you to resent, upset, argue, or cry. Instead, sing a song, dance, pretend to be dumb - don't be afraid to sound weird. The more unusual your behavior, the faster you will disarm the swindlers.
• Asking questions that don't fit the script to divert the cheater's attention to another topic and break the pattern. For example, if they are trying to find out your card details and you cannot break the contact (leave, hang up), you can say something like: “Hey, what are your cool sneakers! Where did you get it? Let me try it on, our size seems to be the same. What do you feel sorry for? " And then ask the most ridiculous questions until you discourage your "well-wisher".