The Dangers of the Internet – The ‘Romantic’ Scammer, the ‘Friend’ and the… Business ‘Opportunity’ – What to Look Out For

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Fraudsters are mainly focusing on new ways to trick and defraud citizens by extracting their personal account details

With online transactions and in general electronic transactions continuing to experience rapid growth internationally and in our country during the last three years, due to the emergence of the pandemic, fraud has increased both in absolute number and in terms of in the forms in which they appear.

Fraudsters mainly focus on new ways to trick and deceive citizens by extracting their personal account information (pin, passwords, etc.) as well as on frauds regarding investment products that ensure – as the fraudsters emphasize – high returns.

In this context, at the end of 2021, the campaign to inform and raise awareness of the public about electronic fraud was launched, which with the cooperation of the forces of the Ministry of Citizen Protection, the Bank of Greece, the Hellenic Police and the Hellenic Banks Association (HBA) has made a decisive contribution in the decline in the number of incidents of electronic fraud for the first time after the continuous rise experienced in recent months, which creates optimism, but leaves no room for complacency.

Characteristic of the attention that citizens should pay to electronic transactions is the report made by John Grammaticosgeneral manager of retail banking products of Piraeus Bank, at the latest Payments “360o” conference: “Just as in our homes, an expensive, armored door does not serve its purpose if we do not lock it, much less if we leave the keys on it, so access to our digital bank is not secure, unless we are doubly and thrice careful with how, when and where we use our personal passwords. Our Bank will never ask us for our online banking passwords, nor will it contact us in a way that artificially creates an anxiety for us to react hastily by giving them. As long as we follow this simple rule, Internet Banking is completely safe, both for our money and our personal data.».

New Europol material on cryptocurrency investment scams was recently made public and posted on the EET website as part of the public information and awareness campaign on cyber scams.

Cryptocurrency Investment Scams – How They Happen

The “romantic” scammer: A scammer approaches you through a dating app or social media platform. It may start as an online dating scam that quickly turns into an investment scam with potentially serious financial losses for you.

The Impersonating Cheater Friend: A scammer is targeting you by hacking your friends’ social media accounts. Because you feel you are communicating with a trusted person, you may be more open to making the investment.

The business opportunity: A scammer calls you and shows you a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment website. It persuades you to invest by citing untrue figures of possible returns. In several cases, you will realize that it is not possible to withdraw your money after an extended period of time that the investment has been made

False advertising: You’re looking at a cryptocurrency investment ad on social media. You click on this ad and provide your contact information. The scammer contacts you by phone and convinces you to invest.

Warning signs

  • Investment opportunities with great returns are too good to be true.
  • Distractions in the form of urgency that make you think this is a deal you shouldn’t miss.
  • Fraudulent advertisements posted on the internet and social media.
  • Investment opportunities received through e-mail, social media, or phone calls, without your prompting.

These “opportunities” may be presented by:

  • scammers impersonating a friend of yours.
  • someone you’ve only met through dating apps or social media.
  • a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment company.
  • requests to transfer legitimate cryptocurrency investment to an alternate address under criminal control.

Self-protection measures

  1. Do your research carefully before investing in cryptocurrencies.
  2. Be careful when sending cryptocurrency. Once the transaction is completed, you will not be able to revoke it.
  3. If you receive an investment opportunity from your friends, confirm that it really came from them.
  4. Before investing, research the group that made you the relevant offer and evaluate it.
  5. Be clear about the terms governing your purchase and cryptocurrency ownership status.
  6. Be wary of people you meet on dating apps or social media who try to convince you to invest in cryptocurrencies.
  7. Beware of unsolicited requests encouraging you to open and fund new cryptocurrency accounts. They will direct you to digital wallets controlled by criminals.
  8. Keep it to yourself. If you buy cryptocurrency, don’t announce it on social media as you might attract the attention of criminals.
  9. If you are a victim of fraud, report it to the police immediately.

Other forms of fraud – What traders need to know

On the EET website, informative videos and infographics have been posted in recent months on the occasion of the latest campaign to inform and raise public awareness of cyber security issues, with instructions for identifying and protecting against various types of electronic fraud in cyberspace, such as:

  • fraudulent phone calls (vishing), fraudulent SMS messages (smishing), fraudulent e-mail messages (phishing),
  • CEO Fraud,
  • fraud through invoices and other documents (invoice fraud),
  • spoofed bank websites,
  • romance scam,
  • personal data theft,
  • investment scams,
  • online shopping scams,
  • supposed tech support scams, , and
  • SIM Swapping scams.

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