Back in the good old days, tricksters usually plied
their trade out in the open. Outside airports not-so-savvy tourists got
taken for a ride; all around the world you still see tourists paying exorbitant amounts
of money for taxis driven by unlicensed drivers. Over in parts of Asia they have the famous
jewel scams, whereby foreigners think they are getting the gem deal of the century. In China you might get approached by a pretty,
innocent-looking girl who only wants to practice English, and then she takes you to the most
expensive tea shop you’ve ever seen. In many countries you might get corrupt police
telling you that you committed a misdemeanor and if you don’t pay them a huge fine you’ll
be going straight to jail. But today we’ll look at only digital trickery,
in this episode of the Infographics Show, Worst Online Scams. 10. Phishing scams
This goes at the top because in general you’re not going to lose much if you fall for it. Saying that, most of us have been inundated
by phishing scams throughout our lives. You might receive an email in your inbox that
looks like it might have come from PayPal, or Microsoft, or even your bank. In that email there might be a link you are
asked to click on, and then you might be asked to enter some sensitive data into what look
looks like a legitimate website. It’s not legitimate, and you might be handing
someone your login and password details. As most of you know, these companies would
never ask you to click on a link and then enter those sensitive details. It’s usually easy to see that the email
address that sent you the email is not one the company would use. Next time your bank tells you that your account
is in jeopardy, or Microsoft says your Outlook account is about to be deleted, just ignore
it. As we say, phishing scams are something we
put up with often, but some scams as you will see have a much darker element to them. 9. Lottery scam
Wow, you wake up in the morning and discover that you are suddenly a millionaire. You’ve gone and won the lottery, even though
you don’t play the lottery. You are told there was some kind of mistake,
and you ended up winning. This has never happened in real-life, and
it won’t. You might read something like this, “All
participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web site through computer draw system
and extracted from over 100,000 companies.” Then you’re told to collect your millions. But there is a catch, you have to pay an amount
up front before you can get the prize. It’s just a processing fee. But of course, it’s just a way to get some
cash from you. You’re thinking, no one would fall for this,
surely? Well, there’s a sucker born every minute. In June, a woman in Canada was told she had
won $2.5 million and a car. She ended up paying $13,000 for the so-called
“processing fees.” Again, delete all emails telling you that
you have won the lottery. 8. Sextortion
This scam consists of someone telling you they have installed malware on your machine
and it has given them access to your camera. Through it, they have seen you practicing
the art of carnal self-service in front of some adult content. It’s not something you’d want to share
with your friends, parents, colleagues, wife. The email might say something like this, “I
made a split-screen video. First part recorded the video you were viewing
(you’ve got a fine taste haha), and next part recorded your webcam (Yep! It’s you doing nasty things!),” according
to an article published in the British media. You’ll be asked to make a payment. You might also read this, “If I don’t
get the payment, I will send your video to all of your contacts including relatives,
coworkers, and so forth. Nonetheless, if I do get paid, I will erase
the video immediately.” Security experts tell us someone might have
gotten your password, but the video of you wrestling with your crown jewels will not
exist. Don’t fear, your secret is still safe with
you. 7. Naked pics for cash
This scam is similar, but in this case, there will be a photo or video of you that you don’t
want the world seeing. The scam is pretty simple in that at first
you will get one of those ‘Hi Darling” messages from a beautiful woman. That woman of course is some guy or guys probably
laughing their heads off somewhere. At some point she asks for naked photo of
you, and you send it. You then get blackmailed. Send some cash, or that photo goes online. We don’t need to tell you that this happens
a lot and you can find many cases online. Hmm. What to do if this happens to you? Your only choice is to take their power away
and bite the bullet. Tell them you won’t pay them. One person on Quora writes, “Most of the
time the threats are empty, and they just want to control you. So, let them know you won't talk to them or
accept any contact and stick to it.” Good advice. Better advice is don’t be sharing your junk
with strangers. In fact, try not to share it with anyone. You never know when it might come back to
bite you. 6. Love scam
There are also people who will fall madly in love with you online, and you might feel
you have finally found “the one.” Scam Watch tells us, “Scammers will go to
great lengths to gain your interest and trust, such as showering you with loving words, sharing
‘personal information’ and even sending you gifts.” But it could all be a ruse. Suddenly this person might need something
back from you. They might be experiencing a medical emergency. They might just want to visit you, but need
the funds to fly into your little town from their wretched place where they want to escape
from. They might just want gifts, such as new computer
or smartphone, as they would love to keep chatting with you, but their machine is old,
and it keeps breaking. We found a recent scam in Thailand, where
Nigerian men were scamming cash from lonely Thai women. The men would pretend to be handsome European
men. These fake guys would tell the women they
had come to Thailand, but they were stopped at customs with all their cash and just needed
around $3,000 to get through customs. Some people fell for it. Lots of people are lurking on dating sites
with an aim to take your cash. Don’t be a victim. A photo with a name is just that, not yet
a real human. Treat it that way. 5. Get rich quick
If it sounds too good to be true, it’s too good to be true. Embrace this adage and you should get through
life without falling for too many scams. There are tons of online scams offering amazing
jobs, and guess what, you’re the right candidate. There is no job, but you’ll have to pay
a bit to find that out. You might also find amazing investments online,
and if they sound too good, well, they are. We found lots of cases of people being offered
jobs, but to land the job a fee had to be paid upfront, or even travel costs if it meant
the person leaving the country. You could just work from home for $100 an
hour, and that’s just great as you have no work experience and are not very good at
anything. The job doesn’t exist. Thoroughly do your research on any company
you find online. 4. Exploiting good hearts
There are people who only want to take advantage of your beautiful heart. Scam Watch tells us, “Fake charity approaches
occur all year round and often take the form of a response to real disasters or emergencies,
such as floods, cyclones, earthquakes and bushfires.” The charity may look legitimate, but that
cash you send will not be going to people in need and instead be filling some unscrupulous
person’s pockets. 3. The Nigerian Rich Prince Scam
Nigeria seems to be home to many of the world’s online scam artists. You’ve all likely received an email at some
point, often grammatically incoherent, and it’s some rich guy who loves church and
needs to move his millions out of his country. He’ll probably bless you a lot. To get his cash out he needs your help, and
an upfront sum of money. Once you’ve sent that, you’ll get part
of his great wealth. Snopes writes, “In a nutshell, the con works
by blinding the victim with promises of an unimaginable fortune. Once the sucker is sufficiently glittery-eyed
over the prospect of becoming fabulously rich, he is squeezed for however much money he has.” What’s a mere $5,000 when you stand to get
millions? Has anyone actually fallen for this? Yes, and lots of people. A Journalist from Mother Jones went to visit
some of these scammers in Nigeria in 2014. She said the scammers, mostly young men, were
honest about what they did, and they also told her many people fall for their lies. Some of them were earning $60,000 a year. 2. Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrency Scams
There are lots of Bitcoin scams. One way people might lose money in Bitcoin
is when the Bitcoin Exchange gets hacked. This happened to Mt. Gox, that lost about
850,000 Bitcoins that were worth around $450 million. Then you had fake websites that offered Bitcoin
wallets, or a bunch of fake ICOs that might make you think you are going to make a small
fortune if you invest in a certain cryptocurrency. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
even set up fake ICO in 2017 with a currency called “HoweyCoin” just to show people
how the scam worked. 1. The Hitman Scam
This might the scariest scam out there. Imagine one day you receive an email from
someone telling you they are contract killers and they are going to take out someone you
love. What chills your bones is that they know everything
about you and the person who is going to die. In other cases, the hitman might tell you
they have been hired by someone who you know to kill you! They won’t do the job if you send a large
amount of money. The Australian press wrote in 2017 that this
scam was becoming more popular. The scammers have done their work, too. They will likely have your address, phone
number, know where you work and what you like to do when you’re free. So much information can be found out about
a person with some effort. Someone was doing this to people in Pennsylvania
recently, asking for $5,000. In 2017, it happened in Philadelphia, with
the scammers asking for Bitcoin as payment. Police said they take this very seriously. “Not only are they threatening to kill you,
which is a death threat, but it’s also an extortion,” said the cops. And unlike many other scams we have talked
about, you too should take this seriously and tell the police. It’s unlikely anyone is going to kill you,
but such a threat is no laughing matter. We have one question for you- What scams have
you come across online and have you ever fallen for one? Tell us in the comments. Also, be sure to check out our other video
Most Dangerous Hackers of All Time. Thanks for watching, and as always, please
don’t forget to like, share and subscribe. See you next time.
