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Tag: Online fraud

  • AARP Survey: Certain Profiles at Higher Risk of Online Fraud

    A new report by the AARP has collectively identified the key behaviors and life experiences that cause a certain group to fall victim to online fraud.

    According to a recent report titled  “Caught in the Scammer’s Net,” 34 million people are at higher risks of scams if they open an email from an unfamiliar sender, sign up for free trial offers, or click on pop-up advertisements.

    Its conclusion was based on a 15-question survey, which garnered answers from 11,000 adult Internet users last November and December.

    The survey’s questions encompassed all the key factors that induce fraudulent acts. Online fraud victims were reportedly involved in seven of the 15 risk factors.

    However, personal issues heavily influenced some people’s choices as well. (image)

    AARP’s Joe Sanchez, who helps manage the organization’s latest Fraud Watch Network in Texas, says that engaging in such online activities doesn’t always mean that it’s linked to a scam. However, “if such online engagement occurs during a vulnerable moment when you’re feeling lonely or have just lost your job, it can add up to the perfect opportunity for a scammer.”

    AARP’s statistic results share how additional life experiences could cause online deception:

    • Sixty-six percent of victims and 42 percent of non-victims said they “often or sometimes feel isolated.”
    • Twenty-three percent of victims and 10 percent of non-victims said they had experienced loss of a job.
    • Forty-four percent of victims and 23 percent of non-victims said they had suffered a “negative change in financial status” in the past two years.

    Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond says that Fraud Watch Network will help prevent such cases from happening. The program plans to assist AARP members and non-members by connecting them with professionals who could help them combat the issue.

    “We’re arming people with information about what makes them vulnerable and giving them access to the tools they need to outsmart con artists before they strike,” she said.

    Law enforcement will also play a major role in cracking down on Internet frauds.

    Free services such as prevention tips, watchdog alert emails, and phone call hotlines will be available to those concerned about their risk or who have already been victimized by online scammers.

    Image via YouTube

  • Tis Better To Have Loved? Online Romance Scams Cost Victims Million Last Year

    Tis better to have loved and lost
    Than never to have loved at all

    – Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1849

    Do you think Lord Tennyson was also talking about loving and losing in the realm of online dating? Based on figures from a recent study by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), we highly doubt it.

    According to their new study, the 2011 Internet Crime Report, online “romance scams” cost the lovelorn of the internet over $50 million.

    The IC3’s report deals with all kinds of fraud across the interwebs, as they pull from the hundreds of thousands of individual complaints they receive each year. In 2011 alone, IC3 received 314,246 complaints totaling a total loss by victims of $485 million+. That’s around $1,500 in losses reported per complaint. Out of those 314,000+ complaints, 5,600 were of the “romance scam” variety.

    What qualifies as a “romance scam” you might ask? Basically, any monetary manipulation using any available internet channel to deceive people with promises of false love. Man, that’s cold.

    Victims believe they are “dating” someone decent and honest. However, the online contact is often a criminal with a well-rehearsed script that scammers use repeatedly and successfully. Scammers search chat rooms, dating sites, and social networking sites looking for victims. Although the principal group of victims is over 40 years old, divorced or widowed, disabled and often elderly, all demographics are at risk

    Per the IC3’s breakdown, the complaints were made on a visible gender bias. Nearly 4,000 of the 5,600 complaints were from women. The hardest hit group was women between the ages of 40 and 59, who filed 2,656 of the complaints. All in all (men and women), the exact number the IC3 put on the damages was $50,399,563. That’s a lot of fraudulent internet wining, dining, and screwing over.

    The Internet Crime Report talks about other common schemes like Auto-action fraud, work-from-home scams, and FBI impersonation email scams – but romance scams stick out. That’s because the average reported loss per victim was higher – $8,900 or $138,000 a day. Love hurts.