Internet's most successful scams
Posted: Sunday, March 21 2010 at 06:00 pm CT by Bob Sullivan - edited by Cecile Bendavid
Most people think they'll never fall for a scam. Those who believe that they know better are often the last to raise their defenses when criminals are nearby. It is a fact that people do respond to ads and emails on the Internet and do lose money online.
Online dating scams
Love-based cons are the easiest to perpetrate because love always involves a leap of faith -- trusting something you can't see or touch. For years, criminals have made haunts out of dating services and lonely-hearts chat rooms. Broken-hearted folks are rarely in their right minds, so they make easy targets.
Some cons spend months grooming their marks, waiting until after several "I love yous" before asking for $800 to be wired to the passport office in London to help clear up a paperwork mess so s/he can come to America for a visit.
Yes, it all sounds ridiculous. It's not. It's so profitable that criminals actually pay monthly fees on some dating services. Generally, the more you pay for a service the fewer criminals you'll see, and on free Craigslist, personal ads tend to be very common. Some victims who never have joined a dating service were still conned into fake love from perfectly innocent-sounding places such as Facebook groups or chat rooms devoted to hobbies like stitching or horses. It all starts with a simple e-mail, perhaps enhanced by a little Facebook research
For a whole lot more on this more-common-than-you'd-believe crime, visit romancescams.org. The group, founded by former victims, has been fighting back for nearly 10 years. They post blacklisted photos there, e-mail addresses and typical opening lines from scammers , and lots of additional helpful scam-fighting tools. If you fall in love and have any doubts, visit the site.
Fake or "rogue" anti-virus software
How many times have your seen the pop-ups: "Your computer is infected! Get help now!"
If you've ever clicked through such an ad, you know that the price for computer security is $20 or $30 a month. At first, the ads were clunky and the threats idle. But now, many pop-ups are perfect replicas of windows you would see from Windows or an antivirus product. Some sites actually employ so-called ransomware, which disables your PC until you pay up or disinfect it with a strong antivirus product. That's why consumers forked over hundreds of millions of dollars to fake antivirus distributors in 2009, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
The best protection of all is to back up your important files, so the day your computer is hacked, your digital life won't be on the line. It's also important to have a fire extinguisher nearby. A second PC or laptop is often your best help when disaster strikes. Many viruses disable Internet access, so you'll need a second computer to research your infection and download disinfectant software. Have a flash drive nearby, too, so you can move the inoculation from one computer to the other.
Facebook impersonation
Facebook is no longer a Web site -- it's a full-fledged platform, rapidly approaching the scale of the Internet itself. Many young users spend more time on Facebook than on e-mail, and use Facebook as their e-mail service. That means scammers are now crawling all over the service, since they always go where the people go. There are hundreds of Facebook scams, such as phishing e-mails, Trojan horse infections, and misleading advertisements.
But the crime you should most worry about is Facebook impersonation. A criminal who hacks into your Facebook account can learn a staggering amount of information about you. Worse yet, he or she can gain trusted access to friends and family. For this reason, it's time to upgrade your Facebook password. Treat it like an online banking site, because it's not a stretch to say that a criminal who hacks your Facebook account is only one small step away from stealing your money.
