Beware of Internet Scams!

No one ever thinks they will fall victim to internet scams – until they actually do. Scammers prey on this certain mindset of false safety that we create for ourselves. The internet is ridden with various kinds of hidden scams, which not only rip people off, but gather data for various blackmail schemes in order to achieve their end goal. Here are a few scams you should be wary of: 
 
1.  	Blue Whale Challenge
This is one of the most horrendous online scams trending amongst the youth lately. This challenge has already claimed the lives of a number of teens and adults worldwide. The Blue Whale Challenge is not an app or a software that you just download, it’s a link that is shared in secret groups or as a link on social media for different individuals who are personally chosen by the Blue Whale admin. It originated in Russia but now individuals from all over the world have fallen prey to it. The challenge itself comprises of 50 tasks that must be completed over a period of 50 days – at the end of which the player is coerced into committing suicide. The task themselves are extremely sinister and disturbing which include self-harm (mental and physical) among other inexplicable things. Each challenge requires the player to divulge personal details on various levels, which allows the Blue Whale admin to hack into the person’s phone/laptop etc. and gather information to later blackmail the player (e.g. threatening them with the safety of their loved ones) into completing the more extreme tasks. 
 
2.     Employment Scams
Despite the improvement in employment statistics, there is still a vast majority of the population that remains unemployed. Hence, employment scams make it to the top list of scams every year. These fraudulent parties create employment traps for individuals going through financial hardships who are willing to take on any kind of part-time jobs and opportunities, in order to earn a living. Scammers may employ people as secret shoppers or as promoters of their non-existent products. They use job listing pages to pick out job seekers and approach them through fake company profiles, asking for their personal information including their social security number and bank details. This data is gathered and essentially used to access their personal bank accounts and theft. Additionally, some job scams might even ask you to wire money from your bank under the pretense of an advanced payment, which later turns out to be a bounced cheque. 
 
3.  	Online Purchase Scams
There are so many cases of fraudulent online pages for different products. The scammers do their homework when they design such pages where they create ‘supposedly’ legitimate websites, social media pages, fake reviews etc. and have them lined up in order to lure the customer in. They do, on occasion, even correspond directly with the customer in order to receive the advanced payment and once done, they disappear along with the money – poof! Hence, be sure to order from reputable websites only and additionally check for the “https” at the beginning of the web address in your browser. 
 
4.      Credit Card Scams
This type of a scam is among the most widespread online scams today. These scams include instances where scammers use emails and websites in order get your personal information from you under the guise of trusted credit authorities like your local banks. They may email you, under the pretense of being your personal bank, to ask about your personal information regarding your online account username and password or to reset the password.  They may also ask you to authorize the transfer of your funds to a new account or make test transactions. 
 

Given the current rise in online scams across the globe, the best advice would be to always, always proceed with caution. Do your homework and research on detecting online scams so you’re up to date with the small tricks of verifying what’s legitimate and what’s not!