Nowadays, scammers come up with new techniques pretty much every day. One company typically runs multiple different scams in order to defraud as many people within a short period of time. Setting a shell company requires a lot of effort, so all in all fraudsters do their best to maximize the profit they gain through fraudulent online activity. A lot of online scamming companies actually operate under different business names posing as competitors to make sure they can dominate the market and rob as many innocent people as possible.
Find the most common scams you can fall a victim to and make sure you know everything about top scams in 2020:
Coronavirus Scams – scammers never rest and invent new COVID-related scams almost every day. Starting from well-known fake product scams (fraudsters claim to supply face mask or meds at a low price) to more sophisticated COVID payment refund scams – the market now is flooded with various suspicious proposals, such as:
- COVID travel scams/travel refunds – the number of canceled flights is skyrocketing, so refund fraud is becoming a big thing. Please note that airlines, hotels, or other service providers always prefer to issue you a voucher for a canceled trip or more rarely give a refund. Money normally is to be transferred back to the original source; the trusted company will never ask you to give any banking details over the phone.
- Other Payment Refund scams – we see the same situation pretty much in every industry, the customers are claiming their money back for anything that was prepaid (summer camps, tuition fees, tickets for events, etc.). Just be aware – everything that is too good to be true is more likely a scam. If someone is contacting you out of the blue offering a refund for an upcoming event or your kid’s summer camp, it’s always better to hang up and contact the relevant organization by yourself. Phone scammers are usually gambling on your emotions – who won’t be excited to get a full refund for any payment? But make sure you are not sharing any sensitive data with an untrusted person. It always worth double-checking! COVID refund scam is a variation of a phishing scam (yes, it can be done over email or text message as well) or impersonation scam, so don’t get too enthusiastic about getting your tuition fee back, you can be contacted by a scammer!
Fell a victim to COVID scam or any other type of scam? Feel free to contact us to find a way to get your money back!
