10 Common Internet Scams and How To Avoid Them(2K_HD)

LINKS DAD

Transcript

00:00Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. The best way to protect yourself

00:03from online scams is to learn about them. Here are 10 of the most common scams going around today.

00:14MacMost is brought to you thanks to a great group of more than 2,000 supporters.

00:17Go to MacMost.com slash Patreon. There you can read more about it. Join us and get exclusive

00:23content and course discounts. So this first scam is fairly common, especially if you use Venmo.

00:28But it could happen on other payment systems as well. The way it works is you get some money

00:34from somebody you don't know. So all of a sudden, there's money sent to you.

00:38But then they send you a message saying that it was a mistake. They sent it to the wrong person.

00:42A lot of times they'll include a sob story about how they need the money back as quickly as possible.

00:47They've got medical bills, whatever. So they want you to send them the money back.

00:53But the thing is, when you send the money back, that's a legitimate transaction. But the money

00:57they sent you that was done either with a stolen credit card or maybe they faked the entire thing.

01:02So eventually you find out you never had that money that they sent you,

01:06but you already sent them the same amount of money back. They've closed their account. They're gone.

01:11And there's no way for you to get that money back. So the way to avoid this is that if you ever get

01:16money from somebody you don't know, don't interact with them. Instead, send a message to support for that

01:22system like Venmo, telling them about the unexpected transaction and let the company's

01:28support handle it, not you. So this next scam happens when you're selling something online.

01:33Maybe you're selling on Craigslist or eBay, Facebook Marketplace, someplace like that.

01:38And you get an offer from somebody to buy it from you for more money than you've listed it for.

01:44Sometimes they'll say this extra money is because they want it shipped in a special way

01:48or they want to send somebody to pick it up. Something unusual. What they're trying usually

01:53to do is to get you away from the payment system that is safe. So for instance, on eBay,

01:58instead of paying through eBay, they want to send you the money directly or send you a check

02:02or something like that. And then you might chip them that product and then find out their payment

02:07was no good and you no longer have the product and no way to get it back. In fact,

02:11some of the time they may actually pay the regular amount, but then when they actually pay you,

02:15it's more money. And then they claim it's a mistake and they want you to send the money back.

02:19Then it's like the payment from a stranger scam and now you might be out the product and some cash.

02:25So the way to avoid this is simply don't let somebody take you to another payment system.

02:30If somebody doesn't want to use, say, eBay's payment system, they want to use something else.

02:34That's a red flag. Don't do it. Sell it to the next person. And remember for online transactions,

02:40checks are pretty much worthless, even if the person hands it to you themselves.

02:44Though the bank might actually deposit the money the next day in your account,

02:48it could take weeks to find out that the check is fraudulent and then your bank is going to take

02:52that money away from you. So in this next scam, you're the buyer of the product online.

02:58In its simplest form, you buy something from somebody and either you just don't get the product

03:02or you get an inferior product. Maybe, for instance, a knockoff iPhone instead of an actual iPhone.

03:08Maybe a much older MacBook than the one you thought you were getting.

03:11There are protections for this in various places where you buy things offline. But a scammer will

03:16try to take you away from that saying that they could sell it to you cheaper or it's easier for

03:21them if you pay them in some other way. But, of course, once you leave the system then you have

03:26no recourse. You have no way to get your money back, to send the product back, or any of that.

03:30Now this happens a lot to Apple users because a very common version of this is somebody gets a

03:36MacBook and sells it online. But when you get it, you find out, maybe not for weeks,

03:42that the machine is actually stolen. By that, I mean it actually has device management software

03:49installed. So this was a MacBook that was owned by a school or a company and somebody either took

03:55it with them when they left their job or left the school or stole it from the school or company

04:01and is now reselling it. The thing is that Mac is never going to be yours. It is always going to

04:06be controlled by that organization. There is no way to remove this MDM software that is controlling

04:12the Mac. This makes it very difficult to buy a used MacBook, especially from another person rather

04:17than a reputable company. So to avoid this, make sure you are not lured away from whatever marketplace

04:22you originally were on to another kind of payment system. And if you can actually look at what you're

04:27buying in person before you pay for it. That's very important if it's a Mac or an iPhone or something

04:33like that. Not only should you look at it, but also make sure you learn what you should be looking

04:38for to make sure the device isn't remotely managed, that it's not stolen and that it actually works.

04:44So lottery scams are pretty common. You get a message or an email or a phone call claiming that you

04:51won some sort of lottery or sweepstakes or other kind of a prize, but you just need to pay $75 or

04:57something for some sort of paperwork or something like that. But of course, there is no actual prize.

05:02You pay the money and if you're lucky, they just take that. If you're not lucky, they may actually

05:06take more from your credit card or steal some identity information. The way to avoid this is easy.

05:12If you get a message saying that you've won some money, ignore it. These are always scams.

05:18So this next scam preys on people who are searching for jobs. The way it works is there'll be a job

05:24posting often on a legitimate job website. The job posting is fake and when you apply for it,

05:30you get a message saying they're very interested or maybe you got the job. But you've got to fill

05:34out a more detailed application or they have to run a background check and they're going to try to

05:38charge you a fee for this. Of course, there is no job. It's completely fake. They're just looking to

05:44collect the fee from you and then disappear. Or worse, they could be trying to steal all this

05:49information from you that you put on that background check form. To avoid this, be careful if a company

05:55that claims to offer you a job is asking you for money. It doesn't work that way. Determine if the

06:01company is a real company and then call them and ask them about the job separate from the messages that

06:07you got. Often they'll tell you that there's no such job or nobody should be asking you for any money.

06:14So the tech support scam is pretty common. You get an email, a text message or a phone call from

06:19somebody claiming to be from a company that you deal with, like maybe Apple or it could be Microsoft.

06:25It could be your ISP. And they say they've detected a problem with your computer. It's got malware,

06:31it's got a virus or something like that. And they want to help you. So they want you to give them

06:37access to your computer so they can log into it so that they can poke around. And of course,

06:43these people are not from any of these companies. Companies like this don't monitor your computer

06:48remotely. They don't call you out of the blue to provide help or anything like that. This is always a

06:55scam. What they're trying to do is, of course, get onto your computer, either steal information from you,

07:00get money from you somehow, or perhaps install something on your computer to do any of those

07:05later on. Now, sometimes this takes a form of an ad on a webpage, but the ad is designed to look like

07:12it's an alert that's not part of the webpage. Other times, webpages will send you a notification.

07:18It comes up as a notification from that website, but it's not easy to tell that. So you get this

07:23notification and you think it's coming from your system. But after you click on it, it takes you to

07:27the scammer or the scammer's website or displays a phone number, that kind of thing. To avoid this,

07:32just remember these companies don't remotely monitor your computer. They're not going to call

07:37you out of the blue and offer to help you or anything like that. Just ignore all of it.

07:42So the apartment posting scam is similar to the job posting scam. But in this case, you're looking to

07:47rent an apartment or perhaps a house and you see a listing. But the listing is faked. They take images

07:54from a previous listing or the last time that that house or apartment was put on the market

08:00and they post it up just like they're the actual rental company. In particular, they're looking for

08:05people who are moving to town so they can't actually view apartments in person. They're doing it all

08:11online. But of course, they've got nothing to do with this apartment and it's probably not even

08:15for rent. They're going to tell you that you've got the apartment and they're going to want you to

08:20fill out an application so they get information from you and then probably pay a fee, maybe even

08:25a security deposit. And they're just going to take that money. Then when you show up at the apartment,

08:30you're going to find out that it's not even for rent. So the way to avoid this, of course,

08:33is always insist on touring the apartment in person. If you can't do that because you're out of town,

08:40then you're going to have to plan either a trip to visit to find an apartment or you're going to have

08:44to look for something like a hotel where you could stay out for a long period of time

08:48while you find an apartment. Ranting an apartment online remotely is just filled with scammers.

08:53So the online romance scam has been around for a long time, probably since the beginning of the

08:57internet. It could start certainly in a dating app but it could also start anywhere that you chat

09:02and meet other people. It goes very slowly because the scammer actually has dozens or maybe even

09:08hundreds of people on the hook. So they can take their time over days, weeks, months to befriend you

09:15and then let a romance bloom. And once they think you're on the hook, they may talk about some sort

09:21of financial problems that they're having, health care bills, or maybe they just want some money so

09:26they can come out and meet you for the first time. Often they'll avoid actually ever asking you for

09:30money, just telling you about their problems until you offer money. The people that run these are

09:35experts in psychology. They know exactly what to say. And often they're working with scripts and

09:39techniques that have been developed over decades of scamming people. So they're really good at saying

09:44just the right thing. Now the way to avoid this is simply never to send money to somebody that you

09:48don't know in real life. But of course the scammers are experts at getting you to do that. So another

09:54way to avoid this is to make sure that if you are starting an online romance that your friends and

10:00family know about it and listen to what they have to say if they have concerns. The sheriff scam is a

10:06way for a scammer to get some really quick money. It can work in just minutes. So you get an email,

10:12a text message, or a phone call from somebody claiming to be from the sheriff's office or any

10:17other law enforcement agency. And they tell you that perhaps you've missed jury duty or you have

10:22outstanding parking fines. Something that seems kind of plausible, like you may have actually

10:27missed the notice in the mail or didn't get to you. And they say that you're in big trouble,

10:32maybe that you're even going to be arrested soon. But you can take care of it by paying right now.

10:38And they offer some sort of reasonable amount, $100, $300. Strangely, they often want you to pay

10:43with gift cards, which should be a red flag. But at this point, the whole thing seems so urgent that

10:49you're very distracted and may fall for. They try to keep you on the phone or keep you chatting online.

10:55They'll claim, for instance, that if you try to actually call the sheriff's department or go in

11:00yourself that you'll be arrested on the spot. So to avoid this, just ignore them. A sheriff's department or

11:06law enforcement agency is not going to call you and ask you for money over the phone like this.

11:11It just doesn't happen. It's always a scam. And finally, there's the wrong number scam.

11:16This very often starts with a text message from somebody you don't know. And the text message is

11:22specifically designed to get you to respond to the wrong number. It might be something like,

11:28I'm at the restaurant waiting for you, or I'll pick up your kid after school today.

11:32Something to make you feel like you really should respond saying, oh, you texted the wrong number.

11:37And then they'll respond saying, thanks. And then they'll start up a conversation,

11:41maybe right then, maybe later. They'll tell you how nice it is that you actually responded to them.

11:46They'll start talking to you. It seems perfectly harmless, but the goal for them is to actually

11:52keep telling you about how successful they are or how much money they have until you eventually

11:57start asking them about it. Then they'll talk about some sort of investment strategy they use

12:01or how they invest in cryptocurrency, something like that. They get you to actually ask them,

12:07how can I make money too? And they'll actually refuse to take money from you,

12:11sending you off to an app or a site that they say they use. But when you go to actually use it to

12:18invest, you'll find sometimes much, much later that it's a scam and they've just actually taken

12:23the money from you. The way to avoid this is simple. If you get a message from a wrong number,

12:28don't respond. It's almost always a scam. So let me finish with some basic rules. First,

12:34never assume that you're too smart to be scammed. From time to time, even experts get scammed.

12:40So you always want to be on guard and overconfidence can lead you into trouble.

12:45Education is your best defense. Continuing to learn about scams, watching videos like this,

12:51reading about them is very important. The more you know about scams and how they work,

12:57the better your chances of recognizing a scam when somebody tries it on you.

13:02And since education is the best defense, the way to help others is to spread this information.

13:07Let friends and relatives know about these scams and how they work. Talk to them about it as an

13:12interesting topic to discuss, not a warning. The more that you could teach them about scams,

13:18the better their defenses will be. You need to do that before they become the victim of one of these

13:22scams. When somebody is in the middle of being scammed it's very hard for them to see what's

13:27going on and to admit that they're being scammed.

13:34If you liked this video click the thumbs up button below to let me know.

13:38I publish new tutorials each weekday. Hit the subscribe button so you don't miss out.

Category

Transcript

Recommended