The advance-fee scam arises from many different situations: investment opportunities, money transfers, job scams, online purchases of any type and any legality, etc., but the bottom line is always the same, you will pay the scammer and receive nothing. It can be as simple as the scammer asking you to pay them upfront for an item they have listed, or as complex as a drug scam that involves an initial scam site, a scam shipping site, and fake government agents. Sometimes the scammers will simply take your first payment and dissappear, but sometimes they will take your initial payment and then make excuses that lead to you making additional payments. If you are involved in an advance-fee scam, you should attempt to dispute/chargeback any payments sent to the scammer, you should ignore the scammer, and you should ignore them if they attempt to contact you again.
Blackmail email
The exact wording of the emails varies, but there are generally four main parts. They claim to have placed software/malware on a porn/adult video site, they claim to have a video of you masturbating or watching porn, they threaten to release the video to your friends/family/loved ones/boss/dog, and they demand that you pay them in order for them to delete the video. Rest assured that this is a very common spam campaign and there is no truth behind the email or the threats.
Brushing
The scammer is creating and shipping out fake orders in order to both boost order numbers and place false verified reviews. The country most commonly associated with brushing is China, but packages may also come from other countries. If you are a victim of brushing, you do not need to worry. Receiving packages as part of brushing doesn’t meant that your private information is compromised, and you don’t need to do anything.
Calendar
Having spam appear in your calendar does not mean that you were hacked, or that your email account is insecure or compromised in any way. Your response should be to report the event as spam/junk, and then delete the event.
Car
The scammer will list a car on a marketplace site and will ask you to email them. They will tell you that they will ship or otherwise transport the car to you and allow you to inspect it. They may use the name of a company like eBay or Amazon to make the scam sound more legitimate. The scam is that the car does not exist, despite whatever pictures you have received, and you will be asked to pay for the car using gift cards or irreversible wire transfers.
Cartel
It’s a very common scam, and the scammers are not affiliated with cartels or crime groups, they are simply normal scammers using a threatening script. The threats are not real, and there is no risk to your safety whatsoever. The best way to react is to simply ignore the scammer and ignore any of their other contact attempts. These scammers often pose as escorts or sex workers to lure in marks then break out the threatening script once someone has contacted them via their ad.
Courier
Courier fraud situations usually start with a phone call from a scammer who may know lots of information about you. Scammers will impersonate bank employees, police, or other government officials. They will say that your account has been linked to fraud or another crime, and will request your assistance. You’ll be asked to either withdraw money, or purchase gift cards or expensive items, and you’ll be directed to give the money to the scammers in some way. One thing that sets courier fraud out from other phone scams is that there is often a local connection, as victims may meet someone in real life to hand off the cash or items.
Crypto/Forex
Fake cryptocurrency websites and apps controlled by scammers are becoming more and more common. Sometimes the scam begins with a romance scammer who claims that they can help the victim invest in cryptocurrency. Victims are told to buy cryptocurrency of some kind using a legitimate cryptocurrency exchange, and then they are told to send their cryptocurrency to a website wallet address where it will be invested. Sometimes the scam begins with a notice that the victim won cryptocurrency on some website, in this case messages will often be sent through Discord. In either case, the scammer controls the website, so they make it look like there is money in the victim’s account on their website. Then the scammer (or the scammer pretending to be someone official who is associated with the website) tells the victim that they have to put more money into the website before they can get their money out of the website. Of course all of the money sent by the victim has gone directly into the scammer’s wallet, and any additional money sent by the victim to retrieve their money from the website will also go directly into the scammer’s wallet, and all of the information about money being held by the website was totally fake. This scam is also known as the pig butchering scam. If the scammer used Bitcoin, then you can report the scammer’s Bitcoin wallet address here: https://www.bitcoinabuse.com/reports. If the scammer used Ethereum, then you can report the scammer’s Ethereum wallet address here: https://info.etherscan.com/report-address/. You can see how much cryptocurrency has been sent to the scammer’s wallet address here: https://www.blockchain.com/explorer.
Death threat
The exact wording of the emails varies, but they will usually claim that they have been paid to kill you, and will threaten to kill you/your family if you do not pay a Bitcoin ransom. They usually also claim that they will kill your family if you report the email. The emails are spam and can be ignored.
Fake check/Fake cheque
The fake check scam arises from many different situations (fake job scams, fake payment scams, etc), but the bottom line is always the same, you receive a check (online or in real life), you deposit a check and see the money in your account, and then you use the funds to give money to the scammer (usually through gift cards, Western Union, or cash). Sometimes the scammers will ask you to order things through a site, but that is just another way they get your money. The bank will take the initial deposit back , and any money you sent to the scammer will come out of your own personal funds. Usually the fake check deposit will be reversed in a few weeks, but it can also take several months. If you do not have the funds to cover the amount, your balance will go negative. Your bank will usually charge a fee for depositing a bad check, and your account may be closed depending on the severity of the scam. Here is an article from the FTC: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-spot-avoid-and-report-fake-check-scams, and here is an article from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/21/your-money/fake-check-scam.html
Fake payment
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The fake payment scam occurs when someone tries to trick you into thinking that you have received a legitimate payment when no such payment has been made. The most common method they use is sending you an email meant to look like a payment confirmation. In some cases the emails will be almost indistinguishable to a legitimate email sent by the payment service. It’s also common for scammers to spoof the ‘from’ email to match an official address. To combat a fake payment scam, verify online payments by logging in directly to the service. Do not check your junk folder, and do not assume a payment is legitimate based on an email alone. If a payment isn’t reflected on your account and the person you are dealing with insists they have sent it, call support and ask about it. There is also a variant of the fake payment scam where you will receive a legitimate but fraudulent payment. If you think you’re dealing with a scammer, you’re probably right. Always trust your gut.
Google Voice
The scammer wants to create a Google Voice account, which allows them to make free calls within the U.S. and Canada. Google Voice requires verification from a phone, so scammers trick people into verifying accounts for them. If you are currently talking to a verification code scammer, just block them and move on.
Refund scams usually start with a spam email about a fake transaction, although they can also be sent through SMS or any other messaging service. The message will provide you with a phone number to call if you want to cancel the transaction, and if you call the scammers will try to get you to provide credit card or banking information in order to receive your refund. Scammers have been taking advantage of Paypal’s invoice system to send out realistic scam emails through Paypal itself, here is a news article about that technique: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/08/paypal-phishing-scam-uses-invoices-sent-via-paypal/. Here is a Snopes article regarding the Norton variant of this scam: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/norton-email-renewal-scam/.
Rental
Rental scammers usually list apartments at lower than market rate, and will ask for some money up front, or will offer you the keys for money up front. The scammer has no property to rent, and any money you send to the scammer will be lost. Be very cautious if you are trying to rent a place in a city you don’t live in, as seeing the apartment in person is a good way to find out if you are being scammed or not. However, just having physical access to the apartment does not mean that you are not being scammed, so be careful.
Review
Amazon review scammers are trying to buy 5 star reviews without looking like they’re buying 5 star reviews. A long time ago, sellers could offer free or discounted coupon codes to buyers in exchange for an “honest” review. This practice was banned in 2016, replaced by Amazon’s Vine program. FTC rules also dictate that any reviews or product promotions obtained in this way have to be clearly labeled as such. To get around both the FTC’s labeling rules and Amazon’s ban, there are websites and private Facebook groups that link together shady sellers with people willing to sell positive reviews. These shady sellers are usually Chinese, selling cheap products that would otherwise not receive positive reviews (or many purchases at all) naturally. They gave you those strange instructions of clicking [this] first, then clicking [their product] to make your selection of their product look more organic to the algorithm. You pay for it in full on Amazon, then are reimbursed via PayPal (which Amazon famously doesn’t use) to hide the transaction. If you don’t like the product, they do the return on Amazon to make them look like good, true-to-their-word sellers to the algorithm. But most people will just take the PayPal refund and hand over the 5 star review. One should never trust an Amazon (or other merchant’s) review - carefully research the products they purchase instead. Of course, there’s always the chance that an Amazon Review scam is just a scam and they’ll just take your money and run.
Romance
Romance scammers pretend to be in love with their victims in order to ask them for money. They sometimes spend months grooming their victims, often pretending to be members of the military, oil workers or doctors. They tend to be extremely good at taking money from their victims again and again, leading many to financial ruin. Romance scam victims are emotionally invested in their relationship with the scammer, and will often ignore evidence they are being scammed. Convincing a romance scam victim they are scammed is extremely difficult, but we have received success reports from using Dr. Phil’s shows on romance scammers or episodes of Catfish - sometimes victims find it easier to accept information from TV shows than from their family.
Skype
This scam occurs when you meet a woman/man on dating service/social media site/forum/wherever and they ask you to go on Skype, Kik, or another messaging system. They will ask you to exchange naked pictures, and they will usually ask you to include your face in the pictures. They will then threaten to reveal the pictures to your family/friends if you do not pay them. The best thing to do in this situation is block the scammer and deactivate your account for a while. Paying the scammer will not make them back off, and just tells them that it is worth their time to continue threatening you.
Steam
You will receive a message from someone claiming that they accidentally reported you, and they will direct you to the profile of a Steam/Valve employee or admin. The other account will then either try to steal your account, or steal your items. If you encounter this scam, ignore the scammers and report their accounts.
Sugar
Sugar dad/daddy/mom/momma scams are very common and usually come in two varieties: fake check style scams, and advance-fee scams. Fake check style scams involve the scammer making a fraudulent payment to you that will later be reversed, and then you making some sort of payment to the scammer that will not be reversed. Common examples include the scammer sending you a fake check and asking you to buy gift cards, or to send money via Western Union, or to purchase Bitcoins. Another common example involves the sugar scammer offering to pay your bills, or offering you banking information that you will use to pay off your bills. These bank accounts are stolen and the innocent victim will reverse the charge when they notice the fraud. The second variety of sugar scammers use advance-fee scams, where they offer you money but require you to pay first. They may ask for you to pay them to prove that you are loyal, or they may require you to pay a processing fee. It’s common for sugar scammers to send spoofed emails that look like they came from services like PayPal or CashApp that will inform you that you have received money, but that also ask for a processing fee before the funds are released.
Task
Task scams involve a website or mobile app that claims you can earn money by completing easy tasks, such as watching a video, liking a post, or creating an order. The app will tell you that you can earn money for each task, but the catch is that you can only do a limited number of tasks without upgrading your account. To upgrade your accounts, the scammers will require you to pay a fee. The goal of this scam is to get people to download the app for easy money and then encourage them to pay to get to the next level. It’s impossible to get your “earnings” out of the app, so victims will have wasted their time and money.