these shapes are the most common

You can rely on technology for many things, but there are things for which you are really on your own. For example, if you receive a phishing email, technology cannot really prevent you from clicking on that malicious email. If you have a match on Tinder with someone who constantly asks you for money, it is up to you whether you transfer that money. There is a lot of digital scams and fraud: these forms are the most common.

Dating Fraud

Often people do not understand how it is possible, but it still happens more often than you would think: dating fraud. This type of fraud has less to do with tech than with hacking, but with scams because someone pretends to be in love, but secretly only wants to extort money. These online fake worshipers often pretend to be someone else and catfish their victim. It is common from Nigeria where it has been given the term ‘yahooboy’. However, there is also dating fraud that is a little less voluntary: that is when someone has obtained certain photos of you and extorts you for money, otherwise he or she will share your photos with your family, friends or followers.

investment fraud

There are also fraudsters who have nothing to do with dating, but with people who just want to make more money. People who are interested in investing online or getting rich quickly sometimes fall into the trap of an online investment fraudster. This is possible, for example, by clicking on a link on which Dutch celebrities supposedly advertise bitcoin or other investments. It all seems like just an ordinary web page and it is at first, but after the first surfing to it it is modified and so they can find their way around the internet.

WhatsApp fraud

WhatsApp fraud shows that hackers often don’t go for the small platforms that are not so well secured, but for the large ones: after all, that’s where you have the most people and you can cause the greatest damage. WhatsApp fraud often revolves around someone who is in need. For example, a malicious person can text your parents as if they were you, asking for money for help. You are requested to transfer money quickly.

Marketplace Fraud

Marktplaats is a place where money goes back and forth, so it’s no wonder that fraudsters come into play here. When it comes to digital fraud, we’re not necessarily talking about sellers who sell you a PlayStation 5 and send you a box of bricks instead (although that happens regularly), but about people using payment links that are not from an official bank. come. They seem to come from there, but they are not. So check carefully before you click where the link goes. If in doubt, ask Marktplaats customer service.

Phishing by email

In case it is not yet clear: a lot of online fraud stands or falls with people who create malicious websites and other people who click on links to those wrong websites. Many of these links are distributed via email. E-mail is now less personal than, for example, social media, so that people are generally more alert earlier. You can see it, for example, in the strange e-mail address, in spelling and language errors, in images that are just not completely one-on-one with the standard e-mails of the company they pretend to be: often there are more indications with e-mails that there are something crazy is going on, then in a normal WhatsApp or Marktplaats conversation.

What are you doing about it?

In the case of WhatsApp fraud, especially let your parents know that you would never WhatsApp them for money and that if you asked them for money at all, you would always do it face to face or else in a video call so that they see that it’s you (and being able to hear it in your voice too). If you get such apps yourself, video call the person the villains are posing as and check whether they have indeed asked.

If you get a suspicious link, first hover over it with your mouse and see exactly where the link goes, without clicking on it. Or check where it comes from: is the e-mail address correct? Always check with the institution where you found the link or where it seems to come from, such as your bank or Marktplaats. And above all, listen to your gut feeling: often something already feels a bit strange or uncomfortable, or simply too good to be true.

Have you ever been a victim of digital fraud? That must have been difficult. Share your story below this article.