Presented by KIS Finance
When people think of online fraud and hackers, they generally think about the Hollywood type of hacker typing away at their keyboard before saying ‘I’m in’.
Reality though is a lot less tech based and a lot scarier. The way to most peoples’ passwords and private information is through the use of social engineering.
Social engineering is a method of scamming used which relies on exploiting human psychology over tech vulnerabilities.
Scammers use social engineering to manipulate their victims into handing over their data, passwords, and money. When put as simply as this it’s easy to believe we would never fall for a scam, but with the amount of money lost to fraud doubled in the UK to £2.3 billion we should all be vigilant to the scams listed in this article.
There are a wide variety of scams, but they all have the same objective, for a scammer to make you believe you need to give your data, password, or money to them.
The ones you will most likely be familiar with are the fake bank e-mails and calls. Someone impersonating your bank will contact you claiming there is an emergency, security check, refund, or anything else so that you give them your login information and passwords. Many people have lost their entire life savings to this.
These scams change with the times, more recently there have been the ‘Hey Mum and Dad’ WhatsApp scams. This typically consists of a scammer pretending to be your child. They will usually claim their phone is broken and they’re messaging of a friend’s phone. Then they will ask for funds for some urgent reason like rent or a new phone. Of course, any money you give them will pay straight to the scammer.
With the continued growth of AI these scams have now evolved even further. The use of deepfakes allows scammers to use software to look and sound like someone else entirely. At this point in time this software is still relatively new, and it requires a lot of images of the person it is trying to replicate to work.
This does mean it is capable of celebrity impersonation, and scammers have used this to create videos endorsing fake investment opportunities and products.
The best protection, as in most cases, is prevention. To do this you need to be able to see and understand the signs of social engineering. Each scam we have mentioned have a few things in common, these are what you need to look out for.
These scams always involve situations that are very out of the ordinary, where the likelihood of it happening is slim. If you find yourself in a similar situation then check.
Your bank will never call you out the blue and demand any personal information, if you want to make sure it’s not real then call their official number and ask them if they called you.
If your child is messaging you on WhatsApp with someone else’s number, then ask them a question only they would know the answer to.
If a celebrity really is endorsing a product, then it will be easy to verify the trustworthiness source that you found this information on.
Nearly all these scams will put the pressure of time on you. Scammers will try to make you feel you have to act now to resolve the situation, or it will be too late. This causes people to not think properly and act out of panic and emotion rather than thinking about what’s happening.
It is easier said than done but if something seems out of the ordinary try and calmly think about what’s happening and if you really need to react instantly. If it seems unlikely to be true, then it probably isn’t true.
Scammers will attempt to make you emotional in order to manipulate you. The excitement of a once in a lifetime opportunity or the fear of your child being endangered is used on top of the time pressure to cloud your judgment.
This manoeuvre has seen a surge of appearance recently. Especially with the use of romance scams, which rely less on time pressure and more on gaining your trust through pretending to have a romantic interest in you.
Although romance scams are more long term, like the other mentioned scenarios, at the point in time where the scammer tries to steal your information or money, they will put a time pressure on you. This is what you need to notice to be able to think carefully and calmly about what is happening and assess the situation effectively.
Scams are on the rise. The methods of manipulation keep changing and you need to be aware of how to recognise them in order to prevent being the next victim of one.
Remember the three main points of what a scam will look like.
Always take time to calmly think and verify the trustworthiness of any important information you are given before making a decision.
Most importantly, keeping calm will keep you safe.
Find it useful? Please share!
Find it useful? Please share!
Last updated: 20 March 2024 | © KIS Bridging Loans 2024 | Terms & Conditions
