Online scams or internet fraud is the type of fraud where you are fooled or robbed at a technological platform(internet); which might lead you to lose money, get falsely accused by scammers or police.
These internet scams also ranges from online love scams, website scam, email, robocall scam, fake sms scams etc,…
Internet has become a remunerative business for scammers, today there are around 3.5 billion internet users worldwide and there are various unware and scared users who are oblivious about the term internet scams while there are some users who are ignorant about it.
Singapore being one of the safest countries in the world is facing an enormous problem because of online scams, the general public are becoming the potential victims, every year there is an increase in percentage rate.
As per SPF there is a precise data per year:
• Overall Crime in 2014 increased by 7.8%, from 29,984 cases in 2013 to 32,315 cases in 2014.
• Overall crime in 2015 increased by 4.7%, from 32,315 font in 2014 to 33,839 cases in 2015. This was largely due to an increase in the following online commercial crimes – Cheating involving E-Department of Commerce , Credit-for-Sex and Internet Love Scam, which rose from 1,929 cases in 2014 to 3,801 cases in 2015.
• Overall crime decreased by 2.6%, from 33,839 cases in 2015 to 32,964 cases in
2016. This was largely due to a decrease in four of the six crime classes, namely
Violent/Serious Property Crimes, Housebreaking and Related Crimes, Theft and Related Crimes and Commercial Crimes.
• From January to June 2017, there were 900 cases of e-mercantilism scam and 349 cases of erotic love scams. Victims were cheated more than S$22 gazillion in total. In the second half of 2017, the drift of online scams continued to rise. There is a 26% gain compared to the same period in 2016.
While there are few short stories which might leave you in shock, giving a brief idea about the current situation and the level of scams.
Friend whom I know online kept pestering me for money”
“Robocall from "Singapore High Court" was a scam call!”
“Scammer hung up the call when I asked for more detailed info from him”
“Fake SMS with link that leads to a fake website”
“My credit card was used fraudulently after I shared my credit card details on fake website”
These are the few issues that the general public of Singapore faced in past few years , there were many citizens who became the victims of the scammers while some of them were smart enough to snub them off.
Consequences-
As said by many, all actions do have consequences and scams, especially online, are no exception. It is crucial to be informed that scams can come in various forms. As stated before Singapore is quickly on the rise to having an abnormal increase in scams committed and they have the potential to leave a strong impression on the public. Falling for such an inhumane cause of crime can lead to emotional, psychological and financial instability. Most victims state that they were anxious, scared, ashamed and even blamed themselves during and after the incidents.
Scams have a reputation of being persuasive which eventually boils down to taking control over the victim. One can go so far as to determining the victims daily routines (in case of Love Scams), financial decisions and so on. Recent interviews found that the victims often felt displeased, uneasy, vulnerable, lonely and even suicidal.
This impression not only affects the victim but also the people around them. A young teenager can affect their family by submitting to these scams, adults can ruin their relationships and no matter what, this always takes a toll. Victims also often seem to blame themselves for committing to these frauds and therefore could not tell or hurt people around them.
The biggest concequence of these websites or programmed scheme is that the victims often are not aware that they were falsely and un-concentually taken until much later. Everything appears to be positive for a while until the main action takes place when one has closure with the fraud and is comfortable releasing personal and conformational information to the other side. Love/Sex scams are one of the easiest way to gain information from the victim as the time spent to gain trust is relatively short as one can tempt the victim with words of lust, actions and images. Once the victims are caught in the net all personal information can be leaked from the source themselves.
Phishing scams are another highly dangerous and highly common form of scams present on the internet. These are disguised as e-commerce websites in order to trick people into vising them and sharing information. These scams are often disguised as shopping websites such as ebay or online bank websites like CitiBank and so on. Once the website was visited and used, the scammer will be able to collect and analyse personal information such as bank PINs, addresses and other vital data. Since the demographic of these website users consist of teens and young adults, they can be unable to tell what is real and what is scam and therefore fall into a trap. Online gambling or betting websites as a form of Phishing are also another huge issue in the eyes of virtual crime. People are often entered into these contests unwillingly and can get their money stolen.
However, scamming does not only affect the victims but also the scammers themselves. If found guilty, the scammers will face a serious threat of 10year imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 SGD for violating the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act.
Solutions
1) Avoid suspicious websites: Websites which has a lot of multiple pop up windows or a poor design should be avoided. This is because it increases the chance of being a non authorized retailer and be a fraud. You can search the company up on your search engine and check whether is it legitimate or not. Also,
2) Consider the right way for payment: Among all the methods of paying, using credit card is the most safest and secured method in online purchasing. This is because have significant fraud protection in built which protects the person from frauds/scams. The other methods may not possess this fraud protection.
3) Passwords: We should avoid using the same password in multiple accounts as it can leave us at risk for password break ins. For important accounts such as financial account, we should always use a complex and long password to prevent the chances of break ins.
4) Hang up on robocalls: During a call, if the the other side sounds like a recorded sales pitch immediately hang up as there are high chances of these calls to be bogus and illegal.
5) Do not share any personal information: Sharing your personal information such as your phone number, credit card details, name, address, etc with a suspected company or individual could increase the chances of getting phished. Phishing is a criminal deceptive attempt to obtain personal/sensitive information by disguising as a trustworthy entity being online. The risk of sharing of such sensitive information can endanger you. You should always be cautious of where are you giving out your personal information and make sure the company/individual is legitimate.
6) Be skeptical about free trials offers: There are some companies that provide a free trial for subscription and sign you up for that particular facility. Before trusting any company, read the cancellation policy of the subscription and always have a look out at your monthly statements to make sure not seeing any suspicious transaction.
7) Take your time and don't take decisions quickly: Online scammers usually pressurize to take purchasing decisions quickly to prevent you on rethinking your decisions on that. Instead, take as much time as you want in this risk taking decision and consult to an expert if there are doubts.
8) Don't pay up upfront for an assurance: There are high chances of fraud companies to run away with the money if they ask for advanced payments before selling you the product/facility. Always be aware of this and try avoiding purchasing products which requires you to pay in advance