We take great care to ensure that every post on our websites is 100% authentic and trustworthy. You can rest assured that your data is safe. We recommend you take precautionary steps to protect yourself from scams and fraudulent activities. These are some helpful anti-scam tips that you can follow:

Romance Scams

• Romance scams are when a criminal creates an online identity to gain trust and affection from a victim. To manipulate and steal from the victim, the scammer makes the appearance of a close romantic relationship.
• Romance scammers are skilled at their craft and can appear caring and genuine. Most dating and social media sites have con artists.
• Scammers are trying to build trusting relationships with victims as quickly as possible. Scammers might offer marriage and plan to meet in person. They will eventually ask for money.
• Online acquaintances may need your bank account information to deposit money. They are likely to use your account for other fraud and theft schemes.

Advance Fee Schemes

• An advance fee scheme is when a victim makes a payment to someone in anticipation that they will receive something more valuable, such as a loan or contract, investment, gift, or other financial assistance. In return, the victim gets little to no money.
• Only the con artists who offer advance fee schemes can limit the possibilities. These schemes may include selling products and services, offering investments, winnings from the lottery, finding money, and many other options.

Business Email Compromise

• One of the most dangerous online crimes is business email compromise (BEC), also known as email account compromise (EAC). It takes advantage of the fact that many people rely on email for personal and professional business. A BEC scam is when criminals send an email message to appear to be from a trusted source and make a legitimate request.
• An invoice is sent by a vendor that your company regularly deals with. It includes an updated mailing address.
• The CEO of a company asks her assistant for gift cards. She requests the serial numbers to be able to email them immediately.
• A title company sends a message to a homebuyer with instructions about how to wire the down payment. Genuine victims experienced these scenarios. All letters were fake.

Business Fraud

Business fraud is the deceitful and illegal acts of individuals or companies to obtain a financial advantage for themselves or their establishments. These schemes are also known as corporate fraud and often appear legitimate business practices. There are many types of business fraud.

• Charity fraud: The use of deception to obtain money from individuals, particularly those donating to charities that assist victims of natural catastrophes.
• Internet auction fraud: An online auction site that fraudulently conducts transactions or exchanges.
• Non-delivery: Fraud occurs when a payment has been sent, but the goods or services ordered have not been received.
• Non-payment of funds: This fraud occurs when goods or services are sent out and paid for later.

Counterfeit Prescription Drugs

Counterfeit prescription medicines are illegal and could pose a danger to your health.

• These fake drugs are not manufactured according to the pharmacological specifications for the pills they claim to contain.
• These fake prescription drugs could be contaminated with the wrong ingredients or contain no active ingredient.
• They could also contain the correct active ingredient but in the wrong dose.
• Fake prescription drugs that claim to be legitimate medications should not be taken as medicine. They can make your health worse.

Elder Fraud

Millions of seniors fall prey to financial fraud every year. These include lottery and romance scams.

• Romance scam: To capitalize on the desire of their elderly victims to find companions, criminals pose as romantic partners on dating sites and social media.
• Tech support scam: Scammers pose as tech support representatives and offer to solve non-existent computer problems. Scammers have remote access to victims' computers and sensitive information.
• Grandparent scam: A grandparent scam is when criminals pretend to be a relative, usually a grandchild or child and claim they are in urgent financial need.
• Sweepstakes/charity/lottery scam: Criminals claim to work for legitimate charitable organizations to gain victims' trust. They may claim that their victims have won a sweepstake or foreign lottery and can collect a fee.

Internet Fraud

Internet fraud refers to the misuse of Internet services and software that allows Internet access to defraud victims or take advantage of them in other ways. Internet crime schemes are a way to steal millions of dollars from victims each year and continue to plague the Internet with various methods. Here are some of the most well-known methods:

• Business Email Compromise: This sophisticated scam targets businesses that work with foreign suppliers or companies that routinely send wire transfer payments.
• This scam involves compromising legitimate business email accounts using social engineering or computer intrusion techniques to transfer funds unauthorized.
• Data breach: The release of data from a secured location into an untrusted environment. Data breaches can happen at both the corporate and personal levels. They involve confidential, sensitive, or protected information that has been copied, transmitted, or viewed by an unauthorized individual.
• Denial of service: A revocation of access by an authorized user to any network or system, usually one that is maliciously motivated.
• Email Account Compromise: This scam is similar to BEC and targets the general public and professionals working in financial and lending institutions, law firms, and real estate companies. EAC perpetrators use compromised email addresses to request fraudulent payments.

Online Vehicle Sale Fraud

Consumers are warned by the FBI that criminal perpetrators could post false online classified ads offering vehicles for purchase that they do not have or have never had.

• Fake advertisements often include photos that match the vehicle's description and an email address or phone number to reach the seller. Once contact has been established, the criminal will send additional photos to the buyer along with explanations for the reduced price and urgency of the transaction. The following are common reasons:
• The seller is currently moving or being deployed by military personnel.
• The seller purchased the vehicle as part of a divorce settlement.
• The vehicle belonged to a deceased relative.

Sextortion

• FBI has witnessed a significant increase in cases involving teens and children being threatened by adults to send explicit images online. This is a crime known as sextortion.
• Any site, app, or game that allows people to communicate and meet can be used as a place for sextortion. Sometimes, the threat will come from the first contact with the criminal.
• A person might claim they have a video or a photo of a child they are willing to share with the victim if they don't send any more pictures.
• This crime is more common in young people who believe they communicate their thoughts with someone younger than them.
• To get a teenager to create an image, the adult may use threats, gifts, money, flattery, lies, and other tactics.
• First, patronize posters that you can meet in person.
• It is strictly forbidden to send money via Western Union, Money Gram, or any other unauthorized payment method.
• Never accept checks.
• Before you click the "Buy" button, do your research. Verify the address, phone number, and other essential details.
• Keeping copies and receipts for all correspondence and transaction details is essential. You never know when you might need them.
• Trust your gut instincts. It most likely is if a deal looks too good to pass up

How do you recognize signs that a scam is underway?

• One or more forms can fraudulently deal, post, or transact.
• The foreign seller or marketer is either based abroad or en route to another country.
• The poster refuses to meet with you in person and makes flimsy excuses.
• Only western union, Moneygram, and checks are eligible for payment.
• Because the language used by the seller is not understood, it isn't easy to understand
his messages.
• These texts look in a "copy-and-paste" format.
• This offer is too good to miss