Category: Scammer

FBI: Internet Romance Scams On The Rise

Posted on November 29, 2017

Scam picUSA TODAY – Nov 29 – In 2016, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported 14,546 people were victims of romance or confidence scams, up from 5,791 people in 2014. The financial loss keeps growing as well: victims lost ~$220M in 2016, more than double the $87M lost in 2014. The Federal Trade Commission also had a spike in the number of complaints about possible romance-related scams, up more two-fold to 11,149 from 2014 levels. And those numbers likely represent just a sliver of the swindles. Shame and embarrassment keep many people from coming forward. The scammers usually have a set profile as well. Most claim they lost their wife to some form of cancer, are raising their child alone, work keeps them at a distance – often abroad – and are looking for love.

Here are tips experts offer to stay safe online:

  1. Don't send money to someone you don't know. Ever.
  2. If you do send money, get a loan agreement.
  3. Meet the person in real life.
  4. Take the relationship slowly.
  5. Do a background check.
  6. Get a second opinion.

by Kellie Ell
See full article at USA Today

Post by the IDEA team

Chargeback Statistics

Posted on November 14, 2017

StatisticsKOUNT – Nov 9 – With card-not-present (CNP) fraud soaring 40% in 2016, chargebacks are top-of-mind for every online business. 86% of chargebacks may be cases of friendly fraud. Friendly fraud increased 41% over the past two years. CNP fraud losses will reach $7.2 billion by 2020. 8 in 10 customers admit to filing a chargeback instead of working out issues directly with a seller.

The full article was originally published at Kount Blog, but is no longer available.

See all posts on Kount

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Mobile Fraud On The Rise

Posted on October 24, 2017

Kount logoKOUNT BLOG – Oct 20 – In the Mobile Payments & Fraud: 2017 Report, ~40% of merchants surveyed reported that mobile channel fraud had increased, up from 23% who said so in 2015. Further, more than 1 in 5 (21.3%) thought that mobile fraud was increasing at a faster pace than mobile sales in general, while ~8% said mobile fraud was decreasing in relation to mobile sales. Merchants pointed the finger at browser-based mobile, providing the following responses when asked to "name the mobile payment system at greatest risk for fraud":

  • 59.8% browser-based
  • 24.7% mobile app
  • 13.7% contactless

The full article was originally published at Kount Blog, but is no longer available.

See all posts on Kount

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

The Psychology Of Online Marketplace Trust And Scams

Posted on October 21, 2017

Besedo logoBESEDO – Sep 12 – Scammers are one of the biggest threats to maintaining trust. "Trust is a feeling and a feeling can never cause a behavior. Instead, previous experiences can influence future behaviors," said behavioral psychologist and business consultant, Sara Ingvarsson from Waldine Consulting. If you are shopping online without worrying, it is because your previous experiences hasn't included encounters with scammers. We can spot trustworthy people in real life, but online a lot of the signs such as facial expression or body language aren't there. Reviews and recommendations are a powerful tool. "It is the power of many" says Sara "You might not trust the word of one stranger online, but when we see a pattern of many strangers agreeing in their reviews of something, then we are likely to trust it." If a user has been scammed they are as such much more likely to spot scams or see low quality content and assume that it is fraudulent. "It's a tough stigma to overcome and there's really no other way to tackle it than to do better next time. One bad experience needs 10 good ones to balance it out." says Sara. In short, if you want people to fearlessly transact with each other on your site, then make sure that they always have positive experiences when doing so.

See full article at Besedo Blog

See all posts on Besedo

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Making Britain The Safest Place In The World To Be Online

Posted on October 12, 2017

Cyber-security-1802603_960_720GOV.UK – Oct 11 – Britain is to become the safest place in the world to be online thanks to new proposals announced today by Culture Secretary Karen Bradley. Cracking down on dangers like cyber-bullying, trolling and under-age access to porn, the Government's Internet Safety Strategy proposes:

  • A new social media code of practice to remove or address bullying, intimidating or humiliating online content
  • An industry-wide levy so social media companies contribute to raise awareness
  • An annual Internet safety transparency report to show progress on addressing abusive content
  • Support for tech and digital startups to think safety first

In the past year, one fifth of 12-15 year olds encountered something online that they 'found worrying or nasty in some way' and 64% of 13-17 year olds have seen images or videos offensive to a particular group. Nearly half of adult users also say they have seen something that has upset or offended them on social media.

See full article at Gov.uk

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Global Cybercrime Levels Reach All-time High

Posted on August 15, 2017

Threatmetrix logoMARKETWIRED – Aug 14 – ThreatMetrix, the digital identity company, revealed that cybercrime attacks have reached their highest-ever levels, with 144M attacks detected over the last 90 days. The ThreatMetrix Q2 Cybercrime Report revealed cybercrime has gone up ~100% since 2015.

See full article at MarketWired

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

This Tuesday 2pm EST – Special Webinar On Fraud, By Kount & Online Personals Watch

Posted on August 6, 2017

Kount logoOPW – Aug 6 – With the recent data breaches of several online dating sites and millions of credit card numbers and personal information being released, your company's fraud strategy will likely be tested. Join us for a 30-minute discussion where we'll cover fraud prevention strategies and technologies specific to the online dating space. Sign up here. It's free.

Post by Mark Brooks @ Courtland Brooks

People Get Caught Out By The Tinder Scammers

Posted on March 31, 2017

Tinder scammerNAKED SECURITY – Mar 30 – Maggie Archer, a 20-year-old student, has found what she considers the best possible use for Tinder: just asking guys to send her money ($5). At one point, she was pulling in ~$100/week. She put her pitch ("send me $5 and see what happens") into her profile, so it wasn't even a direct ask. After they had sent her $5 via PayPal, she unmatched them. While it wasn't a scam, technically, it turns out to be against Tinder terms of service – "requesting money from other Tinder users violates our terms of service". Tinder has plenty of other scam flavors. In Thailand, Tinder scammers are posing as attractive young women to trick men into wiring cash.

by Lisa Vaas
See full article at Naked Security

See all posts on Tinder

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

What Dating Sites Are Doing To Keep Users Safe

Posted on March 6, 2017

Safe picBBC.COM – Mar 3 – Many dating sites and apps issue guidelines, such as never to give out personal information and to watch out for odd language in messages or personal profiles, for example. Many insist they apply security measures, but won't reveal what systems they use. A spokesman for Match.com said: "We have a dedicated team who monitor security on the site, through both up-to-date technology and human checks. "Bigger organizations will use a variety of datasets as part of their counter-fraud solutions," says Andrew McClelland, CEO of the Online Dating Association (ODA). Some experts believe dating sites could be doing more to analyze the language people use. Last year a group of researchers at London's City University compared tens of thousands of emails pre-identified as lies with those known to be truthful. The algorithm analyzed their word use, structure and context for linguistic differences. Liars cannot generate deceptive emails from actual memory so they avoid spontaneity to evade detection. Algorithms can pick up on these traits.

by Sarah Finley
See full article at BBC

See all posts on Match.com 

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Canadians Lost $17M To Online Dating Scams In 2016

Posted on February 15, 2017

Scammers1THE CANADIAN PRESS – Feb 14 – 748 people lost ~$17M to online dating scams last year, according to RCMP, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It says scammers create fake online profiles in order to gain someone's trust then ask for money, often claiming to be faced with an emergency.

by Paola Loriggio
See full article at RDNews Now

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team