It is no secret that the recent COVID-19 pandemic and the extended lockdown has forced us to explore new ways of keeping ourselves entertained. This is because too much boredom or being distant from your loved ones for a long time can lead to psychological issues, such as depression, anxiety, etc.
A study conducted by the Boston University School of Public Health revealed that 27.8 percent of US adults suffered from some kind of depression symptoms compared to 8.5 percent pre-COVID-19 pandemic. Likewise, a study by the Statista Research identified that adults in Canada reported increased mental health issues as compared to before the pandemic.
These studies prove that you need to keep yourself fully entertained even during the pandemic to save yourself from any kind of mental illness. Wondering how to go about it? You can simply do so by staying connected with your friends and family but be careful with the scams that tag along.
The ins and outs of detecting a scam
There are many apps that require you to share your personal information, which increases the likelihood of scams. Research conducted by the Business Insider identified that 1 out of every 10 adults fall prey to a scam each year in the US.
For this reason, you should know how to detect a scam, and save your hard-earned money from going down the drain. Not sure how to detect a scam or internet fraud? If you have had to pay for the charges that were uncalled for, or paid for the services that you never used, here’s what you need to know:
Beware of a Third-Party Billing Scam
FBI identified in one of its studies that internet theft, fraud, and exploitation resulted in a massive financial loss worth $2.7 billion in the year 2018. A third-party billing scam is also known as cramming, which involves adding minimal charges to the bill without the consent or approval of the subscriber. These charges are as low as a few cents so that the subscriber overlooks and pays for these charges unnoticeably.
For example, many Vodafone subscribers reported that they had to suffer due to an unfortunate third-party billing scam. They had to pay for the charges of the airG chat service without any prior approval or authorization. Besides this, the amount deducted was so less that most of the users failed to take notice of it.
However, the good thing is that airG took immediate notice of the airG scam, and took instant corrective action. They proactively demonstrated transparency about the process so that there is no room for any confusion, thereby proving how swift and reliable their service is. This helped them in gaining their subscribers’ trust and loyalty.
Scams Are Not Easily Detectable
One of the most widespread misconceptions about scams is that they are easy to detect. For example, many people believe that spam emails can be detected through the type of spellings or grammar that they use, as professional emails don’t include typos.
Although this is a great tip to detect any type of email scam, however scammers can be highly educated and a pro at their tasks as well. So, if you only believe in looking out for poor grammar to identify scams, you might easily fall into a scam.
Apart from email scams, the increased usage of social media sites has increased the likelihood of people getting scammed on social media.
And the bad news is that these scammers leverage advanced tricks so that you’re unable to identify their scam. Wondering how to save yourself from such types of internet frauds on social media? Here is a detailed blog post for your guidance.
The Scammers Often Use the Name of a Reputable Organization
It is no secret that to grab the users’ attention, scammers often use the name of reputable organizations and sometimes, they also make fake names that sound official.
In some cases, you might also receive an email or a call from some tech or utility company where they request you to give donations to the needy people. Apart from this, some people have also reported that they receive calls in which the caller insists them to share their important bank information so that they can get the lottery or prize money. A study carried out by the TrueCaller revealed that around 56 million US residents lost money because of a phone scam in 2020.
For this reason, you shouldn’t trust anybody like that and double-check the authenticity of any such call or email.
The Bottom Line
In a nutshell, it is crucial to note that your safety and security in online dating platforms, should be your topmost priority. You can do so by complimenting the security measures of the site to stay safe. For instance, if you come across fake accounts, you can keep the website safe by reporting fake accounts to the site admin.
You can identify a fake user by browsing through the comments on their profile, and observing what other users are saying about that particular user. You can also check them out on other social media sites, such as the Instagram and Facebook. If there are any discrepancies, then there would be a high chance that the user is fake.
Apart from this, you should also avoid revealing too much information on the site for keeping yourself away from scammers, or saving yourself from any type of internet fraud. Besides this, you can also go through app reviews shared by the current and previous users for learning from their insights and experiences regarding the platform.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.