Scam

Updated: 02/01/2021 by Computer Promise

Computer scams

A scam is a term used to describe whatever fraudulent business or scheme that takes money or other goods from an unsuspecting person. With the world becoming more connected thanks to the Net, online scams take increased, and information technology's often up to you to help stay cautious with people on the Internet.

Tip

A person who does a scam is referred to as a scammer.

Types of figurer and Internet-related scams

There are thousands of types of scams today, but about boil downward to stealing money, belongings, or information. Below is an overview of common scams.

Phishing

Receiving an e-post from someone pretending to be your bank indicating you are overdrawn or made a purchase y'all didn't brand and asking you to log in and verify the data. Notwithstanding, the link in the e-mail points to a faux site that logs your username and countersign information. Meet our phishing page for farther data, real examples, and related links.

Sale fraud

Someone selling something on an online auction site, such equally eBay that appears to be something it really isn't. For instance, someone may claim to exist selling tickets for an upcoming concert that are not official and would not piece of work. Software piracy is also rampant on all auction sites.

  • How to tell if a CD or DVD is fake.

Dark patterns

A night blueprint is a user interface feature designed to trick users into doing something more beneficial to the company than the user or client. See our dark pattern folio for further information nigh this tactic.

Donation scam

A person claiming they have a kid or know someone with an illness and need fiscal assistance. Although these claims can be real, many people create fake accounts on donation sites to scam people out of money.

Threat scam

Someone sends an due east-mail challenge to work for a visitor that institute something wrong with you or your company and is threatening legal activity unless y'all pay. Ofttimes these scams can be quickly identified because they're asking for bitcoin as the form of payment.

Catfish

A person who creates a false online contour to deceive someone. For instance, a woman could create a imitation profile on an online dating website, create a relationship with 1 or more people and then create a false scenario that asks others for money. See the catfish definition for further information and related links. See our catfish page for further information.

Cold call scam

Someone claiming to be from technical support from a computer company like Dell, maxim they have received information telling them your reckoner is infected with a virus or hacked. They offer to remotely connect to your computer and fix the problem. Additional information well-nigh this type of scam is found on the post-obit page.

  • Does Microsoft telephone call most my calculator virus infections?

419

419 or the Nigeria scam gives the impression yous can gain a large amount of money and only requires banking concern information to deposit the money into your account. In reality, the bank information is used against the person, or the deposits are kept with no advantage. See the 419 page for additional information.

Chain postal service

Normally harmless, this scam spreads through eastward-mail and tells people to forward the eastward-mail to all their friends to get coin dorsum from someone such every bit Bill Gates. See the chain postal service definition for additional data and examples.

Online survey scams

Online survey scams are survey sites that say they offer money or gift vouchers to participants. Come across our online survey scam definition for further information.

Computer law-breaking, Hoax, Security terms, Spam