Scammers will steal your money by posing as a genuine charity. Psychic and clairvoyant scams are designed to trick you into giving away your money, usually offering ‘help’ in exchange for a fee.įake charities try to take advantage of your generosity and compassion for others in need. Over-payment scams work by getting you to ‘refund’ a scammer who has sent you too much money for an item you are selling. Online shopping scams involve scammers pretending to be legitimate online sellers, either with a fake website or a fake ad on a genuine retailer site. Scammers create SMS competitions or trivia scams to trick you into paying extremely high call or text rates when replying to an unsolicited text message on your mobile or smart phone. Health and medical product scams may sell you healthcare products at low prices that you never receive, or make false promises about their ‘cure-all’ products, medicines and treatments. You might even be asked to accept money into your bank account and then transfer it to someone else.Ĭlassified scams trick online shoppers on classified websites into thinking they are dealing with a legitimate contact but it is actually a scammer.įalse billing scams request you or your business to pay fake invoices for directory listings, advertising, domain name renewals or office supplies that you did not order. Alternatively they may ask you to buy the goods yourself and send them somewhere.
They will invent some reason why they need you to send the goods but this is just a way for them to cover up their criminal activity. Sometimes the scammer will send you valuable items such as laptop computers and mobile phones, and ask you to resend them somewhere. The scammer may also claim they want to travel to visit you, but cannot afford it unless you are able to lend them money to cover flights or other travel expenses. For example, they may claim to have a severely ill family member who requires immediate medical attention such as an expensive operation, or they may claim financial hardship due to an unfortunate run of bad luck such as a failed business or mugging in the street. Often the scammer will pretend to need the money for some sort of personal emergency. They may also ask you to send pictures or videos of yourself, possibly of an intimate nature. Once they have gained your trust and your defences are down, they will ask you (either subtly or directly) for money, gifts or your banking/credit card details. They may take months to build what may feel like the romance of a lifetime and may even pretend to book flights to visit you, but never actually come. Scammers will go to great lengths to gain your interest and trust, such as showering you with loving words, sharing ‘personal information’ and even sending you gifts. They often claim to be from Australia or another western country, but travelling or working overseas.
They may use a fictional name, or falsely take on the identities of real, trusted people such as military personnel, aid workers or professionals working abroad.ĭating and romance scammers will express strong emotions for you in a relatively short period of time, and will suggest you move the relationship away from the website to a more private channel, such as phone, email or instant messaging.
Scammers typically create fake online profiles designed to lure you in.
They play on emotional triggers to get you to provide money, gifts or personal details. Scammers take advantage of people looking for romantic partners, often via dating websites, apps or social media by pretending to be prospective companions.
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