Fraud and scam are synonyms, fraud means wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain and scam meaning is a dishonest scheme; a fraud.
There are many types of fraud /scam and with the passing of time people are getting more creative and sophisticated in their fraud schemes. With my personal experience, I am discussing here one of its modern type which is online fraud
Some fraudsters rely on the internet to commit their crimes. A few days ago I was working online on PPH (peopleperhour.com), some person namely Dorcas M. posted a job “Hire a data entry clerk” and invite proposals from PPH community,
Being an eligible seller I send my proposal. He provides me an email address to contact for further details.
I contacted on given email address they provided me an introductory document of a real and leading biotechnology company i.e. Illumina, Inc., they send me application and registration form I fill it and send it accordingly. Admin department accepted my application and directed to get interviewed by one of their hiring managers. The interview was about 30 minutes and was so much seems genuine. Two days after interview HR department contacted me and congratulate me for my success in interview and directed me to contact with the hiring manager for further details, I contact with the hiring manager they give me some tasks I completed them efficiently. So at last, I selected.. .. . . . . (but in the dreams)…. this was all so nice…. but then came the worst part. ….
They demand me for $2000 on account of purchasing of equipment compulsory to start work remotely. Being a Pakistani from whom taking money with fraud is not so easy I say I will first work than from my earning will give them the required amount and purchase required equipment. To check their level of cheating I offer them $ 500, they even agree to it. I did not agree to pay even a penny to them. So I was on the ground when I wake up.
Their offer was very enchanting $24 / hour in training period and $28 / hour after training. When I made the calculation for my monthly income it was ….Great……, I was very happy but when I come to know that it was just scam I laugh at myself.
I will appreciate them how they try to fraud, it was so much assembled. They use the name of the real company “www.illumina.com” they also use email addresses with domain @illuminacareers.com after all this when I research about Illumina, Inc. on the internet, their official email address was with domain @illumina.com. As it is said that If you see fraud and do not say fraud, you are a fraud so, I inform through email the real company (Illumina, Inc.) about this fraud and tell them how some people are misusing their company name.
HOW TO PREVENT FROM ANY TYPE OF FRAUD…..
Fraudsters will stop at nothing to get your personal information. Their scams can be clever, but not clever enough if you know how they work and how to avoid them. Here are some suggestions for my readers.
- Be on your toes. Only open emails, attachments, and links from people you know.
- Don’t believe what you see. It’s easy to steal the colors, logos, and header of an established organization and make emails appear legitimate.
- Avoid sharing. Don’t reveal personal or financial information in an email, text or over the phone.
- Pay attention to a website’s URL. Hover over any links to see where they lead.
- If you are unsure whether an email request is legitimate, try to verify it by contacting the company directly and ignore emails from senders you don’t know
- Keep a clean machine. Make sure you keep your anti-virus software up to date.
- Protect the devices you use both physically and with passwords/passphrases and guard your PIN against fraudster “shoulder surfing”
- Safeguard sensitive data, including passwords, PINs, and answers to security questions and create strong passwords
- Use your pop-up blocker and download files only from sites you know
- Review any kind of receipts and read and understand all terms and conditionsbefore you sign
- Be aware of your surroundings
- Consider all email requests for personal information to be suspicious
- Do not volunteer any personal information unless necessary
- Understand all pre-checked boxes when ordering online
- Store important documents securely
- Never provide information unless you initiated the communication
- Don’t feel obligated to provide card numbers or any other sensitive information by phone
- Beware of notices announcing that you’ve won a prize for a contest you did not enter
In the end, I would say that
Do not lie, don’t cheat and don’t make promises you know you can’t keep and rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud
A. Waqas's blog 