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Last year online scammers made huge profits, it is estimated that made $ 4.2 billion , this certainly represents a record, since between 2017 and 2019, criminals made a total of $ 7.6 billion, according to a study by the Social Catfish site.
Social Catfish revealed that this was made possible by the Civid pandemic – 19, since due to social distancing, millions of citizens spent more time online, a situation that fraudsters took advantage of to carry out fraud .
According to the released report, the affected netizens were stripped of their identity based on lies when making them believe that they were fake users and thus deceive people into giving up their confidential information and thus eat the acts illicit.
Social Catfish added that “scammers create a variety of tricks to strip people of their hard-earned money. They create fake profiles and access social media platforms, dating sites, and online gaming apps to start conversations with their victims. ”
Who conducted the study explained that scammers use a pre-made script to talk to their victims called the scammer’s playbook , a fundamental element to ensure that victims are neglected and fall before these people.
The experts detail that the scammers, once they are won trusted by their victims, “they make excuses why they might need their money or even other things of value, like gift cards or cell phones.” The point is to get something in return and the easy way .
According to the Federal Trade Commission and the FBI, victims in California, New York, Texas, Florida and Ohio lost the most money to scammers in 2020, from $ 621 million dollars in California to $ 170 million dollars in Ohio.
Fraudsters operated the scams from social media, dating apps and messaging platforms Facebook, Google Hangouts, Instagram and WhatsApp . In the case of dating apps, the most frequent were Plenty of Fish, Match.com, OurTime, Zoosk and Tinder.
It is recommended that To avoid this type of situation, do not share private information on any platform, take good care of your passwords and generally try to socialize with people you know, otherwise, according to experts, you have a greater chance that someone will usurp your identity or steal your money.
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