How To Protect Yourself from Scammers?
Scammers are the growing menace of cybercriminals in the modern world. With the increase in internet usage, the rate of scams is on the rise. Factually speaking, every one in ten persons is a scam victim. That surging scam ratio is indeed an alarming sign, and scammers use several fraudulent activities to execute their propaganda. The sole aim of scammers is to get their hands on the money or identity of victims.
Scammers devise various methods to carry out identity theft scams on their victims. Scammers can utilize identity theft in various ways to achieve ulterior motives. Therefore, it has become necessary that you should be proactive in taking countermeasures to avoid getting trapped in such scams. Luckily, we have some tips and tricks for you that can help you avoid scammers. If you want to protect yourself from these scams, this article is for you.
How To Protect Yourself From eharmony Scammers?
eharmony is a powerful dating platform that has revolutionized online match-making websites. You can find your partner per your requirements and talk to them via chat. eharmony has the distinction of being one of the best online matrimonial sites with near-perfect match-making options. However, scammers also take advantage of this platform to operationalize their scams.
A romance scam is among the most accessible tools that eharmony scammers use to trap their victims. They attract their victims into revealing their personal and financial details. Furthermore, they also seek monetary benefits from the victim using seduction and romance. After getting your details, they can use your personal information against you by scamming your social circle of close friends and associates.
You can repel these eharmony scammers if you take some preventive measures. These measures will help you identify a scammer on the platform. Further, you can also learn the best practices to adopt after identifying a scammer. Last but not least, you will get your hands on the tricks to avoid ongoing scams on the eharmony platform using these tips.
Do Not Trust Anyone
Around 60% of people trust strangers in the first interaction over eharmony. You must be aware that most of these gullible people are easy targets for scammers because they trust strangers in a blink of an eye. This blind trust leaves people at the mercy of eharmony scammers.
Scammers do not rush to execute their scams because they will only strike when the iron is hot. They will first build a relationship with you, and their primary goal is to gain your trust. They execute the scam with perfection once they are in your good books.
Therefore, it is pertinent to mention that trusting a stranger will make you an easy target for scams. eharmony users should remember that the other end is just a stranger and not trustworthy. The first step to avoid scammers is to stop trusting people and trust your intuition.
Never Send Money
Money is the ultimate goal of scammers, no matter the scam they play. The scammers will first gain your trust using the eharmony platform using various tactics. When they have your confidence, they will play their scam and start with a small amount, like a few dollars. The demand for money will increase gradually as soon the scammers have your trust.
It would help if you did not submit to the emotional trap of these eharmony scammers. The scammers will portray an emotional picture, such as a medical emergency. While many people may ask, “Is this a scam?” some emotionally-driven people might think the other person is telling the truth.
Such scams are organized scams with the sole aim of getting the hands inside the victim’s pockets. The process is a step-by-step road and not a sudden blow. The scammers will ask for money periodically, starting with lower numbers. You must pull yourself up and be brave enough to decline these requests.
Avoid Sharing Any Personal Information
Scammers will not always be looking for your money and wealth. Nowadays, personal information is also a worthy asset for scammers. They can sell your details to big companies for money. Moreover, they can use your personal information against you in many illegal ways.
Your personal information opens various gateways for scammers to carry out their scams. They can use your information to achieve their ulterior motives. Therefore, you must avoid sharing any personal information on the eharmony platform, considering that the other person is a stranger. You should check how public your profiles are by using reverse username searching. There are many sites that provide this, but we’re glad to say ours at Scamsearch Premium is one of the best! Plus there is a free trial.
Block Scammers Who Refuse to Meet
Scammers will never show their real faces on the eharmony platform. It is best to block the person if they refuse to meet and present lame excuses to avoid meeting. This can be the ultimate red flag, and you should avoid such profiles. Refusing to meet personally is the trait of a potential scammer. Therefore, you should waste no time deleting these users from your eharmony account.
If you are feeling a little suspicious about who you’re talking to..but you have a profile picture, why not perform a little investigation? Scamsearch.io lets you search millions of websites and user profiles to see if the picture your ‘online date’ has used, is actually a fake. Or, if not a fake..are they scamming other people? Find their hidden profiles using a reverse image search. Catch? no catch! there is a free trial.
Do Not Give Up Emotionally
It has never been easier to trap the victims with an emotional strategy because it works better than any other strategy. Scammers know their way around emotions and have an excellent command of words to mingle their victims in an emotional trap. They know that people are best to submit once triggered emotionally.
Hence, you must understand the game of emotions proactively to avoid the nefarious scams of these scammers. They will create an emotional picture to get financial help from you. Therefore, you must act defensively against these scammers on eharmony. The bottom line is that you have to put your brains before your emotions to identify potential scammers on eharmony. You can stay away from scammers once you identify them.
How To Check for Identity Theft and Fight Scammers?
More than four million people have faced the wrath of identity theft in 2020. It is indeed an alarming situation for those who love to use social media. Identity theft includes theft of your personal information, financial details, or the details of social media accounts.
Scammers can use your identification information to play their wicked games of scams. So, you must act in advance to avoid becoming a target of identity theft. Luckily, we have some tips for you that will prove helpful to avoid scammers.
Check Dark Web for Your Credentials
The dark web is a den of cybercriminals from all over the world. Scammers sell your credentials over the dark web to potential hackers. Therefore, you can check if your identity is up for sale on the dark web. If so, you can take countermeasures such as changing your social media passwords or enabling two-factor authorization to counter it.
If you need to check whether your email or password has been exposed in the dark web (or indeed if someone you are dealing with potentially has been exposed), you can check on the premium version of scamsearch.io. There is a free trial allowing you to check within seconds.
Check Your Credit History
Scammers can use your identity to access your credit information and financial assets. Therefore, keeping an eagle’s eye on your credit history is advisable. You should not overlook any unexplained credit history in your account. Any unknown credit transaction might be a warning sign that you are a victim of an identity theft scam. Therefore, you must check your credit history both periodically and randomly.
Check Social Media Sites for Fake Profiles
Scroll through social media sites to see if there are other users with a similar profile like you do. They might be using your information and pictures to fool others into their scams. Scammers make the best use of identity theft by creating fake social media profiles using your name.
By doing this, they ultimately gain the trust of your close social circle, including your relatives, friends, and associates. Thus, your social circle becomes the target of these scammers once they get their hands on your identity.
The worst part is that scammers use your face at the front of these fraudulent activities and keep themselves in the dark. The best countermeasure is to check if there are dubious social media accounts under your name and information. If yes, you should immediately report those accounts to the concerning authorities. Furthermore, you can inform your social circle to be careful of these scammers that may use your identity
How To Protect Yourself from Instagram Scams and Scammers?
Instagram has more than one billion users making it one of the most popular social media platforms. The enormous user database of Instagram serves as a viable playing field for scammers. They can lure you into shopping fraud by offering discounts and free products. Moreover, they can steal your social media account details by sending you an unknown link to click.
Once they get your personal information, they can accumulate debt under your name or trap you in other illegal activities. So, Instagram is a pool of scammers, and they make use every single opportunity to scam their naïve victims. It is more likely that you will get in their trap if you do not act defensively.
Do Not Fall Victim to Shopping Discounts
The course of online shopping is at its peak in the post-Covid-19 phase, and therefore, many users prefer to shop online amid growing virus fear. That fear has allowed scammers to increase their scamming activities using Instagram. Scams are at their peak on the Instagram platform, and scammers offer shopping discounts to get their hands inside the pockets of victims.
The mass population that is financially struck falls prey to the shopping scam. The scammers disappear pretty fast once they get the money. The victims never get the items they purchased using these scams infested shopping sites. Therefore, it is in your best interest to avoid any shopping discount message from a stranger. You must contact the shopping store directly to confirm the authenticity of the discount offer or free products.
Avoid Investment Scams and Scammers
Investment, especially in cryptocurrency, is the talk of the town. You might have read thousands of success stories of cryptocurrency traders making rounds on social media. However, it is a groundbreaking opportunity for scammers to set out traps. They present themselves as brokers with years of experience and proven success in the investment industry. The scammers show forged documents regarding return on investment.
You cannot refuse these offers to increase your wealth most of the time. Therefore, you might fall into the trap of investment scammers, and they use Instagram to portray their investment schemes. Moreover, they fade away like the wind once a user invests a large capital. Therefore, you must invest through the investment platforms that have an official presence in the field of investment.
Decline To Fill Online Survey Forms
A survey form is an essential tool in digital marketing to categorize the targeted market. Companies use these forms to evaluate their targeted audience. However, the sad part is that scammers also find it very practical and easy to implement the tool. They will send you surveys by showing themselves as marketing executives of a known brand.
Once you fill out the survey form, all your personal information is at the disposal of the scammer. They can use this information to gain financial benefits on your behalf. Therefore, you must not fill out any survey forms popping up in your messages.
Keep Your Account Private
The best method to avoid Instagram scams is to keep your account private and, in this way, you will never get any messages from unknown users. Therefore, it is less likely to get into the trap of potential Instagram scammers. Almost 90% of the scams originate from personal messaging on Instagram. Hence, it is a proactive step to counter scams by keeping your account private.
Never Open Suspicious Messages
Scammers may portray themselves as your close friends or any associate. You may not know if the scammer uses your friend’s name to trap you in a scam. They can send you any link in the Instagram message, and you will give away your information in a matter of a few seconds if you click that link.
Therefore, the decisive approach is to ask your friend personally if you get any suspicious messages from them. It will help you identify if that message was from a scammer, and you can ward off scammer from your messages.
Using Two-Factor Authentication to Avoid Scammers
2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) is an additional security layer for social media accounts. 2FA requires a third variable for login apart from username and password. That extra layer is out of the reach of the hackers, even if they have your username and password. 2FA may be in the form of a security question or a question regarding an important event of your life. For instance, it can be the name of your birthplace or the last name of your favorite teacher.
Therefore, it is the best possible countermeasure to deploy two-factor authentication. It will secure you from identity theft on Instagram and decrease the possibility of getting scammed. Moreover, it will not allow scammers to use your account for malicious activities.
Never Click on Any Link from Messages
Instagram users can click on any unknown links in their messages. The scammers use these links to steal victims’ data, and they make those links attractive. For instance, it may offer a free gift card. It requires the user to click on that link to proceed further, which raises many red flags.
However, you will lose your vital information if you believe that scams and scammers can access your data with just a single click. Therefore, it is in your best interests to never click on links that you get from unknown senders.
Never Fill Job Applications from Unknown Employers
It is hard to believe that there are nearly 200 million unemployed people across the globe. Such huge unemployment numbers increase the potential for job scammers. The scammers find it easy to trap the people hunting for jobs. They can offer them attractive job opportunities to get their hands on victims’ personal information.
The unemployed population most often cannot resist these job scammers. They fill out the application form, and consequently, all their personal information is at the mercy of scammers. Job scam is on the rise due to a surge in the unemployment ratio.
Hence, you must not fill out any job application forms on Instagram. It is best to contact the employer directly to check the vacant positions. You need to verify your employer before filling out any job application form.
Conclusion
The world of scams presents a beautiful picture to you. That is the main reason many people fall victim to scams. Any well-planned romance scam ranks top among such scams on leading dating apps. Dating scam leads to utter disaster for relationships and individuals. Like any other social media app, Instagram is a favorite place for scammers.
Scammers will take advantage of both using your money and identity. If you have ever screamed, “I have been scammed,” you need useful tips to identify a scam. So, it will be best to take counter initiatives to avoid any scam. The tips discussed above completely encompass the ways to dodge scammers.
You will find yourself in a very safe place if you succeed in implementing these tips. Moreover, you will be able to identify a scammer without falling into their trap. Have you come across a scammer? Then report them on Scamsearch.io and stop them scamming other people.
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