419 An advance fee scam or fraud (419 scam) is a form of fraud and is one of the most common types of online confidence tricks. The scam typically involves promising the victim a significant share of a large sum of money, in return for a small up-front payment, which the fraudster claims will be used to obtain the large sum. If a victim makes the payment, the fraudster either invents a series of further fees for the victim or simply disappears. The 419 comes from the Nigerian law against this type of scam. / Advance Fee Fraud An advance fee scam or fraud is a form of fraud and is one of the most common types of online confidence tricks. The scam typically involves promising the victim a significant share of a large sum of money, in return for a small up-front payment, which the fraudster claims will be used to obtain the large sum. If a victim makes the payment, the fraudster either invents a series of further fees for the victim or simply disappears. / Scams A Scam is a confidence trick - a crime - is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust through deception. Scams or confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, irresponsibility, or greed and exploiting that. Researchers have defined confidence tricks as "a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct ... intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", as they "benefit con operators ('con men' - criminals) at the expense of their victims (the 'marks')". A scam is a crime even if no money was lost.
Anger Anger, also known as wrath or rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, trigger, hurt or threat. About one-third of scam victims become trapped in anger for extended periods of time following a scam.
A person experiencing anger will often experience physical effects, such as increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, and increased levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline. Some view anger as an emotion that triggers a part of the fight or flight response. Anger becomes the predominant feeling behaviorally, cognitively, and physiologically.
Anger can have many physical and mental consequences. While most of those who experience anger explain its arousal as a result of "what has happened to them", psychologists point out that an angry person can very well be mistaken because anger causes a loss in self-monitoring capacity and objective observability. & Aggression
Anti-Money Laundering Money laundering is the illegal process of concealing the origins of money obtained illegally by passing it through a complex sequence of banking transfers or commercial transactions. Money laundering can be done through various mediums, leveraging a variety of payment vehicles, people and institutions. - AML
Arrests Convictions & Court Actions
Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is wide-ranging branch of computer science concerned with building smart machines capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence. Machine learning is a subset of Artificial Intelligence.
BEC Business Email Compromise / CEO Scams
Blackmail & Extortion Scams
Business / Institution / Government Impersonation An impersonator is someone who imitates or copies the behavior or actions of another. There are many reasons for impersonating someone, such as: part of a criminal act such as identity theft, online impersonation scam, or other fraud. This is usually where the criminal is trying to assume the identity of another, in order to commit fraud, such as accessing confidential information or to gain property not belonging to them. Also known as social engineering and impostors. & Fakes
Catching Scammers - Scammer Arrests
Closure & Recovery Techniques
Cognitive Biases & Vulnerabilities
Criminal A criminal is any person who through a decision or act engages in a crime. This can be complicated, as many people break laws unknowingly, however, in our context, it is a person who makes a decision to engage in unlawful acts or to place themselves with others who do this. A criminal always has the ability to decide not to break the law, or if they initially engage in crime to stop doing it, but instead continues. Trials & Court
Cybersecurity Information & Training
Data Theft & Data Breaches
Emergency / Crisis / Disaster Scams
Ethical Standards & Compliance
Facebook Social Media & Online Safety
Faces Of Evil - Reported Real Scammers
Fake & Cashier's Check Scams
Fake Documents & Identification
Fake Products / eCommerce Fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain (money or other assets), or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compensation) or criminal law (e.g., a fraud perpetrator may be prosecuted and imprisoned by governmental authorities), or it may cause no loss of money, property, or legal right but still be an element of another civil or criminal wrong. The purpose of fraud may be monetary gain or other benefits, for example by obtaining a passport, travel document, or driver's license, or mortgage fraud, where the perpetrator may attempt to qualify for a mortgage by way of false statements.
A fraud can also be a hoax, which is a distinct concept that involves deliberate deception without the intention of gain or of materially damaging or depriving a victim.
Fake Websites & Social Media Pages
Financial Institution Impersonation
Government Programs & Projects
Governmental Entities & Agencies
Grooming Grooming is a form of setting up a victim for a scam or other crime by befriending and establishing an emotional connection with the victim, and sometimes the family, to lower the victim's inhibitions with the objective of the scam or criminal activity. Grooming includes the development of a trust relationship between the criminal and the victim, getting the victims to the point where they can be more completely manipulated.
& Manipulation
Guest Editorials & Commentary
How To Report Scams & Scammers
How Victims Pay / Money Transfer
Identity Theft Identity theft is when someone uses another person's personal identifying information, without their permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. In both the U.K. and the United States it is the theft of personally identifiable information. Identity theft deliberately uses someone else's identity as a method to gain financial advantages or obtain credit and other benefits, and perhaps to cause other person's loss. The person whose identity has been stolen may suffer adverse consequences, especially if they are falsely held responsible for the perpetrator's actions. Personally identifiable information generally includes a person's name, date of birth, social security number, driver's license number, bank account or credit card numbers, PINs, electronic signatures, fingerprints, passwords, or any other information that can be used to access a person's financial resources. & Impersonation
Impact of Scams on Victims
Impersonation &
Identity Theft Scams
Callers posing as government officials, often from the Social Security Administration, claim that you've been a victim of identity theft. These scammers ask for personal information or payment of some kind, or access to your bank account.
Impersonation Victim An impersonation victim is someone who has had their identity or images used by someone who imitates or copies their identity to scam or defraud another. This is a criminal act such as identity theft, online impersonation scam, or other fraud. This is usually where the criminal is trying to assume the identity of this victim, in order to commit fraud, such as accessing confidential information or gaining property from someone else. Galleries
Impersonation Victim Speaks Out
Individual Scammers & Profiles
Infographics Infographics (a shortened word of "information" and "graphics") are graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly. They can improve your understanding of a topic by utilizing graphics. Infographics have evolved in recent years to be more useful for mass communications and thus are designed with fewer assumptions about the readers' knowledge base than other types of visualizations.
Investment Scams When a caller claims to have a promising investment opportunity that will help you get rich quick, it's likely a scam.
LATIN AMERICA SCAMS & SCAMMERS
Lotto/Lottery Scams These scams involve someone claiming you won a prize. However, they say you must pay a fee or provide sensitive banking information in order to get it. They keep the money, and you get nothing for it.
Love Rats & Marriage Scams
Malware Short for "malicious software," this term means computer viruses and other types of programs that cybercriminals use to disrupt or access your computer, typically with the aim of gathering sensitive files and accounts. / Viruses / Ransomware Ransomware is a type of malware from cryptovirology that threatens to publish the victim's personal data or perpetually block access to it unless a ransom is paid. While some simple ransomware may lock the system so that it is not difficult for a knowledgeable person to reverse, more advanced malware uses a technique called cryptoviral extortion. It encrypts the victim's files, making them inaccessible, and demands a ransom payment to decrypt them. In a properly implemented cryptoviral extortion attack, recovering the files without the decryption key is an intractable problem – and difficult to trace digital currencies such as paysafecard or Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that are used for the ransoms, making tracing and prosecuting the perpetrators difficult. Ransomware attacks are typically carried out using a Trojan virus disguised as a legitimate file that the user is tricked into downloading or opening when it arrives as an email attachment. However, one high-profile example, the WannaCry worm, traveled automatically between computers without user interaction.
Married Scam Victims - Unintentional Internet Infidelity
Messaging / SMS / Text Scams
MIDDLE EAST SCAMS & SCAMMERS
Misinformation About Scams
Money Recovery Scams If you've already fallen for a scam, another scammer may call you and offer to get you your money back for a fee. Their goal is to double-dip and steal more of your money. Unfortunately, in most cases, only real law enforcement or your government can get your money back. There are exceptions, but you are safer to avoid all recovery options.
NORTH AMERICA SCAMS & SCAMMERS
Official SCARS Newsletter
Pig Butchering Sha Zhu Pan 殺主盤 “Pig Butchering”
This is a scam type that originated in China involving the scammer developing a relationship with the victim - sometimes romantic sometimes not - and leading the victim to invest in a fake company or asset. These typically target smart younger women. Scams -
Sha Zhu Pan Sha Zhu Pan 殺主盤 “Pig Butchering”
This is a scam type that originated in China involving the scammer developing a relationship with the victim - sometimes romantic sometimes not - and leading the victim to invest in a fake company or asset. These typically target smart younger women. 殺主盤
Politics & Scamming - Political Advocacy
Psychology of Scams Psychology Of Scams is the study of the psychological or emotional effects of scams or financial fraud on victims of these crimes. It helps victims to better understand the impact of scams on them personally or on others. To find the SCARS articles on the Psychology of Scams, use the search option to enter the term and find them.
Romance Scams &
Relationship Scams A Relationship Scam is a one-to-one criminal act that involves a trust relationship and uses deception & manipulation to get a victim to give to the criminal something of value, such as money!
Click here to learn more: What Is A Relationship Scam?
Scam Baiting A foolish activity where a victim or nonvictim engages in deception and fraud to lead on a scammer into revealing information or for the sport of it. Deliberate deception online, regardless of the reason, is both unethical and in many places may also be illegal. While not prosecuted, Scambaiting has no legitimate benefit and should never be performed by victims since it is an act of revenge and only amplifies trauma. It is a reprehensible practice that is popularized by amateur anti-scam groups driven by their hate for fraudsters.
Learn more: SCARS Position Statement Against Scambaiting
Scam Slaves / Blood Slaves
Scam Victims In Denial Denial is a refusal or unwillingness to accept something or to accept reality. Refusal to admit the truth or reality of something, refusal to acknowledge something unpleasant; And as a term of Psychology: denial is a defense mechanism in which confrontation with a personal problem or with reality is avoided by denying the existence of the problem or reality.
Scam Victims Legal & Civil Rights
Scam Victims' Assistance & Support
Scam Victims' Assistance Resources
Scam Victims' Support Groups In a support group, members provide each other with various types of help, usually nonprofessional and nonmaterial, for a particular shared, usually burdensome, characteristic, such as romance scams. Members with the same issues can come together for sharing coping strategies, to feel more empowered and for a sense of community. The help may take the form of providing and evaluating relevant information, relating personal experiences, listening to and accepting others' experiences, providing sympathetic understanding and establishing social networks. A support group may also work to inform the public or engage in advocacy. They can be supervised or not. SCARS support groups are moderated by the SCARS Team and or volunteers.
Scammer Galleries & Collections
Scammer Grammar Scammer Grammar (a term invented by the SCARS Team back in 2012) - is a writing style that is largely very bad English, bad grammar, mixed with West African slang and speech patterns. It is hard to define but easy to recognize when you see it. It is often referred to as Pidgin English, though this is not technically true. This most often shows when individual scammers (even if educated) try to improvise and create new written communications. Do a search on our website for SCAMMER GRAMMAR to find countless examples. Collections
Scammer Techniques & Methods
scammerphotos.com Galleries
SCARS Editorials & Commentaries
SCARS News & Announcements
Self Help - Supporting Yourself
Shame Shame is an unpleasant self-conscious emotion typically associated with a negative evaluation of the self; withdrawal motivations; and feelings of distress, exposure, mistrust, powerlessness, and worthlessness. & Guilt & Self Blame Blame or Blaming is the act of censuring, holding responsible, making negative statements about an individual or group that their action or actions are socially or morally irresponsible, the opposite of praise. When someone is morally responsible for doing something wrong, their action is blameworthy. By contrast, when someone is morally responsible for doing something right, we may say that his or her action is praiseworthy. Blame imparts responsibility for an action or act, as in that they made a choice to perform that act or action.
Social Engineering Social engineering is the psychological manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. It is used as a type of confidence trick for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or system access, it differs from a traditional "con" in that it is often one of many steps in a more complex fraud scheme.
It has also been defined as "any act that influences a person to take any action that may or may not be in their best interests."
Stalking Impersonation Victims
Syndromes It is a group of symptoms that can consistently occur together or a condition characterized by a set of associated symptoms. & Delusions
Tech / Computer Support Scams
Third-Party Articles & Content
Victim Fear & Phobias Phobias are one of the most common mental illnesses in the United States. The National Institute of Mental Health suggests that 8% of U.S. adults have some type of phobia. Women are more likely to experience phobias than men. Typical symptoms of phobias can include nausea, trembling, rapid heartbeat, feelings of unreality, and being preoccupied with the fear object.
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) identifies three different categories of phobias: social phobias, agoraphobia, and specific phobias.1 When people talk about having a phobia of a specific object such as snakes, spiders, or needles, they are referring to a specific phobia.
Victim Financial Recovery
Victim Recovery Book Club
Victim Trauma Emotional and psychological trauma is the result of extraordinarily stressful events that shatter your sense of security, making you feel helpless in a dangerous world. Psychological trauma can leave you struggling with upsetting emotions, memories, and anxiety that won’t go away. It can also leave you feeling numb, disconnected, and unable to trust other people.
Traumatic experiences often involve a threat to life or safety or other emotional shocks, but any situation that leaves you feeling overwhelmed and isolated can result in trauma, even if it doesn’t involve physical harm. It’s not the objective circumstances that determine whether an event is traumatic, but your subjective emotional experience of the event. The more frightened and helpless you feel, the more likely you are to be traumatized.
Trauma requires treatment, either through counseling or therapy or through trauma-oriented support programs, such as those offered by SCARS. & PTSD
Victimization Victimization (or victimization) is the process of being victimized or becoming a victim. The field that studies the process, rates, incidence, effects, and prevalence of victimization is called victimology.
Victimology Victimology is the study of victimization, including the psychological effects on victims, relationships between victims and offenders, the interactions between victims and the criminal justice system—that is, the police and courts, and corrections officials—and the connections between victims and other social groups and institutions, such as the media, businesses, and social movements.
♥ GALLERIES & CONTENT COLLECTIONS
♦ ABOUT ADVOCACY & ACTIVISM
♦ ABOUT ALL SCARS KNOWLEDGE & LEARNING
♦ ABOUT ANTI-SCAM ETHICS & STANDARDS
♦ ABOUT CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROCESS
♦ ABOUT GOVERNMENT & LAW ENFORCEMENT
♦ ABOUT MONEY MULES Money mules are a type of money laundering where a person transfers illicit funds through a medium (such as a bank account) to obfuscate where the money came from. There are different types of money mules including witting, unwitting, and complicit.
♦ ABOUT PSYCHOLOGY & TRAUMA
♦ ABOUT RECOVERY & SUPPORT
♦ ABOUT REPORTING SCAMS & SCAMMERS
♦ ABOUT SCAMMERS/FRAUDSTERS
♦ ANTI-SCAM TIPS CLUES & RED FLAGS
♦ CRIMINOLOGY / VICTIMOLOGY
♦ EDITORIALS & COMMENTARY
♦ ESPAÑOL - ESTAFAS Y ESTAFADORES
♦ GOVERNMENT POLICY LAWS & REGULATION
♦ IMPERSONATION GALLERIES
♦ LAW ENFORCEMENT - JUSTICE - INVESTIGATION
♦ SCAM VICTIM FINANCES & MONEY RECOVERY
♦ SCARS POLICIES TERMS ETHICS STANDARDS
♦ SUBJECT ARTICLE CATALOG
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