Last Updated on by SCARS Editorial Team
Spotting ScamsScams 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. & Anti-ScamScam 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. Tips – Article Catalog
The Clues & Tips To Help You Avoid Scams & Scammers
From the basics to detailed red flags!
Learn how to avoid scams now and in the future!
A SCARSSCARS SCARS - Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.
A government registered crime victims' assistance & crime prevention nonprofit organization based in Miami, Florida, U.S.A. SCARS supports the victims of scams worldwide and through its partners in more than 60 countries around the world. Incorporated in 2015, its team has 30 years of continuous experience educating and supporting scam victims.
Visit www.AgainstScams.org to learn more about SCARS. Topic Collection
Updated: August 9, 2021
Scams Are Complex And Contain Hidden Dangers!
Staying Safe Online Requires That you Have More Than Attitude & Intelligence! It Requires Specialized Knowledge!
In order to avoid or discover scams, you need knowledge but there is an endless range of clues and tips that can help you. Below are our articles on this subject.
Remember, not all scams are exactly alike. There are endless variations, but these should help you discover if you are being scammed and how to never let it happen again or even in the first place.
We will update this catalog from time to time as new articles are added or recategorized.
Scam Basics
Understand Scams
- What Is A Scam?
- 9 Steps To Avoiding Online Fraud
- How Do You Stop Scams?
- Simple Steps for Internet Safety
- FTC’s How To Avoid Scams
- Basic Fakery Deception & Lies
- Love for Sale
- Dead Wife
- Fake Video Calls
- What’s Up With Gift Cards?
- Forgetful Scammers
- Scammer Grammar!
- Scam Basics: A Taxonomy
- A Quick Reminder To Report All Scams
- There Are Real Monsters Online
- Standard Nigerian Scams & Online Fraud
Scam Tips & Clues
The Red Flags
- How To Identify A Scam?
- Spotting Scammers
- 3 Simple Rules
- 15 BASIC Warning Signs Of Romance Scamming
- Online Love Asking For Money? It’s A Scam.
- Scammers Create Fake Emergencies To Get Your Money
- Fake Valentines Quick Check List
- Why Do They Call You Dear?
- Scammer Acid Test
- Scammer Clues
- Clues You Can Use!
- Overly Religious
- Uninvited Strangers
- How To Avoid Nigerian Letter Or “419” Email Scams
- Anti-Scam Tips – Graphics & Posters
- African & Greater Middle East Phone Country Codes
- Popular Nigerian Slang You Can Use To Detect A Scammer
- Road Trip Or Out Of The Country!
- Too Many Facebook Groups
- Dead Wife
- Too Many Friends
- Scammer Grammar!
- Always Ask You To Chat Somewhere Else
- Forgetful Scammers
- How To Trace Scam Email Senders/Headers
Fake Soldiers
Spotting Military Scams:
- Military Impersonation Scams
- Soldier Impersonation
- U.S. Army Scammers / Fake Soldier Romance Scams
- U.S. Army Warning: Fake Soldiers – SCARS™ Special Report
- United States Military Ranks & Insignia
- United States Military & Social Media
- Where are the U.S. Military Forces Now
- Impersonation Galleries
- Visit SCARS Scammer Photo Gallery Website at ScamsOnline.org
Scammer Photos
Real Or Fake Photos:
- How to Do a Reverse Image Search From Your Phone
- Games With Photos
- Stolen Photos
- Scammer Fake Passport Recognition
- How To Spot Fake U.S. Passports
- Catch A Scammer By Their Photos
- Emailed & Downloaded Photos May Contain Malware
- Impersonation Galleries
- Also Visit SCARS Scammer Photo Gallery Website at ScamsOnline.org
- Don’t Stalk The Face In The Photo!
- Proof of Life/Sign Photos
Watch Out
Be Careful:
- Confronting Scammers
- Clones – Copying Profiles & Identities
- When Real People Scam!
- Newspaper Ad Scams Still Work
- Real Scammers
- Stranger Contact Warning
- Scammer Hostility
- Philippines Gold Diggers – How To Tell
- 419 Money Scammers Turn To Google Forms
- Fake Pages – Trojan Pages
- God Help Millennials!
- Anti-Scam Security Test For Your Friends & Family
- Anti-Scam “Counseling”
- Scammers Now Creating Anti-Scam Websites?
- Scammers Like Gays & Lesbians
- The Insider Threat – The Networks of Scammers
- Recognize Counterfeit U.S. Money
- Avoiding The Latest Blackmail Scam
- New Trend In Romance Scams
Deeper Insights
Better Understanding:
- Money Laundering Presents Grave Dangers For Scam Victims & Mules
- Scammer Interrogation Techniques
- Scammer Crime Scene Investigation
- Hostility Is A Common Characteristic Of Scammers
- Compassionate Scammers
- Understanding The Narcissist Scammer
- The Heart Of Darkness – A Scam Geography Lesson
- What Is The Relationship Between Scammer And Victim?
- Why Reporting Matters?
- Naming & Shaming Scammers!
- Don’t Be Afraid Of Offending Scammers!
- Social Engineering Email Scams – Red Flags
Types Of Scams
Scams Come In Many Variants:
- Online Scams & Cybercrimes – Learn About Scams
- A to Z of Online Fraud
- 419 – Advance Fee Fraud/Scams
- After Romance Scam Scams
- Airline Ticket Fraud
- Bride Scams
- Business Email Compromise Fraud
- Charity Fraud
- Coronavirus Scams
- Coupon Scams – Yes, It Is A Thing!
- Courier Fraud / Police or Bank Impersonation Scams
- Cryptocurrency Scams
- Cyberstalking
- Disaster Scams
- Doxing & Scammer Revenge
- Emergency Scams
- Fake Checks Scams
- Financial Crime Online – A Refersher
- Gift Card Scams
- Government Imposters
- Grandparents Scams
- Hotel & Hospitality Scams
- Non-Delivery & Related Scams
- One Ring Call Phone Scam
- Online Money Scams
- Package Delivery Text Message Shipping Scam
- Ransomware
- Refugee Romance Scam
- Synthetic ID Fraud
- Targeting Teens And Young Adults
- Trial Subscription Scams
- Unemployment Fraud In the U.S.
- Unknown Text Messages
- Whaling Scam Attacks
How Scams Work
Learning How It Happens:
- Top Scamming Countries
- Impersonation Romance Scams
- Lost Pet Scam – Going For Your Heart
- Non-Delivery & Related Scams
- Financial Fraud: Explained
- Introduction To Sextortion Scams
- Romance Baiting Scams
- How Scammers Use Emergency Scams
- Doxing – A Kind of Terrorism or Cyberbullying?
- Dissecting A Phishing Scam
- Dissecting A Nigerian Advance Fee [419] Fraud / Scam
- Dissecting A Lotto Scam
- Avoiding Tech Support Scams
- How To Avoid Nigerian Letter Or “419” Email Scams
- Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams
- Police Impersonation Scam Phone Calls
- Text Message Scam Warning
- Where Does Your Money Go?
- What’s Up With Gift Cards?
- Nigerian ‘Yahoo Boys’ Are Posing as US Military Members on Facebook
How Scammers Work
Scammer Techniques:
- Standard Nigerian Scams & Online Fraud
- Scammer Methods – Part 1: The Introduction
- Scammer Methods – Part 2: The Questions
- Scammer Methods – Part 3: The Steps – Grooming & Manipulation
- Scammer Methods – Part 4: The Distance
- Scammer Methods – Part 5: The Love Story
- How Scammers Use Emergency Scams
- Scammers Create Fake Emergencies To Get Your Money
- Understanding Yahoo Boy Methods
- How Yahoo Boys Create A Fake Facebook Account Without Getting Blocked
- How Yahoo Boys Scam On Facebook Without Getting Banned
- Latest Yahoo Boy Scammer Techniques
- Advanced Scammer Techniques: Cold Reading
- Equivocation – The Magician’s Choice – The Arts Of Manipulation
- How To Become A Successful YAHOO BOY
- Ghanaian Sakawa Boys – The Untold Story
- Need A Phone Number?
- Facebook Profiles For Sale Cheap
More Dangers
Social Media & Dating Site
Urban Legends
Truth From False Information:
- Introduction & What Are They
- Urban Legends: The Lone Scammer
- Scammers Are Stupid
- Scammers Are All Alike
- It’s All About The Scammers
- Who Is Responsible?
- Scammer Threats & Blackmail
- Why Scammers Ask For Photos?
- Do Something Useful With Their Lives!
- Obsessive Scammer Exposing
- Anti-Scam Groups Are All Good
- Victims Are Stupid
- No One Is Doing Anything!
- Identifying Hoaxes and Urban Legends
Essential Tools For Every Scam Victim From SCARS
Each is based on our SCARS Team’s 30 plus years of experience.
SCARS GREEN BOOK
Self-Help Self-Paced Recovery Program Guide
LEARN HOW TO RECOVER ON YOUR OWN
This program is designed to help scam victims struggling to recover on their own and for those who want to understand the overall process. You can be using other resources, such as traumaTrauma 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. counselingCounseling Counseling is the professional guidance of the individual by utilizing psychological methods especially in collecting case history data, using various techniques of the personal interview, and testing interests and aptitudes. A mental health counselor (MHC), or counselor, is a person who works with individuals and groups to promote optimum mental and emotional health. Such persons may help individuals deal with issues associated with addiction and substance abuse; family, parenting, and marital problems; stress management; self-esteem; and aging. They may also work with "Social Workers", "Psychiatrists", and "Psychologists". SCARS does not provide mental health counseling. or therapy, qualified support groupsSupport 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., or completely independent – on your own!
The SCARS Steps program is a complete program and is provided for the purpose of helping scam victims to overcome this experience. Throughout this SCARS Steps Program, we speak about issues and challenges that a victim may have and help guide them through their recovery. But each person is different and it is important to understand your own reasons for being vulnerable to being scammed.
After the trauma of being scammed, you need to take steps to recover and move on. This may be an alternative to counseling in the short term, but we still encourage you to seek out professional help & support. Throughout this SCARS Steps Program, we speak about issues, challenges, defects, or problems that a victim may have in a generalized way.
The SCARS GREEN BOOK will help you recover from your scam offline and it will always be there when you need it!
SCARS BLUE BOOK
A Unique SurvivorSurvivor A Scam Survivor is a victim who has been able to fully accept the reality of their situation. That they were the victim of a crime and are not to blame. They are working on their emotional recovery and reduction of any trauma either on their own, through a qualified support organization, or through counseling or therapy. And has done their duty and reported the crime to their local police, national police, and on Anyscam.com’s Recovery Journal
THE PERFECT DAILY JOURNAL FOR SCAM VICTIMS IN RECOVERY
Give yourself the perfect tool to measure and track your recovery progress while getting the therapeutic benefit of journaling!
This official SCARS Self-Help Recovery Program Journal allows you to record your journey day by day, to be able to look back and see your progress, and measure your achievements. While this is a difficult time in your life, it will get better in time and journaling is an important way to help you through many of those moments, but also to show yourself how strong you are!
The Official SCARS BLUE BOOK is your way of recording this struggle and help yourself through it.
A special discount is available when buying 3 at a time.
SCARS RED BOOK
Your Personal Scam Evidence & Crime Record Organizer
ORGANIZE YOUR INFORMATION TO MAKE THE REPORTING PROCESS SIMPLE!
Helps you get and stay organized. This publication is to help Scam Victims organize their crime information. Complete this information before reporting to the police then bring this book with you
Before or after reporting to the police the RED BOOK gives you a dedicated tool to record all the essential facts of this crime. The Victim, the Scammers, the Money, and your Police interactions. Everything that really matters can be easily recorded for your immediate use and for the future!
As we have seen, money recovery/repayment programs can become available years after the scam ends and you need to keep all the details of this crime in case it is needed. We have also seen scammers being extradited to the U.S. and other countries, this will help in the event you testify or give statements, Additionally, this helps you have your information ready to qualify for victims’ benefits, compensation, or aid.
The Official SCARS RED BOOK is your way of recording all the important facts of this crime so that you do not lose essential information, Complete the RED BOOK then put it away with the confidence that you will have it if or when it is needed.
SCARS LIME BOOK
Wisdom & Motivation for Scam Victims
A SURVIVOR’S GUIDE FOR MOTIVATION & WISDOM ABOUT SCAMS & RECOVERY
After the scam, life is filled with challenges and uncertainty. So many things are going wrong and how do you recover from the experience. There is a way. In the SCARS GREEN BOOK we present the complete SCARS Steps Recovery Program, but there is more to it.
You need to keep yourself motivated and understand that you are not the first person to go through this. The SCARS LIME BOOK helps you stay positive and motivated, and gain the wisdom that comes from helping millions of scam victims that SCARS has done.
This small book is packed with motivational insights and survivor wisdom to help you get up every day, make it through the through times, and sleep assured that time heals all emotional wounds.
The Official SCARS LINE BOOK is your way of reminding yourself every day that you are strong and can make it through this!
SCARS SLATE BOOK – A Guide For Families & Friends Of Scam Victims
HOW TO HELP ROMANCE SCAM VICTIMS FOR FAMILIES & FRIENDS OF SCAM VICTIMS
This SCARS Publishing book represents a complete guide to help the families and friends understand how these scams work and how to help the victim.
The SCARS Slate Book should be purchased by family and friends to better understand what happened to the victim and the traumatic impact on them. But it can also be shared by the victim so that they do not have to explain to family and friends about the scam. This publication is to help others to help Scam Victims to make it through this traumatic experience and recover.
Each person is different and it is important to understand how relationship scamsRelationship Scam 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? work and why people are vulnerable; to being scammed, how they were lured in, then groomed and manipulated. This understanding is essential in helping them through the process of ending the scam and then on to recovery. The SCARS Slate Book will provide the information necessary to help support a victim through this process.
SCARS PEARL BOOK – The SCARS Online Safety Password Log Book
AN ONLINE SAFETY TOOL FROM SCARS HELPS YOU TO STAY SAFE ONLINE!
We all know that we need to create and maintain stronger & safer passwords, but how can anyone possibly manage them? Actually, the process is not that hard with the right tools. Every only user needs to have two items: 1) a Password Manager App (such as LastPass or TrueKey), and 2) a master password log book!
But if you have a password manager app why do you need a logbook too? Because what if you are unable to access your password manager? What do you do then? The truth is that all software can be unavailable at times, or what do you do if you forget the password to your password manager? The answer is to have a backup logbook where you store all of your passwords in an organized way.
The SCARS PEARL BOOK helps to remind you about how to create strong passwords and how to keep them safe, but most importantly organizes all of your passwords in one place by accounts wor websites, making them easy to maintain and find when you need them.
Your Feedback!
Please share your feedback below. Hearing from victims helps us refine our knowledge about scammer’s processes and methods, and then be able to better share factual authoritative information with victims worldwide. Please scroll down and share your thoughts and comments. What you think and experienced matters.
Please Share:
Please share our articles and knowledge with your friends & family. This is important!
Help others stay safe online – your knowledge can make the difference for both those being groomed and victims! The next victim might be your own family member or best friend!
By the SCARS™ Editorial Team
Society of Citizens Against Relationship ScamsSCARS SCARS - Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc.
A government registered crime victims' assistance & crime prevention nonprofit organization based in Miami, Florida, U.S.A. SCARS supports the victims of scams worldwide and through its partners in more than 60 countries around the world. Incorporated in 2015, its team has 30 years of continuous experience educating and supporting scam victims.
Visit www.AgainstScams.org to learn more about SCARS. Inc.
A Worldwide Crime Victims Assistance & Crime Prevention Nonprofit Organization Headquartered In Miami Florida USA & Monterrey NL Mexico, with Partners In More Than 60 Countries
To Learn More, Volunteer, or Donate Visit: www.AgainstScams.org
Contact Us: Contact@AgainstScams.org
The World Online Is Not Safe For Those That Don’t Know!
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