A New Look At The World Of Scamming!

As a result of the pandemic, new countries increased their activities and became more dominant at scamming!

HERE IS THE SHORTLIST OF THE LEADING SCAMMERScammer A Scammer or Fraudster is someone that engages in deception to obtain money or achieve another objective. They are criminals that attempt to deceive a victim into sending more or performing some other activity that benefits the scammer. COUNTRIES

Nigeria

Nigeria has diversified its approach to 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. over the years. Today Nigeria is more than the old 419419 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. scams. They are involved in Romance Scams, Marriage Scams, Treasure & Wealth Scams, Investment ScamsInvestment Scams When a caller claims to have a promising investment opportunity that will help you get rich quick, it's likely a scam., Lotto Scams, Business Email Compromise BEC Scams, COVID-19 Scams, and dozens of more variants of these!

Today, the Nigerian EFCCEFCC Economic and Financial Crimes Commission The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is a Nigerian law enforcement agency that investigates financial crimes such as advance fee fraud (419 fraud), scams, and money laundering. The EFCC was established in 2003, partially in response to pressure from the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), which named Nigeria as one of 23 countries non-cooperative in the international community's efforts to fight money laundering. The agency has its head office in Abuja, Nigeria. (Economic & Financial Crimes Commission) is leading Africa in investigations and arrests, with prison sentences of up to 20 years!

Ghana

Like Nigeria, they are heavily involved in Romance and 419 style scams. Unlike Nigeria, the Ghana police are corrupt and incompetent. Virtually no scammers are arrested in Ghana.

India

India is primarily known for the phone scams impersonating government agencies and tech support scamsTech Support Scams Phone scammers may masquerade as tech support employees for a major company in order to take your money or install a virus on your computer. They may call from what seem to be legitimate company numbers using caller ID spoofing.. However, they too are involved now in the total spectrum. In fact, many Indian scamming centers are owned or contracted by Nigerians who have more than enough money to outsource in over 50 countries. Indians are especially hard on their own people, which is why the Indian government has become serious and is creating new local cybercrimeCybercrime Cybercrime is a crime related to technology, computers, and the Internet. Typical cybercrime are performed by a computer against a computer, or by a hacker using software to attack computers or networks. police forces nationwide.

China

The Chinese are experts at this, and they’ve even used technology to defraud the general public inside and outside of China. Inside of China, it is estimated that there are more than 10 million new victims of scams a year. You will find them on every domestic social media and communications platform, including games. The dominant 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. platforms are WeChat, QQ, and others.

Fortunately, China is at the forefront of arresting scammers. With the help of SCARS they did their first major arrests in 2018, and then in 2019 arrested nearly 99,000 scammers.

Israel

Israel is the leader in the world for Investment scams targeting people in North America and Europe mostly. Fake investment companies pop up overnight with highly polished documents, websites, and pitches.  While the Israeli police are excellent at their jobs, they have been unable to stop this trend.

Jamaica

Jamaica is the land of the Lotto or Sweepstake scam! They are so expert at this that a few hundred scammers bring in over USD$100 billion a year!

U.S. & Canadian law enforcement work with Jamaican police to attempt to control this, but the scammers seem to be mostly one step ahead!

Brazil

Scammers are overrunning Brazil. Brazil had nearly 5 million new victims in 2020 on WhatsApp alone! Brazilians are involved in every possible scam type, and Nigerians have set up permanent shop there. Romance scams are very common with men defrauding victims by posing as attractive women.

Unfortunately, the Brazilian Federal Police have not been doing a very good job of controlling this!

Pakistan

Military scams are becoming so prevalent that many law enforcement agencies have issued an alert. Scammers employ high-ranking authorities and masquerade as military personnel on online dating services and social networks, engaging in relationships whose sole purpose is to steal people’s pictures, which they would subsequently use to deceive others. Scammers are now posing as soldiers stationed in Pakistan. Cybercriminals are also very active in ransomwareRansomware 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. and malwareMalware 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..

Pakistan police have only begun to take these crimes seriously.

Indonesia / Malaysia

Nigerians are firmly embedded in these countries. They have set up hundreds of satellite operations of from 4 to 100 scammers working in a group. They are involved in all types of scams and are also the price money launderingMoney 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. operations for Nigerians worldwide.

The Indonesian and Malaysian cybercrime police forces are very serious about these crimes and arrest a large number of scammers each year.

Venezuela

Since the country’s economy collapsed, there has been an explosion of scams varying from dating appsApps Applications or Apps An application (software), commonly referred to as an ‘app’ is a program on a computer, tablet, mobile phone or device. Apps are designed for specific tasks, including checking the weather, accessing the internet, looking at photos, playing media, mobile banking, etc. Many apps can access the internet if needed and can be downloaded (used) either for a price or for free. Apps are a major point of vulnerability on all devices. Some are designed to be malicious, such as logging keystrokes or activity, and others can even transport malware. Always be careful about any app you are thinking about installing. to fake government bonds. The street value of the dollar has risen to 7 times the government’s value of the dollar, so dollar-based scams are the main focus. Venezuelan scammers target Latin American victims heavily for all types of scams.

There is no effective law enforcement in Venezuela.

Iran / North Korea

Iran and North Korea are countries that will do anything they can to bring in dollars, and state-sponsored scamming is high on their list. They are involved in scams targeting their own people living abroad, as well as all the usual scam types. Most of their scams are online, but there have been phone scams as well.

There is no law enforcement activity against scammers in these countries.

South Africa

South Africans were the most impacted by banking-related and investment scams. However, like all of Africa, there are also romance and many other scam types originating from South Africa.

South Africa does have a competent national police force, but so far it has not been very effective in slowing the tide.

Philippines

Aside from the typical romantic scams, the Philippines has taken it a step further. Philippines women (and men) use their real identities to scam believing that they are completely immune from arrest. However, since the Dutarte government took control the Philippines National Police has been very aggressive in rooting out scammers that have been reported.

Romania

Romania sank into poverty and corruption when communism fell. Romania has developed a reputation for effective online scams over the years. Scammers have used online dating, phishing, and the sale of non-existent items to deceive unsuspecting individuals. Romanian online con artists utilize tried and true tactics to defraud.

EuropolEuropol The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, better known under the name Europol, formerly the European Police Office and Europol Drugs Unit, is the law enforcement agency of the European Union (EU) formed in 1998 to handle criminal intelligence and combat serious international organized crime and terrorism through cooperation between competent authorities of EU member states. The Agency has no executive powers, and its officials are not entitled to arrest suspects or act without prior approval from authorities in the member states. Based in The Hague, it comprised 1,065 staff as of 2016. WEBSITE LINK & Interpol have been very effective over the last years in countering Romanian scammers.

Summary

In effect, almost every country has scammers. The Nigerians are spreading their style to the four corners of the globe without much resistance. However, 2020 was the year the governments worldwide finally decided to work this problem!