Shield Yourself From Fraud Now!

Charles Caleb Colton was once quoted with the words, “There are some frauds so well conducted, that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them”.

That was more than a hundred years ago, but those words are still true today. With the advent of the internet, social networks, and online marketing, it is therefore a challenge to sift through the bulk and pick apart the truth from the scams.

We’ve heard all the news, the word-of-mouth, but after all the precautions and advice that we had been heeding, many still fall for even the most obvious of frauds. Some say you “can’t cheat an honest man”, but in this day and age, honesty alone won’t be able to protect you. Why does this still happen? What do we do to lessen the risk and prevent ourselves from being included in the percentage of victims? Here are a few pointers:

1. Safeguard your personal information!  – There is much danger in freely giving to others your account information. If you have a credit card, NEVER give out its number unless you are about to purchase something and you know it is secure to do so. Don’t hand out to others your personal information, especially those containing your bank accounts or pin codes, because they can easily use this to charge you with their personal expenditures. You could even get accused and arrested for a crime you didn’t do because of this. Keep your personal effects – bank statements, checkbooks, driver’s license, social security card, or even national I.D. – under strict protection. Moreover, if you’re going to dispose of your card, IDs, passports, or paperworks that have personal information,  consider burning or shredding them instead of just throwing them. There are swindlers who use the information they get from other people’s trash for fraudulent activities.

2. Use your common sense -  Some people say that common sense is not so common. Why so? Because there are people who fail to use their common sense even if they are perfectly capable of it. Consider the pyramid schemes out there – they have so many variations but the blueprint stays the same. They all promise unbelievably high returns for just a very low investment. However, these schemes are deceptively weak because – let’s be realistic here – it’s not possible to keep on recruiting new members. All pyramid schemes have a saturation point (wherein there is just too many recruiters and low turnout) and when promoters suspect this, they take the money and run.

Chain letters are in the same league. They are popular since most of us receive them in our emails and some of us are even deceived into believing them. Don’t get too excited when you receive an email telling you that you won a contest or a prize when you know that you haven’t entered or done anything of the sort. When you respond to these fraudulent emails, some ask for your personal information like credit card numbers (which they steal) or ask that you send an amount of money to process your winnings.

Now be sensible! If it seems to good to be true, it usually is.

3. Doing business? Do it only with reputable or trustworthy people -  The reason why swindlers are also called “con artists” is because they are good at winning other people’s confidence. Since you have to sell yourself before you could be able to sell your product to others, it is thus important to make your buyers to trust you. No, it doesn’t mean you should be cynical and skeptical of everything, but a healthy dose of suspicion won’t hurt – it can even help you. Give them the benefit of the doubt and don’t rush into buying into an offer that is just too good to be true. If possible, check if for yourself the information about the salesperson or the company that is trying to make you buy into them. So don’t just click away; READ and decide wisely.

4. Report it! -  If you came across a fraud or even became a victim, don’t feel overwhelmed and think that you can’t stop these things anyway. If you’re certain that something is a scam and/or is operating under fraudulent covers, don’t hesitate to report it to the right authorities. You’re not just helping yourself gain back the confidence you lost because of being victimized, you also help prevent others from falling into the same trap.

Now that we have all these pointers on how to prevent ourselves from falling for frauds, let’s remember and heed them. Otherwise, it’s just another good advice down the drain.