Scam Detection Pt. 1
‘Scam Detection’ will be series’d around common scams from scammers.
(Future reference to import deepfakediscovery.info to host scam files)
Scammers are continuously growing and becoming smarter and more unique to adapt to the new generations of tech adoption. With growing multi-factor authentication the landscape for stealing PII is more and more difficult for the ‘average’ scammer to leverage exploitation.
Social Engineering
You don’t have to be a genius in tech to exploit/steal others personal information.
But! With a little knowledge you can protect your data!
The most common form of ‘hacking’ or ‘scamming’ or ‘insider threat’ will always be a human being’s information being exploited through maliciousness of social engineering. If somebody has a window to access to your personal data with negative intent in mind they will use it.
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Targeted scams (As in specifically targeting you) would most likely be done by somebody with access to personal information of yours, They would also most likely not be working alone (Organization or network) That’s not to say they couldn’t be solo, A popular scam I used to see on MySpace - Was running ‘repost surveys’ posts, People can then do the survey you posted, And it would usually have questions that could be ‘reverse engineered’ in a way, To take your answers of favorite things, favorite numbers, Last 4 of cell phone numbers etc. Then run password software based on your personal answers. (This is because most people use something personal to them to create passwords)
Safeguard Your Data
It is not always noticeable but staying alert to the data you ingest and click on is continuously becoming more of a normal daily part of staying active on the internet
And at the speed of light the next hot technology will already be running off the shelves leaving us in an endless wave of protecting our digital footprints
Here is an example of a scam I run into
Common Email Scam
Now before even clicking on anything here are my immediate warning signs
I do not have that contact ‘Melissa Lopez’ in my contact list (It is a made up or stolen identity)
‘Payment for order’? I never ordered anything, This is a phishing attempt
Included file attachment is randomly named a hash, This is suspicious and not to be clicked
Malicious links (The easiest to even accidently click on) Could contain any number of viruses, malware, ransomware, keyloggers, etc. Designed to monitor and steal your information the next time you input it or steal it from your phone/computer
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It is always important to be vigilante over the data you are allowing to access your devices
Trademark Image for reference
This is an interesting ‘scam’ For anybody who registers copyrights/trademarks etc. ‘Scammers’ (And i’ll explain why I am hyphenating this) will search the public records for your paperwork. Then in the mail they will give you ‘Certified’ (Not-Certified) documentation requesting a small payment from you for your trademark to be input as a final in the national database. What the fine print doesn’t tell you is, They have their own website set up and your paperwork will be submitted into a registery that has nothing to do with the official channels. So if you give them the money you are essentially being scammed out of an official trademark, Because they have no authority to actually provide you with the trademark. They are simply adding your documentation into their unofficial documentation and calling it a day.
This is a place-holder for actual received images in the mail high-lighting the uniqueness of this scam
