The most common ways people get scammed online

1. Fake emails claiming you've won a prize

You've read the stories, you know the scams well by now. Unsuspecting targets receive an email or are phished and the scammer takes over their account and robs them blind. But while phishing, or phishing emails is often the preferred scam of choice, as the name implies it is not a new scheme.

"In recent years the Internet has provided a perfect platform to criminal elements to spread their evil plans in ways that were never imagined by the perpetrators in the past. Scammers have leveraged this medium and now find it easy to access and use it to the benefit of their nefarious business ventures," explains a BBB research report.

Typical scams include emails purporting to be from retailers such as Best Buy, Target or any other popular store.

2 Fake offers

3 Selling counterfeit goods

4 Social engineering

5 Phishing

6 Preventing scams

7 Put online trust in proper perspective

It's easy to fall for scams. Victims report that they believe the money they invested is well worth it, and they encourage everyone they know to buy or invest. Many point out that they are glad they didn't get ripped off, because they learned a valuable lesson about investing, and how to make informed decisions.

Those savvy enough to make a living off of their online offering are definitely making good money. Unfortunately, scams are big business. Scams reported by the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center have a total estimated loss of over $47 billion. This is a true statement about frauds reported to the FBI.

Example to using scam

Identity theft

Emails asking for money

Stealing personally identifiable information (PII)

Malware

Phishing attacks

Other (including "social engineering" scams, bait and switch scams, requests for remote access, etc.)

For several months I've been thinking about why so many people get scammed. Why do so many people take the bait? Why do so many people do the dirty work of some hacker or cybercriminal?

What I've discovered is that there are three major reasons that people get scammed online.

1. They are lazy

   
   




2. They are trusting

   
   




3. They are stupid

   
   

And there are also a few other minor reasons, but that's the bulk of what I've discovered through my research.