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As online fraudsters are getting more creative, we invited Jorij Abraham, a General Manager of @Scamadviser1 and GASA, to talk about new types of scams and what to do in case you've become a victim of a scam. In this video, you'll also find out new ways on protecting yourself from scams and frauds.
00:00 - Intro
00:36 - About Jorij Abraham
01:10 - About ScamAdviser
02:02 - How to check a store for scam risk
03:52 - About online scams
05:17 - International scams
08:13 - What to do if you became a victim of international scam
09:47 - Why scams are more popular among young audience
12:27 - New scams
13:35 - How to protect yourself from scams
14:37 - How to protect yourself from fraud
15:59 - Facebook scams
16:51 - Red Flags from ScamAdviser
18:15 - Email scams
19:13 - How to report a scammer
20:50 - ScamAdviser tips
21:42 - Conclusion
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0:00
Guys, I'm very excited to introduce to you today Yori, who is the managing director of
0:07
Scam Advisor and also a person who runs Global Anti-Scam Alliance. He looks at the consumer's
0:14
world from the point of view of your safety while being online, and I'm hoping that this
0:20
discussion will allow you to learn a little bit more about scams that are out there and about
0:26
things that you as a consumer can do to address the issues that arise in front of you
0:36
Juri Abraham, I'm Dutch. I live in Amsterdam and I run two companies. One is Scam Advisor
0:43
which is an online algorithm, which real-time checks if a website is legit or a scam
0:49
And I run the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, which is a non-profit organization where we try to
0:55
to smash the heads together of policymakers, law enforcement, banks, telecom operators
1:01
to better protect consumers against scammers. Jory, thank you. Thank you very much
1:06
What does Scam Advisor do? How consumers can use it? Scam Advisor was actually set up in 2012 by Mark, a developer from the UK
1:16
The story goes that Mark bought a golf set online, proved to be a fake
1:20
And as you know, Mike, nobody is as dangerous as an angry developer
1:25
So he started to develop an algorithm to see, hey, what's the chance of this website being legit or scam
1:32
That turns into scamadvisor.com. And nowadays we have more than 5 million unique visitors per month
1:39
But more importantly is that we also share our data with antivirus companies, payment service providers, search engines, social media
1:49
so that they can check if a website is legit before they allow it on their platform
1:54
when the consumer encounters a new website or a new platform that they're not familiar with, to go online and check it out
2:02
Yes, that's what we always tell consumers, that if you don't know the website, go and check it out
2:10
before you use your credit card. So maybe to also illustrate how the Scam Advisor works
2:17
let's say you enter webshoppy.uk into Scam Advisor, And just giving an example that we scan the website and we see it's an online store
2:26
It claims to be based in the United Kingdom, but it's actually hosting in Romania, which is fine
2:33
But if it then offers consumer electronics, then we become a little bit suspicious because consumer electronics from Romania to the United Kingdom, that doesn't happen much
2:43
So we lower the trust score a little bit. And then we see on the server of that website that there are actually 200 other websites, which are exact copies of the same website, just a different name
2:55
That's often a trademark of a scam server. The scammer just repeats his scam over and over and over
3:03
So we lower the trust score again. And then we see they have excellent reviews on SideJabber, TrustProfile
3:12
But the website is three days old. You cannot have hundreds of positive reviews and be three days old
3:18
So we lower the trust score. And that's basically how our algorithm works
3:22
And we also get more and more data from law enforcement, like the Dutch police, Swiss police, American police
3:29
which helps us to continuously improve our algorithm and makes it better
3:34
Wonderful. It's a great resource for consumers to check things out. Online scams happened as long as online business exists
3:45
What's your opinion? Are scams more sophisticated, less sophisticated right now? Who is the target for scams today
3:52
First of all, scams have been around since the Egyptians. I mean, scams have become my hobby
3:59
and even the Egyptians already scammed each other. So we're fake merchandise, actually
4:05
But nowadays we see that online scams are becoming more and more difficult to recognize
4:10
I mean, it used to be easy, Mike. I mean, too good to be true, then it probably is
4:15
So if you suddenly can get a Chanel bag for $25, you know it's either fake or you're not going to get it at all
4:23
The scammers have become smarter. So they just keep the price a little bit below the normal sales price and you still will buy it
4:32
and they know that you will buy it because the difference no longer triggers any alerts
4:37
And we see that scammers are professionalizing and it becomes very, very difficult to recognize
4:45
for the normal consumer to recognize a scam. And now, of course, with AI
4:51
it becomes even more and more difficult to recognize scammers. So we will always have work, I'm afraid, Mike
4:58
I agree, Jory. I agree. Do you see any difference between scam types that exist between different countries, different continents
5:09
Maybe a specific type of scam, more proliferant in one part of the world, but it's not in the other
5:16
What would you say? Some scams are universal. The most popular scams being checked on ScamAdvisor are online shopping scams, which are universal
5:26
I mean the shop either doesn deliver the product or it sending you a break to tell the credit card companies that the product was delivered We also see a lot of investment scams and crypto scams and forex trading scams
5:40
Those are really universal. Some scams are more towards the national preference. I mean
5:46
we see a lot of people from India being scammed in employment scams. So the scammer is saying
5:52
hey, I can offer you a job in America. You just have to pay me a few hundred dollars
5:57
and I will get you to America. That's, of course, a terrible kind of scam
6:01
In China, game scams are very popular. So I'm going to sell you my magic sword
6:07
which you can use in a game. And then, of course, the money is paid
6:11
but you don't get the magical sword. I recently had a gentleman from the Middle East
6:16
and there was a scammer who launched a platform where you could arrange a wedding
6:24
Arranged weddings or marriages are still common in some countries. And there was a website which said that they would be the middleman
6:32
And he was scammed for $5,000, believing that he could arrange a marriage for his daughter
6:41
So they're local scams. They're global scams. But I do know, Mike, everybody can get scammed
6:47
It's not only that people always think, hey, if I'm scammed, I'm stupid
6:52
No, it can happen to everybody. Recently, we had a professor who had his own very successful company
7:00
with 20 people specializing in artificial intelligence and trading. He was, he is a very, very smart guy
7:09
but he got scammed. He believed that there was a company who was willing to invest in his company
7:16
and he even flew to them. He shook their hands, but in the process, they were able to convince him that he first had to pay money to get money, which is an advanced fee scam
7:28
And while this guy probably has an IQ of over 150, he got scammed
7:34
And it can happen to anybody. Well, we're weak, we're not paying attention, or we desperately need something
7:42
Then the scammer hits. Let's talk about what can you do once you do realize that you've been scammed
7:48
My first question in this series would be, okay, I got scammed by someone from Middle East
7:56
For example, I live in the United States. Do I go to the United States police
8:01
Do I go to the device police? What do I do? Who do I go to to report such activity
8:07
Are there world practices that you can share with us? What should the person do
8:13
The person should go to his own police. and that can be the local police, the FBI, if you live in the US, I always emphasize do report it
8:23
We know that on the global average, 7% of all scams are reported
8:29
And the only person who benefits from that is the scammer, because he knows that his chance of getting caught are very slim
8:36
I mean, we see that most scammers, especially if they're professional, they never ever scam in their own country, because then they have a chance of getting caught
8:45
As soon as they are scamming from across the border, the chances of getting caught are, according to the World Economic Forum, less than 0.05%
8:54
And that's the problem, Mike. I mean, on the one hand, reporting a scam doesn't make sense
9:00
Does it get you the scammer? Probably not. But if we don't report, we don't support our law enforcement to, in the end, catch the guys
9:08
And I think it's always important to report. you might get lucky and you might get your stuff or money back but if not you are helping law
9:19
enforcement to build a case to to get the scammer in the end so always report but you have to do it
9:27
at your local law enforcement or national law enforcement depending on the country where you
9:32
according to the ftc report 86 percent of consumers who report losing money to online
9:38
shopping fraud are of younger age. Are younger shoppers more susceptible to being scammed than older ones
9:47
Well, I mean, the data of the FTC is very reliable. And we see it actually not only being an American trend, but a global trend
9:56
In most countries, it used to be that elderly people get scammed more
10:00
and especially with investment scams. But nowadays, we see that younger people are scammed more
10:06
and also are losing huge amounts of money. We both have kids, Mike
10:11
So I think it's part younger people are online more. So the chances of getting scammed are bigger because they are more online
10:19
And, of course, they are a little bit more careless. We see that elderly people, they are aware that scammers are very active
10:29
Younger people, they're living more in the moment and they take more risks and they experiment
10:34
which is also part of being that age that you want to experiment and learn
10:39
So yes, we see as a global trend that young people are getting scammed more
10:45
especially it's not only online shopping, it's a lot of crypto. Even that bad that in China, 10% of all the students in one year lost money to crypto scammers
10:57
And as a result the Chinese government enforced a training program for students to make sure that they are scammed less I mean that one of the benefits of having a more strict regime
11:12
that you can enforce everybody to do a training to not get scammed
11:17
Well, on the other hand, it's maybe because they are reporting. Again, it's going back to your earlier comment that if a consumer gets scammed
11:28
Yes, it may not be pleasant to deal with it, report it
11:34
It's a waste of time more often than not because it will not bring the results back that you want, most likely
11:41
However, it will alert the government. It will perhaps support training programs for local people
11:50
The government will know about the type of scams that are happening
11:55
It will help other people in the neighborhood. so to speak. Yeah, it does
12:01
Nigerian emails are historic, right? Everyone has received Nigerian wealth or Nigerian
12:08
inheritance email in the world. Those were typical, what, 10 years ago? It started probably 15
12:14
years ago. What are the popular scams today? What's happening? What's hot on the market
12:20
On the scam market today? Is it email? Is it social media
12:24
What kind of condemnation scams you see? Yeah, email is still there and lots of it and yes we are better our spam filters are getting better at
12:34
blocking them but we're seeing with with texts or sms messages they're still being used they're
12:43
still sent out a lot and the general statistics uh two percent of the people who receive them
12:48
fall for them so it works so they will continue but we do see a a a huge shift to our social media
12:57
where honestly, especially Facebook and YouTube, are full with scammers. They are advertising very aggressively because they can
13:07
I mean, if you don't deliver the product, your product margin is great
13:12
So you can advertise a lot on YouTube, on Facebook or Google search
13:18
And that's what we see now, that scammers are no longer just sending bulk email or bulk text
13:24
They're really advertising on platforms because they have the money and they know it's going to make a great difference
13:33
That's true. My recommendation to fellow consumers is, first of all, run away from the companies that don't offer credit card payments
13:43
And if the company offers a selection of payment types, be that PayPal, credit card, Payoneer, Cash, always go with the credit card because credit card does offer you a level of protection
14:00
And, yes, on one hand, you can always report a payment as a scam payment to the credit card and you have almost 100% chance of getting that money back on one hand
14:10
On the other hand, you also alert a credit card company to the possible scam, and credit card is able to pull thousands and thousands of transactions that go to a particular merchant account and perhaps stop the scammer or get to the scammer
14:27
Because credit card does offer that layer of protection that consumer can rely upon
14:33
Am I correct, Yuri, in my recommendation? Yes, I also always recommend use a safe payment method
14:40
PayPal, credit card, you have a good chance of getting your money back
14:44
But it's not perfect. You also have your own responsibility. And we see that credit cards and also PayPal are getting more strict in the sense of
14:57
I mean, if you ordered a Chanel bag at $25, what do you expect
15:03
We see a change in behavior with credit cards and PayPal that it's not as easy to get your money back as it used to be
15:11
And in some cases, they don't. So it's not a free ride for the consumer
15:18
The consumer also has to watch his back and really think before he uses his credit card or PayPal card
15:25
True, and completely agree. And always remember, if it is too sweet to be true
15:31
don't believe in it. What recommendations can you make to consumers For the email, always be wary of emails from unknown email addresses
15:43
Always look at URL. Whether URL, the link in the email actually points to the website it perpetrates to be
15:53
Those small technology things are easy to spot on the consumer side
15:59
I get emails from Facebook saying that my Facebook account has been locked
16:04
But it's nothing because it's just a scam. People are trying to get to my login credentials for my Facebook
16:13
I always recommend to actually read into the URL line to see whether it brings you back to Facebook or not
16:21
And it's just an example that I'm advising to consumers. Also, Facebook will never send you an email from Gmail account, Yahoo account
16:30
So Facebook email would come from Facebook email account. Those are important things that consumers shall be watching for when looking at possible scam emails Do you have any other examples that you can suggest Yuri What are the red flags for people to
16:47
monitor? I think your advice is very good, Mike. What we recommend is indeed
16:53
if your bank contacts you, if law enforcement contacts you, if you get an email from
16:59
Facebook, don't click on the link. If you are contacted by anybody
17:05
and say, yes, thank you very much. And I will call you now on your regular number
17:12
Or with an email, go directly to Facebook. Don't click on the link
17:18
Go directly to Facebook and log in there to resolve the issue
17:22
Or if your bank calls saying that you have to transfer your money
17:27
to a safe account because you have been hacked, in this case, just smash the phone down and call your bank
17:33
because they're phishing you. But many people are being called with, because the artificial intelligence is getting so good there, they're being called with the voice of their son or daughter saying that they are in trouble and they need money
17:48
Tell them, I'm going to hang up now and I'm going to call you back on your normal phone to solve the issue
17:55
because it becomes more and more difficult for consumers to recognize scams
18:00
because the emails, the text messages, the video calls are getting so good
18:05
that it's very difficult to be sure if it's the scammer or the real person
18:09
Thank you for pinpointing some of the red flags. Another advice I can make, guys, is the following
18:15
Whenever you are being hunted or reached out to by email, SMS
18:21
You are being offered with a phone number to call. Follow what you already said
18:27
Call on the regular number and also run the numbers through Google
18:32
See what Google says about a particular phone number, whether it belongs to a real organization
18:39
And also make sure that the URL of the organization, the website name of the organization
18:46
actually corresponds to the brand name that you are planning to connect. and contact
18:51
It's extremely important. If you're in the middle of the scam, you are being scammed
18:56
and you do realize that you got scammed, psychologically, does it make sense to alert the scammers
19:02
that you realize that you are being scammed? Or it makes sense to silently
19:08
leave the connection going and go to police? What's the recommendation? As soon as you know
19:14
hey, this is a scammer, I recommend two things. In general, I recommend
19:19
break off the connection, hang on the phone, stop answering to emails, just break off the connection
19:25
It doesn't make sense to tell the scammer that you know he's a scammer
19:29
because one, he doesn't care. And two, you only are giving him feedback to make his scam better
19:34
the next time with the next victim. In general, I advise cut off the connection, warn the police
19:39
In some cases, actually, in Japan, there's actually a program running at the moment
19:44
where they are asking consumers to keep the connection going especially with scams where the person says hey uh your your banking card has been compromised
19:55
we will now come to your house to take your banker card and block your bank card for you
20:02
in that case the police really likes you to call them and then uh they will wait uh at your home
20:10
to pick up the scammer but in general my advice is contact the police and ask them what you should
20:16
do. And police in 99% of the cases will say, break off any connection. Don't start a discussion
20:24
It's no use. But it might be some cases where they say, please keep the connection going and
20:31
we will support you so that we might have a chance to catch him. But this first step is contact the
20:36
police. Yuri, thank you. What's your key message? Can you summarize this discussion or maybe you
20:43
have additional message to share with this consumer? How would you summarize this conversation
20:49
I think at the moment, the situation is difficult. I mean, online scams is booming, and it's not going
20:56
to go away for a very long time. But I am optimistic. I mean, with the software viruses
21:03
with malware in the 90s, we also didn't have it under control, and they did a lot of harm. But I
21:10
do think we can in the end win and i recommend two things to put to consumers is one always be
21:17
on the alert as as you were saying mike if it's too good to be true don't proceed because it it
21:24
is too good to be true and warn the police do report even although the scammer is probably
21:30
abroad and he will not be caught we are helping law enforcement to get as much data in as possible
21:37
to in the end get the bad guy. So stay alert and report
21:42
Yori, thank you very much. At the end, I would like to say
21:46
guys, please go check out scamadvisor.com, really useful site. Please don't forget to like this video
21:54
share it, and give it to other, your friends and families to see
21:58
who made this scam. Thank you, guys. Yori, really appreciate your time
22:03
And thank you for being on the show. Thank you for having me, Mike. bye bye
22:07
thank you bye bye
#Consumer Resources
#Electronic Spam
#Identity Theft Protection