10 Common Internet Scams and How To Avoid Them(2K_HD)
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00:00Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. The best way to protect yourself
00:03from online scams is to learn about them. Here are 10 of the most common scams going around today.
00:14MacMost is brought to you thanks to a great group of more than 2,000 supporters.
00:17Go to MacMost.com slash Patreon. There you can read more about it. Join us and get exclusive
00:23content and course discounts. So this first scam is fairly common, especially if you use Venmo.
00:28But it could happen on other payment systems as well. The way it works is you get some money
00:34from somebody you don't know. So all of a sudden, there's money sent to you.
00:38But then they send you a message saying that it was a mistake. They sent it to the wrong person.
00:42A lot of times they'll include a sob story about how they need the money back as quickly as possible.
00:47They've got medical bills, whatever. So they want you to send them the money back.
00:53But the thing is, when you send the money back, that's a legitimate transaction. But the money
00:57they sent you that was done either with a stolen credit card or maybe they faked the entire thing.
01:02So eventually you find out you never had that money that they sent you,
01:06but you already sent them the same amount of money back. They've closed their account. They're gone.
01:11And there's no way for you to get that money back. So the way to avoid this is that if you ever get
01:16money from somebody you don't know, don't interact with them. Instead, send a message to support for that
01:22system like Venmo, telling them about the unexpected transaction and let the company's
01:28support handle it, not you. So this next scam happens when you're selling something online.
01:33Maybe you're selling on Craigslist or eBay, Facebook Marketplace, someplace like that.
01:38And you get an offer from somebody to buy it from you for more money than you've listed it for.
01:44Sometimes they'll say this extra money is because they want it shipped in a special way
01:48or they want to send somebody to pick it up. Something unusual. What they're trying usually
01:53to do is to get you away from the payment system that is safe. So for instance, on eBay,
01:58instead of paying through eBay, they want to send you the money directly or send you a check
02:02or something like that. And then you might chip them that product and then find out their payment
02:07was no good and you no longer have the product and no way to get it back. In fact,
02:11some of the time they may actually pay the regular amount, but then when they actually pay you,
02:15it's more money. And then they claim it's a mistake and they want you to send the money back.
02:19Then it's like the payment from a stranger scam and now you might be out the product and some cash.
02:25So the way to avoid this is simply don't let somebody take you to another payment system.
02:30If somebody doesn't want to use, say, eBay's payment system, they want to use something else.
02:34That's a red flag. Don't do it. Sell it to the next person. And remember for online transactions,
02:40checks are pretty much worthless, even if the person hands it to you themselves.
02:44Though the bank might actually deposit the money the next day in your account,
02:48it could take weeks to find out that the check is fraudulent and then your bank is going to take
02:52that money away from you. So in this next scam, you're the buyer of the product online.
02:58In its simplest form, you buy something from somebody and either you just don't get the product
03:02or you get an inferior product. Maybe, for instance, a knockoff iPhone instead of an actual iPhone.
03:08Maybe a much older MacBook than the one you thought you were getting.
03:11There are protections for this in various places where you buy things offline. But a scammer will
03:16try to take you away from that saying that they could sell it to you cheaper or it's easier for
03:21them if you pay them in some other way. But, of course, once you leave the system then you have
03:26no recourse. You have no way to get your money back, to send the product back, or any of that.
03:30Now this happens a lot to Apple users because a very common version of this is somebody gets a
03:36MacBook and sells it online. But when you get it, you find out, maybe not for weeks,
03:42that the machine is actually stolen. By that, I mean it actually has device management software
03:49installed. So this was a MacBook that was owned by a school or a company and somebody either took
03:55it with them when they left their job or left the school or stole it from the school or company
04:01and is now reselling it. The thing is that Mac is never going to be yours. It is always going to
04:06be controlled by that organization. There is no way to remove this MDM software that is controlling
04:12the Mac. This makes it very difficult to buy a used MacBook, especially from another person rather
04:17than a reputable company. So to avoid this, make sure you are not lured away from whatever marketplace
04:22you originally were on to another kind of payment system. And if you can actually look at what you're
04:27buying in person before you pay for it. That's very important if it's a Mac or an iPhone or something
04:33like that. Not only should you look at it, but also make sure you learn what you should be looking
04:38for to make sure the device isn't remotely managed, that it's not stolen and that it actually works.
04:44So lottery scams are pretty common. You get a message or an email or a phone call claiming that you
04:51won some sort of lottery or sweepstakes or other kind of a prize, but you just need to pay $75 or
04:57something for some sort of paperwork or something like that. But of course, there is no actual prize.
05:02You pay the money and if you're lucky, they just take that. If you're not lucky, they may actually
05:06take more from your credit card or steal some identity information. The way to avoid this is easy.
05:12If you get a message saying that you've won some money, ignore it. These are always scams.
05:18So this next scam preys on people who are searching for jobs. The way it works is there'll be a job
05:24posting often on a legitimate job website. The job posting is fake and when you apply for it,
05:30you get a message saying they're very interested or maybe you got the job. But you've got to fill
05:34out a more detailed application or they have to run a background check and they're going to try to
05:38charge you a fee for this. Of course, there is no job. It's completely fake. They're just looking to
05:44collect the fee from you and then disappear. Or worse, they could be trying to steal all this
05:49information from you that you put on that background check form. To avoid this, be careful if a company
05:55that claims to offer you a job is asking you for money. It doesn't work that way. Determine if the
06:01company is a real company and then call them and ask them about the job separate from the messages that
06:07you got. Often they'll tell you that there's no such job or nobody should be asking you for any money.
06:14So the tech support scam is pretty common. You get an email, a text message or a phone call from
06:19somebody claiming to be from a company that you deal with, like maybe Apple or it could be Microsoft.
06:25It could be your ISP. And they say they've detected a problem with your computer. It's got malware,
06:31it's got a virus or something like that. And they want to help you. So they want you to give them
06:37access to your computer so they can log into it so that they can poke around. And of course,
06:43these people are not from any of these companies. Companies like this don't monitor your computer
06:48remotely. They don't call you out of the blue to provide help or anything like that. This is always a
06:55scam. What they're trying to do is, of course, get onto your computer, either steal information from you,
07:00get money from you somehow, or perhaps install something on your computer to do any of those
07:05later on. Now, sometimes this takes a form of an ad on a webpage, but the ad is designed to look like
07:12it's an alert that's not part of the webpage. Other times, webpages will send you a notification.
07:18It comes up as a notification from that website, but it's not easy to tell that. So you get this
07:23notification and you think it's coming from your system. But after you click on it, it takes you to
07:27the scammer or the scammer's website or displays a phone number, that kind of thing. To avoid this,
07:32just remember these companies don't remotely monitor your computer. They're not going to call
07:37you out of the blue and offer to help you or anything like that. Just ignore all of it.
07:42So the apartment posting scam is similar to the job posting scam. But in this case, you're looking to
07:47rent an apartment or perhaps a house and you see a listing. But the listing is faked. They take images
07:54from a previous listing or the last time that that house or apartment was put on the market
08:00and they post it up just like they're the actual rental company. In particular, they're looking for
08:05people who are moving to town so they can't actually view apartments in person. They're doing it all
08:11online. But of course, they've got nothing to do with this apartment and it's probably not even
08:15for rent. They're going to tell you that you've got the apartment and they're going to want you to
08:20fill out an application so they get information from you and then probably pay a fee, maybe even
08:25a security deposit. And they're just going to take that money. Then when you show up at the apartment,
08:30you're going to find out that it's not even for rent. So the way to avoid this, of course,
08:33is always insist on touring the apartment in person. If you can't do that because you're out of town,
08:40then you're going to have to plan either a trip to visit to find an apartment or you're going to have
08:44to look for something like a hotel where you could stay out for a long period of time
08:48while you find an apartment. Ranting an apartment online remotely is just filled with scammers.
08:53So the online romance scam has been around for a long time, probably since the beginning of the
08:57internet. It could start certainly in a dating app but it could also start anywhere that you chat
09:02and meet other people. It goes very slowly because the scammer actually has dozens or maybe even
09:08hundreds of people on the hook. So they can take their time over days, weeks, months to befriend you
09:15and then let a romance bloom. And once they think you're on the hook, they may talk about some sort
09:21of financial problems that they're having, health care bills, or maybe they just want some money so
09:26they can come out and meet you for the first time. Often they'll avoid actually ever asking you for
09:30money, just telling you about their problems until you offer money. The people that run these are
09:35experts in psychology. They know exactly what to say. And often they're working with scripts and
09:39techniques that have been developed over decades of scamming people. So they're really good at saying
09:44just the right thing. Now the way to avoid this is simply never to send money to somebody that you
09:48don't know in real life. But of course the scammers are experts at getting you to do that. So another
09:54way to avoid this is to make sure that if you are starting an online romance that your friends and
10:00family know about it and listen to what they have to say if they have concerns. The sheriff scam is a
10:06way for a scammer to get some really quick money. It can work in just minutes. So you get an email,
10:12a text message, or a phone call from somebody claiming to be from the sheriff's office or any
10:17other law enforcement agency. And they tell you that perhaps you've missed jury duty or you have
10:22outstanding parking fines. Something that seems kind of plausible, like you may have actually
10:27missed the notice in the mail or didn't get to you. And they say that you're in big trouble,
10:32maybe that you're even going to be arrested soon. But you can take care of it by paying right now.
10:38And they offer some sort of reasonable amount, $100, $300. Strangely, they often want you to pay
10:43with gift cards, which should be a red flag. But at this point, the whole thing seems so urgent that
10:49you're very distracted and may fall for. They try to keep you on the phone or keep you chatting online.
10:55They'll claim, for instance, that if you try to actually call the sheriff's department or go in
11:00yourself that you'll be arrested on the spot. So to avoid this, just ignore them. A sheriff's department or
11:06law enforcement agency is not going to call you and ask you for money over the phone like this.
11:11It just doesn't happen. It's always a scam. And finally, there's the wrong number scam.
11:16This very often starts with a text message from somebody you don't know. And the text message is
11:22specifically designed to get you to respond to the wrong number. It might be something like,
11:28I'm at the restaurant waiting for you, or I'll pick up your kid after school today.
11:32Something to make you feel like you really should respond saying, oh, you texted the wrong number.
11:37And then they'll respond saying, thanks. And then they'll start up a conversation,
11:41maybe right then, maybe later. They'll tell you how nice it is that you actually responded to them.
11:46They'll start talking to you. It seems perfectly harmless, but the goal for them is to actually
11:52keep telling you about how successful they are or how much money they have until you eventually
11:57start asking them about it. Then they'll talk about some sort of investment strategy they use
12:01or how they invest in cryptocurrency, something like that. They get you to actually ask them,
12:07how can I make money too? And they'll actually refuse to take money from you,
12:11sending you off to an app or a site that they say they use. But when you go to actually use it to
12:18invest, you'll find sometimes much, much later that it's a scam and they've just actually taken
12:23the money from you. The way to avoid this is simple. If you get a message from a wrong number,
12:28don't respond. It's almost always a scam. So let me finish with some basic rules. First,
12:34never assume that you're too smart to be scammed. From time to time, even experts get scammed.
12:40So you always want to be on guard and overconfidence can lead you into trouble.
12:45Education is your best defense. Continuing to learn about scams, watching videos like this,
12:51reading about them is very important. The more you know about scams and how they work,
12:57the better your chances of recognizing a scam when somebody tries it on you.
13:02And since education is the best defense, the way to help others is to spread this information.
13:07Let friends and relatives know about these scams and how they work. Talk to them about it as an
13:12interesting topic to discuss, not a warning. The more that you could teach them about scams,
13:18the better their defenses will be. You need to do that before they become the victim of one of these
13:22scams. When somebody is in the middle of being scammed it's very hard for them to see what's
13:27going on and to admit that they're being scammed.
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