Real Stories of Scams: How People Were Deceived Online

People go on the Internet to interact, be entertained, get the news and to shop. No one goes online to get scammed. But it still happens, every day. What’s the deal? Are scammers getting smarter? No, not really. Scams happen constantly because scammers never stop working and new scammers and targets pop up every day. People can also be more susceptible to scams than they think: job seekers looking for work get fooled by employment scams, or lonely adults are taken advantage of by romance scams. We also shouldn’t underestimate how eager fraudsters are to make fast and easy money—and what lengths they’re willing to go to. If you think you don’t have to be careful when going online, these real-life scam stories might convince you otherwise. The Nigerian Prince scam has been swindling internet users out of their fortunes for well over a decade. Basically, you’d receive a message from a Nigerian prince who needed help recouping millions he was being cheated out of. The prince chose you to help, and he’ll give you a huge reward if you help him out. A scammer took this farce to the next level by claiming there was a Nigerian Prince lost in space, and needed you to send a cool $3 million right away to help get him home. IFL Science first reported on this scam in 2016 , and we have no doubt it’s still finding its way to innocent people’s inboxes. Websites and apps like eHarmony and Tinder make it easy to find love—and who isn’t looking for love? Unfortunately, scammers are all too aware of this basic need for human connection and feel totally okay with taking advantage of it. They prey on innocent people through countless ‘catphishing’ scams. Though there have been plenty of high-profile romance scam victims, none quite stack up to the plight of one vulnerable Canadian woman who got scammed over the course of five years. Here’s what happened: a 65-year-old woman named Ellen began striking up an online romance with a handsome Swedish man named Dave. When she finally booked a flight to visit him, he told her he was caught up in a battle for a large family inheritance—and needed money. He kept coming up with reasons why he needed money and many transfers later, the poor woman lost over $1.3 million dollars. The scammer preyed not only on her hope for companionship and love, but her helpful nature. That’s the perfect recipe for a scammer. “I am of the nature that I would help anybody,” Ellen told a reporter. “I don’t like the idea of not being able to help somebody if I can.” Little did she know, all she was doing was helping a scammer pull off a major scam. Ellen passes this information on to others now. “Never make a payment. Never. That first payment is the hook.” In a bold move in July 2018, a fraudster impersonated actor Patrick Dempsey on social media in a scheme to swindle people out of their money. The con artist set up numerous Patrick Dempsey impersonation social accounts and solicited funds for a charity that, in reality, didn’t exist. Dempsey’s fans fell for the ruse and got conned out of their money. The actor had to post on his own site to alert his fans to the scam that was going around. But by then the damage had been done. Here’s a tip: before donating to any charity, do a simple Google search first. Just type in the celebrity’s name and add the word “scam” after it. (like, “Patrick Dempsey scam”). Do it a few times. You could save yourself embarrassment and money. Scammers have also taken advantage of the purest of joys in this world: the love of puppies. These criminals have coaxed thousands of people out of money by preying on their desire to have a special pet and a special breed. People looking to purchase or adopt dogs of specific breeds will look online, find a dog, and then send payment before ever seeing the dog. A report from the local ABC affiliate in Baltimore says this pet scam happens often with miniature pinschers. The man they interviewed for the story, Ronald Russell, was able to get his money back, because he sent it using PayPal Business and canceled it 48 hours later when he realized the dog he’d paid for didn’t exist. But some people end up losing over $1,000 in fees for things like shipping, vaccinations and dog crates. “Never be willing to put money upfront. Always do it when you see the dogs,” Russell told the reporters. On the Easy Prey podcast , you can hear an expert on pet scams give the details you need to know to avoid being a victim of a pet scam. Move over Baby Boomers: There’s another demographic that is falling prey to crazy scams: millennials. Yes, the online generation is actually a prime target of scammers . They know that this tech-savvy generation, unlike their paranoid parents, are less worried about transacting online. A scam to steal Instagram account information targeted Millennials in 2019. Users received messages from a random social media account claiming to have seen their pictures on a “Hot List,” which supposedly ranked them based on their physical appearance. Of course, the message and the list were both creations of a scammer. The list was exclusive and not every Instagram account holder had easy access to it—but they could if they shared their login credentials, of course. Thousands of people willingly gave away their login credentials just to see their position on the Hot List. These scams sound ludicrous when we explain them after the fact, but they actually work. Crooks play on the combination of curiosity and inner vanity of people, particularly these targeted Instagram users. What would you do if a friend or loved one claimed that their family member had died and that the rest of their family was trying to cut them out of their inheritance? You’d want to help, understandably. That sense of helpfulness and pity you feel is exactly what scammers prey on in an inheritance scam. One man, Jonathan Walton, was scammed out of nearly $100,000 by an international con artist. For years this woman pretended to be his friend and managed to pry so much money away from him, he had to declare bankruptcy. She fabricated her entire background so that Walton would feel a bond with her, all the while plotting to scam him out of his money. Turns out she was (and had been) scamming lots of people, not just Walton and his husband. When he found this out, Walton spent two years working to get her thrown in jail and eventually succeeded. Maybe you’ve avoided a scam so far, and if so count yourself lucky. Becoming a scam victim has little to do with intelligence. Con artists fool smart people every day. Here are some resources for avoiding certain types of scams: As you can see, there are scams for just about everything these days. It pays to stay on your guard and be a little skeptical of the unfamiliar—especially online. Using tools like an antivirus , identity theft protection , or even personal data removal can be helpful too.