It's that time of the year again. Yep, you guessed it. That time when all of those Indian scammers start coming out of the woodwork to scam the elderly and ignorant out of their hard-earned money. Honestly, it seems to get worse every year. I've already had three scammers contact either me or my immediate family, attempting to get some kind of information or money from us. Most of these scammers brought some kind of veiled threat along with them i.e. Contact our toll-free support department in order to unlock your computer. These folks are relentless. They'll get your information or money in any way they can. Scamming is a big business. A big business made possible by all of this wonderful technology around us. We'll get to that in a bit.
But first, let's talk about scamming. Scamming is something that has been around for as long as humans have walked upon this big ball of dirt. So long as there is something to gain from scamming, scamming will continue to exist. But just what is scamming? Scamming is the act of obtaining something of value through fraudulent or dishonest means. For example, if someone gives someone else a lot of money, in order to buy a boat, and the supposed owner skips town, that person has been scammed. Really, it's a simple concept. But it is often confused. What makes a scam a scam is dishonest intent. If a guy asks a bunch of people to invest in his startup-company, and those people invest but the company goes bankrupt in the end, they weren't scammed because the owner didn't intend for the company to go bankrupt. And he didn't intend to take the money and run. If the owner honesty communicated his intentions to his investors, then it isn't a scam. Onto technology.
Technology is a great thing, no doubt about that, but it has brought baggage along with it. Today's technology, like yesterday's technology, has opened up an increasing number of scamming avenues. Perhaps the widest of these avenues was created by the telephone system. The telephone is perhaps the greatest tool any scammer has at their disposal. One of these reasons is that the victim of the scam can't reach through the phone and strangle the scammer. The second reason is that it is often hard to verify just who is on the other end of the line. Indeed, many scammers impersonate people of high reputation in order to gain the trust of their victims. And the victims usually can't tell the difference between the person of high-rep and the scammer. The art of the telephone-based scam relies on social engineering, charisma, and a bit of knowledge. Most people can pull it off. There's a very low barrier of entry using this method, which is another reason it is so common. Finally, it's just plain effective. Millions of people freely give away valuable information over the phone with only a little prompting. Think of the classic case of the elderly lady who gives away her social security number while ordering a pizza. Or, more subtly, the guy who accidentally gives away his name and address to a "census staffer". Collecting information over the phone is really just too easy. Is it any wonder why Indians, famous for being knowledgeable tech-support, use this avenue to conduct all kinds of tech-related scams?
What about email? Ah, now this is also a juicy scamming avenue. SPAM is king among scammers looking for an easy buck. And SPAM is profitable, believe it or not. It's a million dollar industry, which is why you keep getting SPAM in your inbox. People do it because it works, simply put. But what makes SPAM so gosh-darn effective? Perhaps it's the ease with which scammers make the email look legitimate or it's the ease with which scammers can send millions of messages to millions of people. By casting a wide net, they are sure to nab at least a few suckers.
Social media is yet another avenue scamsters just love to employ. Facebook is a breeding ground for scammers who spam content and fraudulent ads in order to make a quick buck off of unwitting victims. Just the other day, someone impersonated one of my family's Facebook friends. They stole pictures, posts, and information off of the real profile and made their own fake profile with that data. Quite clever, and very effective. Anyway, this person attempted to get us signed up for some worker's compensation scam using the fraudulent profile. Fortunately, my family isn't stupid so they saw right through it. Facebook was vigilant and shut down the profile, hopefully before anyone got scammed.
Yes, 'tis the season for scamming. And technology makes scams all the more common and potent. Fortunately, technology is double-edged. It has given us safe-guards to protect against scammers. SPAM filters come quickly to mind. AdBlockers are another safe-guard. But we must remain vigilant. We live in interesting times. In the world of con men, technology can either be our friend or our enemy. Let's endeavor to make it a strong friend.
Be safe and happy computing!
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