Online fraud is commonplace and can affect any service. As a rule, the goal of scammers is to obtain money or personal data from the user. Skype scammers use simple scams, but people often fall for them. To protect yourself, you need to know in what ways money can be stolen. Then the user will understand in advance that he is dealing with a scammer and will not fall for his tricks.
Extortion
The classic way to scam money on Skype is extortion. To do this, the scammer needs to either hack into someone else’s contact, or introduce himself as some high-ranking official. Attackers can be very convincing. You won’t even think that there is a completely different person on the other end of the line.
Typically they play the role of:
- friend;
- police officer;
- bank employee;
- civil servant;
- mobile operator.
The roles are different, but the result is the same – extortion. At the same time, they can use such sophisticated schemes that naive users themselves will reveal their first name, last name, phone number and bank card.
For example:
Hello! Do you remember me. Help! My daughter is in the hospital with a severe form of cancer. I urgently need money for an operation.
Another variant:
Hello! Police officer Onishchenko says. Your son, while drunk, hit a pedestrian. If you want him to stay out of jail, transfer the money to “such and such an account.”
Popular divorce schemes:
- your phone is dead, you need to top up your account;
- a relative accidentally killed someone, you need to get him out of prison;
- the card is blocked, data is needed for verification;
- Funds for surgery are urgently needed.
Usually, in a state of passion, a person begins to think poorly and transfers money. Well, how can you not help your friend’s daughter? Or my son. However, everyone forgets to ask the security question. Or call the bank's hotline. If your son (daughter, brother, etc.) is in prison, you need to ask: “Which prison? What district? Who is in charge of the case? Then call them back.
That is, in this case there is only one way out. First, calm down. Then make decisions with a clear head.
What should I do if I transferred money?
If you did transfer money, hurry up and contact the bank. If the fraudster did not manage to withdraw the funds, you can mark the payment as erroneous and return your money back to the card.
Alternatively, you can go to the police and file a report. Additionally, we recommend contacting specialists who will monitor the progress of this case.
If you find yourself a victim of fraud or blackmail via Skype, schedule a consultation with us. We will tell you what to do in this situation, help you file a police report and monitor the progress of the case.
Links to suspicious sites
In this case, scammers play on curiosity. “Shh... Guy. Come here! There are so many delicious things here. Almost for free! Get it quickly before it's sold out." Typically, the link leads to one-day pages with malicious software (software). As a result, the computer or phone becomes infected with viruses that disable the system.
Possible consequences:
- hacking accounts on social networks and instant messengers;
- blocking the operating system (OS);
- using a computer or telephone to send spam;
- theft of information;
- failure of programs, frequent freezing and system slowdown.
Attention! Recently, scammers often use other people’s software for so-called cryptocurrency mining. The system is simple. The computer becomes infected with a virus. After this, the program begins to mine cryptocurrency directly from the victim’s computer. Mining requires a lot of power, so the OS starts to freeze a lot, and the hardware fails after a week or a month.
Therefore, you should not switch to dubious resources. Especially if they offer native Russian “freebies”.
What is the Internet police
Even cyberspace needs its own law enforcement agencies. That is why the Internet police appeared, which deals with all types of fraud on the Internet, as well as protecting ordinary users from offenders.
However, you need to be careful here too and not contact the first Internet agency you come across, where they promise you that for only 5,000 rubles. they will be able to protect you from attacks from scammers. It is better to contact the real police, who can punish the offender and protect you from losing a significant amount of money.
Blackmail via virtual cupcake
Sometimes virtual pleasure ends in very sad consequences. It's good to be open to experimentation. However, you should still beware of random connections. Because on the Internet, it is lonely and unconfident people who become victims.
There are several development options here.
- The girl offers to play role-playing games and immediately demands an advance payment. After which it disappears. And you are left without money and without pleasure.
- After the “fun start”, they blackmail you with a video from Skype and promise to make you a Pornhub star.
- In the midst of the fun, she may declare that she is a minor and will now go to write a complaint to the police.
It’s clear that no one wants to become a Pornhub star or end up in jail. However, there is a way out.
Firstly . Before the session, turn on the recording yourself. You don't have to show your face. You can also play popular music in the background. Typically, YouTube and other platforms remove such content due to copyright infringement.
Secondly . According to Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian legislation, no one will go to prison. If she presented herself as an adult on the recording. Or, even if she is under 18, she still looks like an adult. Punishment follows only in case of direct contact with a minor.
Thirdly , do not make any advance payments to unknown persons.
The legislative framework
Victims of criminals are interested in what article can be used to prosecute scammers. There is no separate law regarding Skype and the Internet in general. Therefore, Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on fraud is used. It is also suitable for cases where the theft occurred via the Internet.
If the person can be found, then he will face a fine, correctional labor or imprisonment. The specific punishment will be determined in court. There they will take into account all the facts in the case and determine what exactly to do with the attacker.
Extracting personal data while downloading a program
If you download Skype from unofficial sources, there is a risk of ending up on a fake site. To upload a file, scammers may require your full name, passport details, card number, CVV code, etc.
Now attention! Skype is a free program. It can be downloaded directly. You just need to provide your email or phone number.
Since developers never force:
- send SMS in response to notifications;
- buy a license;
- provide personal information, registration, card number, CVV code.
Attention! The program has paid services. However, they are activated at the request of the user. If you need to call via Skype to landline or mobile phones within the country or abroad. Each package has its own tariff and payment system.
In any case, you should first carefully study the instructions for using the software. Only then install it on your computer or phone.
Deception No. 1: help, friend, with money
Who's on your contact list? Friends and relatives who are happy to help in a difficult situation. If you ask them to borrow money, they will responsively transfer the required amount to the card. Is not it? Online scammers take advantage of this responsiveness.
“Hi, can you lend me 500 rubles until tomorrow?” – this is how communication with the victim begins from a hacked account. To which the victim, without hesitation, replies: “Of course, write the account number.”
Fraudsters ask to transfer money to anonymous payment systems: Yandex. Money, Qiwi, Bitcoin, etc. “Petitioners” usually have the skills of a psychologist. An account with a full name, a readable nickname, and a specified age is the first in line, because a completed profile indicates the “seriousness” and, therefore, the solvency of the person.
Spam
Fraudsters do not always introduce themselves as relatives or acquaintances. Spambots can distribute information and offer certain services. Unfortunately, annoying advertising is a very profitable business. According to statistics, companies earn about $15 billion a year. Therefore, they will buy databases, push these advertisements and make money from ordinary users.
On the one hand, what's the difference? Well, a person wants to promote some store. Why not? Maybe he has a really good product. Unfortunately, 80% of spam are fraudulent resources that receive money through fake payment systems.
These include:
- chain letters (pay 100 rubles and win a million);
- fake stores (they send goods without an inventory, as a result they receive a brick instead of a phone);
- financial pyramids (analogues of MMM);
- cheap cryptocurrency mining on dubious sites.
This is just the beginning. The main thing is to get hooked. Make you believe that with a minimal investment you can make a profit of 400%.
Therefore, the best protection against such links is good protection and complete ignoring of spam.
If you still have doubts, you should take a closer look at the resource.
- Never make advance payments. If you win a prize and are asked to pay a commission, we recommend that you ignore such offers.
- When receiving a product, you should always check it. Preferably under cameras right at the post office. If employees forbid you to do this, it means the goods were sent without an inventory. That is, senders do not want you to open the mailbox. In this case, feel free to refuse to receive the parcel and send it back at the sender’s expense.
- Check your bank details. All payment systems have a home page, details and a license from the Central Bank. It is usually easy to check such pseudo pages. We remove everything unnecessary in the URL. We leave only a link to the main page. Usually it turns out to be empty.
The main thing is to remember. Free cheese only comes in a mousetrap. No one will ever give money to anyone just like that. You need to be careful and not believe every counter letter.
Lyuba is about love. Skype groom, or how to recognize a scammer. Personal experience
If the Internet becomes a platform for starting a relationship, what's wrong with that? Unfortunately, very often the opposite happens, and the Internet becomes a place not only of frustration, but also of crime.
Like an introduction
I’ve been hanging out on dating sites for about fifteen years.
There were many interesting acquaintances that resulted in romantic trips, dates and relationships. I still support some of them. But, unfortunately, not everyone is cut out for family relationships. Including me. Therefore, from a job seeker, I gradually retrained into an analyst and even a bit of a detective. A sporting interest arose - to figure out the “fraudster groom” before he reveals his intentions. Let's talk about dating on Skype. Why on Skype? Yes, because just last week on Skype I sent two people to “burn in hell.” Probably, during the pandemic it has become difficult to make money, and scammers have become more active in their search for “suckers” and are now mastering Skype.
How the sacrifice is prepared
So, he knocked on Skype. Mark James. Knock-knock at 10 o'clock in the morning surprised me. This is a very strange resource for dating, you will agree. I got curious. OK, Mark James, come in. "Who are you?" - I asked in Russian. He responded with a long letter in broken Russian and Cyrillic that he was looking for a person with similar initials on Skype, saw my photo and became interested. He wants to get to know me better and maybe become a friend. I'm for any kind of kipish, girls, and I supported the conversation.
Mark James talked about his family in several messages: he is from Virginia (USA), he is 58 years old, he is a neurosurgeon, his wife was Russian, so he knows broken Russian quite well. He has been a widower for 6 years (his wife died), and has two sons, 19 and 24 years old. He is a very religious person. But, unfortunately, he is now in Syria with a UN mission and cannot go to church as often as he would like.
After an hour of correspondence, I suggested taking a break because I had urgent work, and asked to continue the conversation in the evening. My new friend answered: “Ok,” but after a couple of hours he was knocking on Skype again. He bombarded me with questions: about family, about work, about religion, about children, about hobbies, about travel, about preferences in food, in men and in people. After each of my short answers, I answered for myself with a lengthy and long letter. At first inexperienced glance, everything was decorous and noble. He carefully built the image of an ideal man who loves children, values family, respects women and is tired of loneliness...
The next day I wrote to Mark James: “I'm tired of your comedy! Rot in hell, asshole! And she sent the gentleman to the “black list”.
How to figure out an “asshole”
So, what alarmed me on the first day of correspondence. Too much talk about faith and God. Of course, this is not a crime, God forbid! It’s just that the “asshole” tried to convince me that a believer, that is, he, cannot deceive in principle. And also this “praise the heavens for sending you to me.”
Knowledge of the Russian language , but without requests to talk on Skype. This is also not a crime. The Russian wife taught me the Russian language. It is very comfortable! This fact immediately removes the question “Where do you, Mark James, know broken Russian?” BUT! Can you imagine Mark James' wife teaching him written Russian rather than spoken Russian? I couldn't imagine.
Too much free time for a busy person. Mark said that he is a neurosurgeon who operates on wounded military personnel without sleep or rest. But he knocked on my door at 10 a.m. on a weekday, at 12 he pestered me again, and gave me no rest from 3 to 6 p.m. It turns out that a person with a great UN mission in Syria has absolutely nothing to do at work. The UN would know about this.
During correspondence, all messages are copied and pasted . Please pay attention to this. On Skype and some other dating sites there is a “running pencil”, it shows how the interlocutor is typing a message. Mark James himself “picked out with a pencil” only the word “OK”. The “asshole” copied all other messages from a ready-made template and pasted them into the dial string. My question about the pandemic in Syria remained unanswered. Well, he didn’t have such a preparation! And after Mark James missed the mark and duplicated a message about an unforgettable trip with his son to Miami, which he would like to repeat with me, I decided to take the test.
Of course, I could wait for him to play a record saying that he sent me a gift, and I just need to pay for the shipping services, or that he wasn’t allowed to go on leave from his service in Syria and I had to pay, but his account was still blocked (we’ve already passed!). But I was sorry for my time. And I was almost sure that in front of me was an asshole!
Verification methods
I use two ways to check online boyfriends - by photo and by text. This time I didn't even have to check the text. Enough checking the photo. This can be done both in Google and Yandex. I uploaded a photo of the “asshole” from Skype to the Yandex-images service - and voila! There were about a hundred photographs, in different poses, clothes, on different backgrounds and from different dating sites. And even from the “black lists” of marriage swindlers and scammers. He was Adam, and James, and John, and Jeremy, and whoever he was called.
Weekend tip
From the very first message a man is looking for a serious relationship, a life partner, is everything serious with him? A man lives in a prosperous European country, he has property and a well-paid job, but at the same time he meets on Skype or on an international website? Do you think everything is like a fairy tale? Congratulations, a marriage scammer has his eye on you! My advice is to take a break in communication, gather all your emotions and feelings into a fist (they make us vulnerable and less sensitive to the truth) and, while maintaining composure, check your betrothed. Google to the rescue! That's all for today! Good luck to everyone and honest relationships!
Lyubov Gorbunovych
This text was written by a freelance writer. If you also have a desire to share your life experience on the pages of the women's magazine Lampa, write texts, take photos/videos, please contact Alisa Listapad. Contacts: (8044) 540 29 39,,
How to avoid being scammed
Even if you ignore spam and do not respond to external stimuli, the system will still be vulnerable. Because they somehow found out about your Skype number. Now he needs to be protected.
To make it less likely for scammers to use your profile, it is enough to fulfill the following conditions:
- install the latest version of the antivirus and update it;
- use a complex password (at least 8 Latin letters with lower and upper case, numbers, special characters);
- disabling automatic document acceptance;
- checking basic information;
- only personal communication with friends (if you suspect that a friend has been hacked, you should ask him a leading question);
- exclude all strange strangers from the list;
- Do not tell anyone your card numbers and passwords (even messenger employees).
The main thing is common sense. Emotions can only do harm.
How to avoid becoming a victim of fraud?
Even the most complex password is unlikely to protect against fraud. But in any case, it is better to use a more complex combination. If your account has been hacked, alert everyone on your contact list. It’s better to have two accounts so that if something happens, you can log in from the spare one and send everyone a message about what happened.
If you are being blackmailed, it is best to prevent the attacker from using the information against you. Warn your loved ones that you did something stupid, tell them what happened, then the criminal will not be able to harm you.
Note!
If your friends write to you on Skype asking you to borrow money, do not be gullible. Call your friend and check if he really needs financial help. If you are not 100% sure that you are having a conversation with your friend on Skype, do not transfer money to him. Do not leave important data in the history; delete information.
Skype scammers' tricks
It turned out that “Rapida.LTD” is the name of the account, and the Skype for this account is rapidalltd
Look how cunning the scammer is!
- I put the real Skype technical support in the account name
- I used an avatar with Rapida symbols
- In the “About Me” information I indicated the real Rapid website
Well, after seeing all this, I asked him a question, why his Skype does not match the Skype listed on the Rapida website? I've been waiting for a response for three weeks now
