Scammers

Scammers take advantage of people by requesting money or personal information and they do this by promising things like easy money, great bargains, inside knowledge or a caring relationship for those who are looking for romantic partners. Scams can come in many forms, and they will target you by coming to your front door, call you on the telephone, send you an email online and through your mobile devices.  They will try to get you to reveal your personal details, stealing your information, or they are even able to get some people to willingly hand over their cash to them.  If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.  Nowadays everyone has to be careful, you just never know when the scammers will strike.

It’s the little things that you need to pay attention to, like if you receive a call and you hear them say, “You owe money to the IRS”, which is scary because this government agency would have the authority to take your money, but since the IRS does not permit their agents to contact people by phone, you just need to hang up.  Scammers are modern day equivalent to the pirates of old, but instead of using a cutlass, skulls and shackles, they use phishing, which is the fraudulent attempt to steal your sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, credit card details and your Social Security Number by tricking you because they can disguise themselves as a trustworthy entity in any electronic communication that is transmitted.  They would be happy to take everything from you, even the kitchen sink and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that people lost $30 million to a symphony of phishing schemes in one year.

Scammers are the lowest of the low and they will try to use your own words and voice to trap you into shady financial agreements.  They will use questions to trick you into saying “yes”, like asking you the question, “Can you hear me?” and the moment you respond in the affirmative which would be the instinctive response, this voice signature of yours can be used later by the scammers to pretend that they are you to authorize fraudulent charges.  If you’re searching for a new apartment and you see a spacious dream pad well below market value that’s too good to be true, be careful as you could become the victim of an apartment-rental scam.  Don’t hand over any of your money till you have physically seen the apartment, because you might end up renting an apartment that has already been leased, as scammers have been known to copy the original ad and then they rent the apartment without the real owner’s knowledge.

Scammers seem to enjoy preying on the elderly and one day this scammer got an 83 year old lady to give him access to her PC.  She was playing with him the whole time when he asked her if she had a magenta button on her screen and he told her to click on it, she knew just how to deal with this guy.  She had been using computers since before he was born and when he directed her to download something and he said that she could trust him, that is when she hacked him, gave him a computer virus, and placed all of his photos online, to make him feel afraid and give him back the karma that he deserved.

Written for Sheryl’s Daily Word Prompt – Karma, for Roger Shipp’s Daily Addictions prompt – Take, for Mathew’s Daily Inkling prompt – It’s the little things, for the Daily Spur prompt – Permit, for FOWC with Fandango – Authority, for August Monthly Writing Prompts – Skulls and shackles, for Nova’s Daily Random Word prompt – Transmitted, for Ragtag Community – Spacious, for Paula’s Three Things Challenge prompt words – Kitchen Magenta Symphony and for Word of the Day Challenge Prompt – Lady.