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12 Types Of Scams To Avoid In Nigeria by Naijatechnews: 1:30pm On Jul 13, 2020

Beware that fraud has entered another level in the lives of the Nigeria youths. A survey shown that 99 out of 100 youths indulged in scam activities. Recently social media celebrity, Ray Hushpoppi, the youths motivator was raided in Dubai and extradited to U.S for an alleged millions of citizen he had defraud through email scam.
The atmosphere was still buzzing and then the chairman of the Economic and financial crimes commission boss, Ibrahim Magu was raided with DSS for alleged re-looting of recovered funds and selling seized assets to associates. previous,we at Naijatechnews published an article as Over One Billion Naira has been Lose to fraudsters using Herbalist scam.


Scam Survey Results



1. Current COVID-19 (coronavirus) scams
Scammers are using the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus) to take advantage of people. There has been over 3300 scam reports mentioning the coronavirus with over $1 667 000 in reported losses since the outbreak of COVID-19 (coronavirus). Common scams include phishing for personal information, online shopping, and superannuation scams.

Scamwatch urges everyone to be cautious and remain alert to coronavirus-related scams. Scammers are hoping that you have let your guard down. Do not provide your personal, banking or superannuation details to strangers who have approached you.

Scammers may pretend to have a connection with you. So it’s important to stop and check, even when you are approached by what you think is a trusted organisation.

Do visit Naijatechnews.com webpage for general warnings and media releases on COVID-19 scams.

Below are some examples of what to look out for.

These are a few examples, but there are many more.  If your experience does not match any of the examples provided, it could still be a scam. If you have any doubts at all, don’t proceed.

Phishing – Government impersonation scams

Scammers are pretending to be government agencies providing information on COVID-19 through text messages and emails ‘phishing’ for your information. These contain malicious links and attachments designed to steal your personal and financial information.

In the examples below the text messages appear to come from ‘GOV’ and ‘myGov’, with a malicious link to more information on COVID-19.

Scammers are also pretending to be Government agencies and other entities offering to help you with applications for financial assistance or payments for staying home.


Tips to protect yourself from these types of scams:
Don’t click on hyperlinks in text/social media messages or emails, even if it appears to come from a trusted source.
Go directly to the website through your browser. For example, to reach the MyGov website type ‘my.gov.au’ into your browser yourself.
Never respond to unsolicited messages and calls that ask for personal or financial details, even if they claim to be a from a reputable organisation or government authority — just press delete or hang up.
Phishing – Other impersonation scams

Scammers are pretending to be from real and well known businesses such as banks, travel agents, insurance providers and telco companies, and using various excuses around COVID-19 to:

ask for your personal and financial information
lure you into opening malicious links or attachments
gain remote access to your computer
seek payment for a fake service or something you did not purchase.
Examples of other phishing scams

Fake bank phishing text


Fake insurance phishing text

Fake voucher phishing text.

Tips to protect yourself from these types of scams:
Don’t click on hyperlinks in text/social media messages or emails, even if they appear to come from a trusted source.
Never respond to unsolicited messages and calls that ask for personal or financial details — just press delete or hang up.
Never provide a stranger remote access to your computer, even if they claim to be from a telco company such as Telstra or the NBN Co.
To verify the legitimacy of a contact, find them through an independent source such as a phone book, past bill or online search.
Superannuation scams

Scammers are taking advantage of people in financial hardship due to COVID-19 by attempting to steal their superannuation or by offering unnecessary services and charging a fee.

The majority of these scams start with an unexpected call claiming to be from a superannuation or financial service.

The scammers use a variety of excuses to request information about your superannuation accounts, including:

offering to help you access the money in your superannuation
ensuring you’re not locked out of your account under new rules.
checking whether your superannuation account is eligible for various benefits or deals.
Example of a superannuation scam

A scammer will call pretending to be from a superannuation or financial service. They may refer to the government’s superannuation early release measures, and ask questions such as:

Have you worked full time for the last 5 years?
Are you going to apply for the $10 000 superannuation package?

Or falsely claim:

Inactive super accounts will be locked if not merged immediately.
Superannuation early-access scams

Many Nigerians are facing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Scammers are taking advantage of the government’s early-release measures in a variety of phishing scams designed to steal your superannuation.

Tips to protect yourself from these types of scams:
Never give any information about your superannuation to someone who has contacted you — this includes offers to help you access your superannuation early under the government’s new arrangements.
Hang up and verify their identity by calling the relevant organisation directly — find them through an independent source such as a phone book, past bill or online search.
Online shopping scams

Scammers have created fake online stores claiming to sell products that don’t exist — such as cures or vaccinations for COVID-19, and products such as face masks.

Tips to protect yourself from these types of scams:
The best way to detect a fake trader or social media shopping scam is to search for reviews before purchasing. No vaccine or cure presently exists for the coronavirus.
Be wary of sellers requesting unusual payment methods such as upfront payment via money order, wire transfer, international funds transfer, preloaded card or electronic currency, like Bitcoin.
More information is available at: Online shopping scams.
Scams targeting businesses

Scammers are using COVID-19 in business email compromise scams by pretending to be a supplier or business you usually deal with.

Scammers are using COVID-19 as an excuse to divert your usual account payments to a different bank account. Your payment goes to the scammer instead of the real business.

Example of a business email compromise scam

Tips to protect yourself from these types of scams:
Verify any request to change bank details by contacting the supplier directly using trusted contact details you have previously used.
Consider a multi-person approval process for transactions over a certain dollar amount, with processes in place to ensure the business billing you is the one you normally deal with.
Keep the security on your network and devices up-to-date, and have a good firewall to protect your data.

Businesses can also sign up to the Small Business Information Network to receive emails about new or updated resources, enforcement action, changes to Government’s competition and consumer laws, events, surveys and scams relevant to the small business sector.

How scammers contact you

During a crisis like COVID-19, you may be isolated and using online services more than ever, so it is important to think about who might be really contacting you. They may find you by:

calling you or coming to your door
contacting you via social media, email or text message
setting up websites that look real, and impersonating government, business or even your friends
collecting information about you so that when they make contact they are more convincing.
How you can help others

You can help others by talking and sharing information about scams when connecting with your friends, family and colleagues.

Ask the businesses you connect with regularly about scams they see, how they can protect you and how you can protect yourself.

If you use social media or particular applications — learn how to report scams to them and choose services that will identify and remove scammers from their platform or website.

Ask your bank or financial institution about how to protect your financial information and how they will help you if you get scammed.

Government, law enforcement, individuals and businesses all play an important role in helping to protect the community from scams.
READ ORIGINAL FULL CONTENT HERE https://www.naijatechnews.com/12-types-of-scams-to-avoid-in-nigeria-2020/

1 Like

Re: 12 Types Of Scams To Avoid In Nigeria by Naijatechnews: 1:43pm On Jul 13, 2020
CC lalasticlala mynd44 dominique.
Re: 12 Types Of Scams To Avoid In Nigeria by Standing5(m): 1:51pm On Jul 13, 2020
Scam of nationality.
Re: 12 Types Of Scams To Avoid In Nigeria by Olabode971(f): 1:53pm On Jul 13, 2020
Soon; Nigeria as a whole would be totally labelled as Scam Nation

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