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In the last few months, have you received a suspicious call from a stranger claiming that you have won a cash prize? Or has someone tried reaching out to you saying that a relative is in trouble and urgently needs money? If you answered yes to any of these questions, know that you are not alone. <keyword id="19895063" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="India" source="keywords">India</keyword> has reported a rise in scam calls in recent months and these calls seem to be increasing at a rapid rate. But not just calls, there are various other platforms that scammers try to take advantage of, to rob people of their hard-earned money. Read on to know about the top 5 <keyword id="22618205" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="personal-finance-scams" source="keywords">personal finance scams</keyword> that are surfacing in India and how you can stay safe from them. <h2>Fake <keyword id="20488964" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="job-offer" source="keywords">job offer</keyword> scams</h2>This is one of the most commonly reported scams. Over the last year, there have been many cases where people were approached for seemingly lucrative job offers via platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram. Some of these cases involved the victim making payments to certain accounts, while being made to believe that it is a part of the job and there will be a handsome return later. For instance, a PTI report in May this year revealed that a woman from Navi Mumbai found herself trapped in an online fraud and lost Rs 54 lakh. The victim wanted to earn some extra money by working from home and was reportedly offered freelance work by the scammers. She was also told that she would earn money after completing five tasks. And to receive these tasks, the woman claimed that she paid Rs 54.30 lakh in various accounts. When the woman asked for payment after completing the tasks assigned to her, the scammers stopped replying. <h2>Sweetheart scams</h2>Meeting the love of your life through an <keyword id="20167528" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="online-platform" source="keywords">online platform</keyword> seems too good to be true at times. And sometimes, this really is the case. Various cases have surfaced in the past where the victims were duped of their hard-earned money by their online lovers. Just last month, a man in Delhi was scammed of Rs 1.2 lakh when he planned to meet a woman he was talking to on Tinder. The two met at a cafe in Delhi to celebrate the woman’s birthday and ordered some snacks, cakes, and wine. The woman however, abruptly left in the middle of the date citing a family emergency. And the victim incurred a bill of Rs 1,21,917.70 for food that should have only cost a few thousand bucks. When he questioned the high bill, he was threatened and forced to pay. After investigating, the police found that the cafe split the high bills in a set way: 15% to the girl, 45% to the table and cafe managers, and 40% to the owners. <h2>Fake screenshots scams</h2>Another type of scam that is widely happening in the country is where you are shown a screenshot that gives the impression that your account has been credited with some money, when it actually has not. For instance, in March this year, a Delhi Uber driver was making headlines for overcharging a customer for a ride to the airport. A Moneycontrol report mentioned how a man described his experience in a Reddit thread. As per the report, the man said that he had booked a ride to the airport and the initial fare was Rs 340. However, when the ride was completed, the Uber driver showed him a screenshot which depicted that the fare was Rs 648. The driver had claimed that the fare increased due to more waiting time. However, that wasn’t the case and the driver had created a fake screenshot to demand extra money. After this post went viral, several other Reddit users reported similar incidents. <h2><keyword id="19925254" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="YouTube" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="YouTube" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="YouTube">YouTube</keyword> like and earn scam</h2>This one is similar to the completing tasks scam. In this scam, <keyword id="20013464" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="fraudsters" source="keywords">fraudsters</keyword> tend to tell the victim that they will have to engage with a YouTube channel to earn money. They then ask the person to make certain payments, promising a greater reward later on. Once the victim transfers the money, the fraudsters tend to disappear into thin air. In February this year, there were reports of a man losing Rs 16 lakh due to such a scam. <h2><keyword id="19957108" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="online-shopping" source="keywords">Online shopping</keyword> scam</h2>If you have ever shopped online, be sure to read this one. Many scamsters come up with fake advertisements on reputed platforms like Instagram to lure people into buying items online. In such scams, once the order has been placed and payment has been made, the victim doesn’t receive the products. In addition to this, scammers can also pose as bank employees and gain access to sensitive information of the victim’s account. For instance, a report by PTI last year revealed that a 70-year-old woman was buying six towels online for Rs 1,160. While making the payment, Rs 19,005 was taken from her account instead of Rs 1,160. She tried to contact the bank helpline but couldn't reach them. Soon after, she got a call from an unknown number. The caller claimed to be from the bank and offered to help with her payment problem. He asked her to download an app for the refund. The woman followed his instructions but ended up losing Rs 1 lakh from her account. When she saw the unauthorised transactions, she went to the police station. Meanwhile, another Rs 8.3 lakh was withdrawn from her account. <h2>How to stay safe from such scams</h2>Even though more and more people are being targeted by scammers, there are some ways that you can ensure that you stay safe. Keep these few points in mind in order to protect yourself against personal financial scams. <ol><li>Don’t share your personal information with strangers online or on the phone. </li><li>Don’t make any payments just because a stranger told you to. Verify the situation and the person’s credentials. </li><li>Don’t click on suspicious links that are sent to you on emails or text messages. </li><li>Avoid shopping for doubtful websites or accepting job offers from sites that appear dubious. </li><li>Before taking up any job offer, perform a thorough search of the company or the person who is claiming to recruit you. </li><li>Read up a bit about popular scams going on right now. At times, a simple Google Search can help you save up loads of money. </li></ol>

Top 5 personal finance scams in India and how to stay safe from them

Capital markets regulator <keyword id="35210" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sebi" source="Orion">Sebi</keyword> Chairman Madhabi Puri Buch and her husband on Saturday denied allegations levelled against them by short seller Hindenburg as baseless and asserted that their finances are an open book. In a statement, Madhabi Puri Buch and Dhaval Buch also said it is unfortunate that <keyword id="9916845" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="hindenburg-research" source="Orion">Hindenburg Research</keyword> against whom Sebi has taken an Enforcement action and issued a show cause notice has chosen to attempt character assassination in response to the same. US short-seller Hindenburg Research lslleged that Sebi chairperson Madhabi Puro Buch and her husband had stakes in obscure <keyword id="88493" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="offshore" source="Orion">offshore</keyword> funds used in the <keyword id="76451" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="adani" source="Orion">Adani</keyword> <keyword id="6354840" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="money" source="Orion">money</keyword> siphoning scandal. In a blogpost, Hindenburg said 18 months since its damning report on Adani, "SEBI has shown a surprising lack of interest in Adani's alleged undisclosed web of Mauritius and offshore shell entities." Citing "whistleblower documents", it said, "Madhabi Buch, the current chairperson Of SEBI, and her husband had stakes in both obscure offshore funds used in the Adani money siphoning scandal." Responding to the allegation, Buchs said in their statement, "In the context of allegations made in the Hindenburg Report dated August 10,2024 against us, we would like to state that we strongly deny the baseless allegations and insinuations made in the report." "The same are devoid of any truth. Our life and finances are an open book. All disclosures as required have already been furnished to SEBI over the years," the statment said. Buchs further said they have no hesitation in disclosing any and all financial documents, including those that relate to the period when we were strictly private citizens, to any and every authority that may seek them. "Further, in the interest of complete transparency, we would be issuing a detailed statement in due course," the added. On Saturday, the Congress demanded the Centre act immediately to eliminate all conflicts of interest in the regulator's investigation of the Adani Group. The opposition party also said the "seeming complicity of the highest officials of the land" can only be resolved by setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to investigate the full scope of the "<keyword id="41357" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="scam" source="Orion">scam</keyword>".

Sebi chief, husband denies Hindenburg allegations as baseless

<ul class="summary-list"><li>New York Magazine's personal finance writer just published a personal essay about how she was scammed.</li><li>Believing she was talking to the FBI, she handed a shoebox with her $50,000 in savings in cash to a stranger.</li></ul>We all like to think we're too smart to fall for a scam, like the kind where someone tricks you over the phone into liquidating your bank account, putting the cash in a shoebox, and handing it to a stranger in a car. And hopefully, you are!But the truth is, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/credit-card-phone-theft-sim-swap-identity-theft-investigation-2023-4">people get scammed all the time</a> — even smart people.New York Magazine published an astonishing personal essay from one of their writers (a personal finance writer, no less!) who says she was the victim of a phone scam that bilked her out of $50,000 by convincing her that she was a victim of identity fraud and that to fix it she would need to transfer money.<div type="image" title="Charlotte Cowles speaking at a panel with two other women, seated, in 2019" height="3064" width="4596" msid="107762628" hostid="261" sizebytes="1361308"></div>That's selling it short — the details of the scam are SO MUCH more wild. I don't want to spoil it all because reading it for yourself, your eyes popping further and further out of your head, and your stomach churning, is all part of the fun.This story is being endlessly dissected on social media by readers who are either appalled or sympathetic or simply believing that even under waterboarding, they'd never reveal they had fallen for this.Just read it: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.thecut.com/article/amazon-scam-call-ftc-arrest-warrants.html">The Day I Put $50,000 in a Shoe Box and Handed It to a Stranger</a>

You have to read this story about a woman who was scammed out of $50,000 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Fresno lost over $600,000 to a phishing scam in 2020.</li><li>Officials failed to spot red flags on a contractor invoice, a jury found.</li></ul>The city of Fresno lost more than $600,000 to to a phishing scam in 2020. Now, a grand jury says that city officials should have noticed the scam before it cost taxpayer dollars.City officials discovered the fraud after realizing an invoice from a contractor working on a section of the Fresno police station was fake, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article259205608.html">The Fresno Bee</a>. The contract included the real contractor's letterhead but an incorrect account number, according to the Bee. City officials did not publicly comment on the scam until reporting by the paper uncovered it in 2022.A civil grand jury found on Thursday that the city failed to notice "conspicuous red flags" that should have tipped them off to the fraud, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article289067239.html">Bee reported</a>.The jury found that the city's finance department followed policies that were "understood" through training but never written, according to the Bee. Employees were also supposed to get approval from another employee for large payments, but failed to do so when making the payments that resulted in the scam, the jury said."Phishing" attacks are carried out by criminals who usually send an email or some other message pretending to be a company or individual asking for credit card information, passwords, or other sensitive information. The goal of the scam is to trick users into sharing personal information so the scammer can gain access to their computer, company, or finances.One study from Harvard Business School <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-phishing-scams-automation-detection-2024-6">predicted that phishing scams</a> could "increase drastically in quality and quantity over the coming years" with AI now able to automate the "entire phishing process."Earlier this month, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/small-town-scam-idaho-contractor-payment-social-engineering-2024-6">scammers targeted a tiny Idaho town</a>, stealing more than $1 million from the town government through a similar scam. Criminals there tricked an employee into thinking that the city's payment information for a contractor needed to be updated.Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer — who was not in office when the scam occurred — did not immediately return a request for comment from Business Insider on Sunday.He told The Bee in a statement that the city has already met many of the jury's recommendations following the case, including implementing new training."I am appreciative of the Civil Grand Jury's time and attention on such a relevant issue in our city and our nation," the statement said. "I am also pleased with the grand jury's confidence that internally updated procedures appear appropriate for preventing this type of fraud from happening again."

Fresno officials should have noticed a phishing scam that cost taxpayers more than $600,000, jury says

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="2721952" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="crypto">Crypto</keyword> traders were scammed out of <keyword id="6359140" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="binance">Binance</keyword> coins worth around $2 million through Telegram, Bloomberg reported.</li><li>A Telegram account that seemed to be linked to <keyword id="334157" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Reddit">Reddit</keyword>'s <keyword id="9346197" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="wallstreetbets">WallStreetBets</keyword> offered a new WSB token to users. </li><li>This is the latest in a series of crypto scams that have cost investors millions. </li></ul>A Telegram account that seemed to be linked to Reddit's WallStreetBets forum, but is not actually affiliated with the group, has scammed crypto investors out of an estimated $2 million worth of binance coins, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-04/wallstreetbets-members-targeted-in-telegram-cryptocurrency-scam?utm_content=business&amp;cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&amp;utm_medium=socialtm_medium=social">Bloomberg</a> reported on Tuesday. Investors were encouraged to wire binance or <keyword id="6709758" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Ether">ether</keyword> tokens to a digital wallet in exchange for "WSB Finance" tokens as part of a pre-mine sale. These sales offer coins for purchase before they are listed on crypto exchanges. The owner of the digital wallet linked to the <keyword id="41357" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Scam">scam</keyword> has since removed over 3,451 binance coins, worth over $2 million, from it. The size of the payments made in ether was still unclear, as was whether the wallet owner had withdrawn the tokens, according to Bloomberg. Investors never received their "WSB Finance" coins and were told they needed to pay another sum of money to secure their initial purchase due to a server error that affected the new tokens. The Telegram account had named itself "WallStreetBets - Crypto Pumps", creating the illusion that it was linked to the Reddit forum that drove the GameStop frenzy earlier in the year and has become a hotbed for stock chatter. Apart from a brief exception last month, the WallStreetBets subreddit does not allow discussions about crypto. WallStreetBets - Crypto Pumps has since been deleted from Telegram, leaving with a message saying the owner was off to spend the money they had made off the scam. Bloomberg reported they wrote "buying lambo now" before disappearing. Crypto payments are made through a link to a digital wallet, which can be anonymous. The anonymity, which is one of the cornerstones of crypto and one of the main reasons its fans support it, opens up opportunities for scams or other illicit activities. It is one of the key criticisms brought by regulators and institutions. This isn't the first scam to affect the Reddit community. A few weeks ago, WallStreetBets members were being invited to an app that was not affiliated with the page, described as a "crypto pyramid scheme" by the people behind the account. "We are strongly anti-monetization. This scam has nothing to do with us." WallStreetBets wrote in a message to raise awareness about scams involving the forum, which is pinned to the top of the page. Scams have also been on the rise more broadly as crypto-mania has gripped investors over the past year. Regulators like the <a href="https://www.fca.org.uk/scamsmart/cryptoasset-investment-scams">UK's Financial Conduct Authority</a> and <keyword id="38935" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Fraud">fraud</keyword>-action watchdogs have issued warnings about a growing number or reports of crypto-related fraud.

Reddit's WallStreetBets members were targeted in a scam that reaped Binance coins worth $2 million through Telegram, report says

The CBI carried out searches at seven locations on Monday in connection with the <keyword id="8878575" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="yes-bank-scam">Yes Bank scam</keyword> pertaining to the Rs 600 crore alleged bribe to the family of its co-founder <keyword id="128581" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rana-Kapoor">Rana Kapoor</keyword> by DHFL, officials said. Teams of CBI officers are carrying out operations at the residence and official premises of the accused in Mumbai, they said. The agency has alleged that Kapoor, 62, entered into a criminal conspiracy with <keyword id="152129" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kapil-Wadhawan">Kapil Wadhawan</keyword>, DHFL promoter, for extending financial assistance to DHFL through Yes Bank in return for substantial undue benefits to himself and his family members through companies held by them, they said. According to the <keyword id="522895" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="CBI-FIR">CBI FIR</keyword>, the scam started taking shape between April and June, 2018 when Yes Bank invested Rs 3,700 crore in short-term debentures of the scam-hit Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL). In return, Wadhawan allegedly "paid kickback of Rs 600 crore" to Kapoor and family members in the form of loan to DoIT Urban Ventures (India) Pvt Ltd, they said. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/finance-minister-assures-employment-and-salary-at-yes-bank-at-least-for-one-year/articleshow/74514015.cms">Finance Minister assures employment and salary at Yes Bank at least for one year</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/yes-bank-share-price-falls-10-after-rbi-limits-withdrawals/articleshow/74504094.cms">Yes Bank share price nose dives 72% after RBI limits withdrawals</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/rbi-has-a-new-scheme-to-rescue-yes-bank-will-be-released-shortly-says-shaktikanta-das/articleshow/74506268.cms">RBI has a new 'scheme' to rescue Yes Bank — will be released shortly, says Shaktikanta Das</a>

Yes Bank scam escalates as CBI carries out searches to connect Rana Kapoor to DHFL promoter Kapil Wadhawan

The <keyword id="47209" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Finance-Ministry">Finance Ministry</keyword> has ordered a forensic audit following reports of scams to the tune of Rs 436 crore at the branches of <keyword id="6359442" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Dena-Bank">Dena Bank</keyword> and the <keyword id="111832" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Oriental-Bank-of-Commerce">Oriental Bank of Commerce</keyword>. 
 
GS Sandhu, secretary, Ministry of Finance, said, “These are instances which have happened at the lower/branch level because of lack of due diligence and non-adherance to the norms or procedures…So (it is) not fair to term the entire banking system or the individual bank going in that direction. 
 
“The persons who are responsible are being taken to task, some disciplinary action is being taken and there are also some suspensions, some transfers…The investigation is on and further action will be taken based on that.” 
 
Following a rise in scams in public sector banks, the Finance Ministry is considering various steps like strengthening of risk management, appointment of bank chiefs for longer tenures, etc. 
 
According to Sandhu, “The most important part is strengthening of risk management. We are going to make it mandatory for all the senior officers in banks for officers of DGM (deputy general manager) or GM levels to undergo a compulsory risk management course before they are considered for their promotions for higher posts…We have already started work on this through some expert agencies.”

Forensic Audit Of Dena Bank, OBC Ordered After Reports Of Scam

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Paramount</div></div></div>The "pump and dump" scam is a classic stock trick. Someone ruthlessly promotes a stock they hold, driving up the price based on artificial interest, and then sells before everyone realizes the interest was just manufactured. Oftentimes, those stocks are "penny stocks," which don't trade on an exchange and are worth only a few cents a share. Real life "Wolf of Wall Street" Jordan Belfort was famous for perfecting the pump and dump <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-11-07/jordan-belfort-the-real-wolf-of-wall-street">to the tune of millions of dollars</a> for himself and his posse. But on Friday a new cadre of penny stock villains struck, this time on the popular messaging app WhatsApp. I first noticed the scam when a friend of mine posted this screenshot on Facebook along with the caption, "Umm...What? Someone got the serious wrong number on Whatsapp."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Facebook</div></div></div>But I didn't put the pieces of the scam together until <a href="http://www.theawl.com/2015/08/the-whatsapp-pump-and-dump">The Awl's John Herrman</a> pointed out that the spam seemed to be part of a coordinated pump and dump scheme.AVRN is the stock sign for Avra, Inc., which is a digital currency (think Bitcoin) company.And the scam seems to have been dastardly effective. As you can see from this chart from Yahoo Finance, the stock for Avra shot up at around 11 a.m. before crashing shortly thereafter: <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Yahoo Finance</div></div></div>Some people were clearly fooled, and assuming the scammers timed it right and didn't totally bungle the operation, they probably made some cash. This isn't the first time that potential pump and dumpers have used an innovative messaging medium to cut through the noise. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-shares-are-spike-on-fake-takeover-rumor-2015-7#ixzz3jUHq6JEu">Last month, Twitter shares spiked</a> based on a phony report on a <a href="http://www.bloomberg.market/news/articles/2015-07-14/twitter-attracts-suitors">website made to look like Bloomberg.com</a>. The story had said that Twitter was fielding an offer to be taken over for $31 billion. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gselevator-john-lefevre-story-goldman-sachs-elevator-gossip-2015-7">The story behind the famously offensive twitter account that parodies Wall Street culture </a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="J2eHNpdjosRRsVzu0u2vzC9ykNJdT8l6" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

The 'Wolf of WhatsApp' wants to sell you penny stocks

<ul class="summary-list"><li>"Pig-butchering" scams have stolen at least $75.3 billion in crypto in recent years, a study said. </li><li>Scams involve sending a wrong-number text to a victim and then building trust. </li></ul>Be wary of "pig-butchering" scams.A recent study says a particular kind of fraud — named after the method used by farmers of fattening pigs up before they're slaughtered — has allowed criminals to get away with billions in crypto, often leaving victims penniless. According to the study, from January 2020 to February 2024, crypto criminals moved at least $75.3 billion into suspicious accounts, including $15.2 billion in deposits from major crypto exchanges used by everyday investors.A <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4742235" target="_blank" rel="noopener">research paper</a> released Thursday by John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and graduate student Kevin Mei, detailed a study that tracked crypto addresses of over 4,000 victims of pig-butchering schemes. Griffin's previous studies on crypto include a paper released last year that argued <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/bitcoin-price-manipulation-token-crypto-markets-ether-btc-ftx-griffin-2023-2">the price of bitcoin is manipulated</a>. The study said that stolen crypto is usually converted into other assets, often the stablecoin Tether, after which the funds flow through a decentralized exchange to obscure the movement, and finally onto a major crypto exchange where the crypto can be cashed out for fiat money. Pig-butchering scams are unsophisticated and don't involve much in the way of technological savvy on the part of the scammers. The scheme begins with criminals sending a wrong-number text. They use that as a door to build trust with victims by sending small payments to them and then lure them into making fake crypto investments, ghosting them once the victim has sent a large amount of money. "In a subset of cases, the friendly relationships slowly morph into full-blown scams known as "pig butchering" or sha zhu pan, which, in the extreme, bleed lonely, sick, and distressed victims, often with little exposure to investments and crypto, into the loss of their life savings," the researchers wrote. "We find 83% of potential inducement payments are sent from addresses used in more than ten transactions, suggesting limited monitoring by crypto exchanges," Griffin and Mei added. Their paper is titled "How do crypto flows finance slavery? The Economics of pig butchering," and the researchers claim that many scammers were originally victims of human trafficking in Southeast Asia. "Pig butchering relies on an even darker crime. Many of the ground-level perpetrators are themselves victims of human trafficking and modern-day slavery," Griffin and Mei wrote.Lured with promises of work, trafficked victims are locked away in compounds and forced to perpetrate scams, they said, adding that estimates of how many people are held in such conditions vary, but figures from the United Nations and other groups indicate it could be as high as 500,000 across Southeast Asia.

'Pig-butchering' scams have netted criminals $75 billion in stolen crypto, study says

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Gen Z reported the highest median loss to scams for the second consecutive year, the BBB said.</li><li>Online scammers are more often targeting younger victims these days, the agency says.</li></ul>Many people associate online scams with their parents or grandparents, those non-native internet users who might easily fall for a run-of-the-mill phishing attempt.But it's actually the generations that are perpetually online, like Gen Z, that are the most susceptible, and so it is Gen Z that is actually losing the most money — by far — to online scams.According to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://bbbmarketplacetrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2023-BBBScamTracker-RiskReport-US-040224.pdf">a new report</a> from the Better Business Bureau, people aged 18 to 24 reported the highest median dollar loss on average to scams for the second year in a row.Gen Z lost $155 on average to scams in 2023, with most of the money going to rackets related to employment, online purchases, and investment or cryptocurrency, the BBB says."This is kind of the first generation that has really grown up with all the devices, and so they are very comfortable being on the phone, being on the laptop, and conducting everyday business there. So scammers, of course, are going to take advantage of them in that way too," BBB director of education and community engagement Katie Galan <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/college-students-face-highest-risk-of-scams-bbb-warns/">told NBC</a>.While the BBB's scam tracker does not collect data for people under 18, the agency says scammers are increasingly targeting younger victims as well.Of the 20% of survey respondents who said they have children between 7 and 18, 16% said scams targeted their children in the last year. This is an increase from 2022, when just 11% said scammers targeted their children, according to the report.Adults between 55 and 64 reported losing the lowest average amount to scams, with a total average of $91 lost per person. Respondents in that age range were more susceptible to investment scams and home improvement scams, the report says.Romance scams, meanwhile, primarily targeted people over 65, some of whom have lost <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/romance-scams-ai-deepfakes-yahoo-boys-nigeria-fraud-2024-4">significant sums</a>, according to the report. Overall, boomers lost $109 on average to online scams.Romance scams rose from No. 7 to No. 5 on the BBB's list of biggest scams due to an "increase in susceptibility and a high median dollar loss."Median dollar loss from romance scams rose from $1,411 in 2022 to $3,600 in 2023. In 2023, more than 65% of romance scam victims reported losing money to the scam, compared to just 16% in 2022, the report says.The BBB says the percentage of those who reported losing money to romance scams grew over 300% in just the last year. Romance scammers are now introducing victims to cryptocurrency, eventually turning their romantic conversations toward finance and tricking them into investing in fake crypto platforms.The US Postal Service took the No. 1 spot for companies impersonated by scammers in 2023. It replaces Amazon, which fell to the No. 2 spot, the BBB said.Other companies frequently impersonated by scammers included <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scammers-trick-woman-publishers-clearinghouse-sweepstakes-2024-4">Publisher's Clearing House</a>, the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/best-buy-tops-scam-list-microsoft-geek-squad-ftc-2024-5">Geek Squad, Norton, Paypal, Microsoft</a>, Walmart, Facebook, and McAfee.

Here's why Gen Z loses more money to online scams than boomers

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A Minnesota city fell victim to a phishing scam while setting up a new sewage treatment contract.</li><li>The city was scammed out of $1.5 million after a local company scored a $3.5 million contract.</li></ul>A city in Minnesota was swindled out of $1.2 million dollars by a routine email scam, sending the money for a local sewage treatment vendor to bank accounts overseas, federal agents alleged in civil forfeiture documents.In the summer of 2021, the city of Cottage Grove, Minnesota finalized a sewage treatment project contract with the company Geislinger &amp; Sons for over $3 million dollars, <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.206167/gov.uscourts.mnd.206167.1.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to court documents</a> first obtained by <a href="https://www.courtwatch.news">CourtWatch</a>.Over the ensuing three months, almost half of that sum was sent to phishing scammers who were accused of tricking city administrators by using a lookalike email address with three extra letters in it.In August 2022, the Justice Department began investigating the case, according <a href="https://www.startribune.com/feds-investigating-1-2-million-email-fraud-scheme-that-targeted-city-of-cottage-grove/600199426/?refresh=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to the Minnesota Star Tribune.</a> And in court documents filed on March 3, federal agents said that they had traced where a portion of the money went and asked a judge to approve their civil forfeiture of the funds.The agents wrote that they traced the money to two individuals who had moved portions of the funds to UK bank accounts, where British authorities worked with the US Department of Homeland Security agents to seize the funds, according to their report.The city of Cottage Grove did not immediately return Insider's request for comment.According to civil forfeiture documents, on June 16, 2021, the City of Cottage Grove inked a $3.5 million contract with local company Geislinger &amp; Sons, Inc. for its "South District Sanitary Sewer Project." Geislinger &amp; Sons did not immediately return Insider's request for comment.City officials were sent legitimate W9 and work authorization forms from the vendor. By October, payments were scheduled to be sent to the company by the end of the month, the documents said.But by October 19, the scam was fully in motion: Phishing scammers sent emails to the city administration, letting them know there had been a change in the bank, and a city employee overlooked the new email that the requests were sent from, the federal agents alleged.Throughout the phishing scam, the imposters repeatedly emailed city employees, told them that their banking information had changed, and that future payments should be sent to the new bank accounts, according to federal agents.The city official obliged, and on two occasions between October and December, large payments for the sewage project were sent to the new bank accounts and not the company's actual bank account. But by December, members of the real company started to check in with the city's finance director for the two large outstanding invoices. The finance director assured the company that a city employee had been handling the payments with Jeff, the contracting company's president.The Office Manager told city administrators that "Jeff had been in Florida for the past several weeks," prosecutors said. "At this point, the City staff realized they had fallen victim to a wire fraud scam, which resulted in the loss of $1,276,061.33 of City funds."

Here's how a city in Minnesota sent phishing scammers $1.2 million for a sewage project after being conned with lookalike company emails

The global cryptocurrency market lost at least $670 million in the April-June quarter (Q2), and 97 percent of the losses were due to hacks and scams, a report said on Thursday. The crypto losses in the second quarter were up 52 per cent from $440 million in the same period last year. "The majority of these funds was lost by four specific projects, Beanstalk known as a decentralized stablecoin protocol, the <keyword id="14392683" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="harmony-horizon-bridge" source="Orion">Harmony Horizon Bridge</keyword>, <keyword id="14392681" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="mirror-protocol" source="Orion">Mirror Protocol</keyword>, and <keyword id="14392682" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="fei-protocol" source="Orion">Fei Protocol</keyword>," according to data from Immunefi, Web3's leading bug bounty platform. "In Q2 2022, most of the losses -- 96.92 per cent -- happened as a result of hacks. It is also notable that blackhat hackers are now primarily targeting and exploiting DeFi (decentralised finance), 49 out of 50 instances involved DeFi protocols," the report noted. The teams at Immunefi protect over $100 billion in users' funds. "We have reviewed all instances where blackhat hackers have exploited various crypto protocols, as well as cases of alleged fraudulent protocols and founders who have performed a rug pull in Q2 2022," said the company. They located 50 such instances, including both successful and semi-successful hacking attempts, as well as fraud events, in Q2. The most common type of crypto fraud are investment scams and since 2021, the <keyword id="160745" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="us-federal-trade-commission" source="Orion">US Federal Trade Commission</keyword> (<keyword id="88852" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="ftc" source="Orion">FTC</keyword>) has received complaints of losses totaling $575 million due to this kind of fraud. People lost crypto worth over $185 million in the US via romance scams in the first quarter this year, as fraudsters use new means to rob their victims, with romance scams featuring prominently. Nearly 46,000 Americans reported losing over $1 billion in crypto to scams since early 2021, according to a recent FTC report. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/lg-electronics-estimates-q2-operating-earnings-fall-by-12-on-weaker-demand/articleshow/92721180.cms">LG Electronics Q2 operating earnings fall by 12% on weaker demand</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/id-fresh-offers-stock-options-to-another-27-employees-aims-to-create-100-crorepatis-in-the-next-three-years/articleshow/92722488.cms">ID Fresh offers stock options to another 27 employees, aims to create 100 crorepatis in the next three years</a>

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