How To Stop Scammers

Yesterday someone tried to scam me on Hive.blog so I thought I'd write an article with a few suggestions on how to prevent being scammed.

Scamming has a very long history dating all the way back to the biblical story of Adam, Eve and the serpent in the Garden of Eden.

Whether the story is true or not isn't the point.

The point is that people were deceived into taking an action that led to them later being at a disadvantage.

That's the essence of scams.

You are given information, spoken or written, you act on it and later find out you are now at a disadvantage somehow, or in simpler terms, you've been scammed.

For anyone who has not been scammed, you are either very lucky or you are very diligent in researching what is put in front of you.

Scamming has some extremely far reaching consequences for the victims.
People have lost their money, their homes and other assets, pensions, theirs and their childrens savings, and most unfortunately some victims have given up on life, and ended everything.

For a bit of background here are some facts and figures about scams.

I used Grok to create a table showing some notable scams from 1800 to 2017.

What I found interesting was that it did not show any crypto related scams.

So I asked Grok to create the following table showing crypto scams.

No doubt the following table will not show everything, why?

Because most scams go unreported because of 2 main reasons.

1. The person who has been scammed is embarrassed.

2. The victim feels that nothing will be done about it.

Major Crypto scams since 2017, from Grok

Here are the crypto scams that Grok could find since 2017.

Again for the reasons given previously, I'm 99.999% sure this list is incomplete.
For example it doesn't include scams like Hyperverse, DAOversal, CryptoFamily (renamed to OurFamily), CashFX (CFX), or NovaTech FX.

Total Estimated from Major Scams Since 2017: ~$30+ billion

What can be done??

Hopefully, the following information will give some hope and protection to some people.

Let's learn a few "Protection" Tips

The internet is still a bit like the historically famous wild west.

What does that mean?
Many historical accounts suggest that while the Western part of America was developing, there was a lot of lawlessness.

Until laws were properly instituted and enforceable.... things were "wild".

The Internet has developed in much the same way.

As we are now seeing, laws are now being developed and enforced that do offer some protection against bad things happening to us online.

Yes, a lot of those laws can be counterproductive, but some do offer us some protection or justice.

I'm sure we'd all agree that jailing people who groom children online, is a good example of that.

We'd also probably agree that targeting the elderly and other vulnerable groups for fraud, should be punished.

Humour aside, the above image depicts what happens everyday to someone, somewhere.

The 'Technical Support' scam is just one of a very long list of scams being operated today.

At Hive (HAiV3.com) one of our lessons is actually dedicated to this topic.

Scammers basically use one of several Psychological 'Hooks' to reel in their prey.

1. The lure of money (the 'click this link to earn money' type. Locks into our needs or greed)

2. False Fears / Non-existent Imminent Danger. (the type seen in the previous image. Triggers our fight / flight response)

3. You've Won A Prize 🍾🎉🥂 (this type can instantly set off a dopamine rush, making us forget our own safety).

That is not an exhaustive list.
If you can think of any more 'Psychological Hooks' used by scammers, please write them in the comments below.

What's A Dopamine Rush? (according to Grok)

Dopamine rushes can harm safety by boosting risk-taking and weakening impulse control, making people chase thrills like speeding or gambling while ignoring dangers. They fuel addictions, creating compulsion loops that lead to unsafe habits, such as distracted driving from phone use or substance abuse. Dopamine may distort judgments, causing overestimation of abilities and underestimation of hazards, increasing injury risks in sports or work. In vulnerable groups like teens or those with ADHD, it heightens impulsivity, leading to accidents or poor choices. Overall, these surges prioritize quick rewards over careful decisions, endangering lives.

Tip #1 for protecting yourself online

SLOW DOWN!!!

The Internet isn't going anywhere. It will still be here tomorrow.

While it's true that you can miss opportunities, guess what?
Opportunities usually come back around in the same, another or better form.

The important thing here is to SLOW DOWN, then FULLY UNDERSTAND what it is you are about to click on, or who you about to start interacting with.

How?

Check the sender of the email or the link.

See that above image?

Because...

1. that email is sitting in my spam folder

2. I don't recognize the address (green arrow)

3. It doesn't mention me by name

4. WTF are they talking about???? (It's meaningless to me)

   ...... it's probably spam and a scam.

But what if that address looked real in some way, or it did mention me by name or it was personalized in some other way...?

How could I check further?

In some mail provider system there is a feature to 'View raw message'.

This let's you see the actual data structure of your email.
Using that information you can see the real sender.

This email tells an interesting story.
Not the crap info that the scammer sent, but the origins of the email.

Towards the bottom of the email headers are the originating domain ump.ac.za , and Gmail address that the scammer sent the email from.

We now have 3 pieces of information we can pass on to the authorities or organizations who could take some type of action.

1. ump.co.za is actually The University of Mpumalanga in South Africa.
   We can inform them of what's happened.

2. Gmail.
   They will close the senders Gmail account.

3. The time stamp.
   That can be used with video surveillance systems like CCTV to identify an individual in more serious scamming cases.

Tip #2

DON'T CLICK LINKS IN EMAILS, DMs OR POSTS, even if it's coming from a trusted source!!!

That doesn't make any sense.

Why can't you trust that email from your Mum, Dad, Wife or your Husband, Son, Daughter, etc.,?

Because maybe it wasn't them who sent it.

Your family member or friends account might have been hacked and the scammer could now be using the hacked account to send messages pretending to be the person you know.

If you ever receive anything even a little out of the ordinary, speak to the person, and make sure that they intended to send that message and ask them what the link is.

Another scenario....

Every year around Christmas I get several emails, DM's etc., saying "Happy Christmas, here is your gift" or "Happy Easter, open your Easter egg".

Now think.... these messages are from family members and friends.

So I should trust the message, right?

Absolutely NOT!!! 😄
That's doesn't mean I cannot trust my family and friends, it's to do with forwarding.

Those messages are usually forwarded 1000s of times and the people doing the forwarding are not always I.T. security experts!

Meaning, they usually have no idea what it is they are truly sending.

The problem isn't the message itself, they are generally well meaning messages.

The problem is the links contained in those messages.

They can do 1 or several things.

1. Give a hacker back-door access to your computer, tablet or phone.

2. Download a virus or other types of malware onto your device.

3. Lead you to a scamming website.

Potential solutions to the 'Links in Email' problem are:

1. a. Install Anti-Virus Software on all of your devices.
   b. Install Internet Security software on your devices.
   Those 2 bits of software will prevent you from visiting harmful links, or protect you against downloads from harmful links.

2. Check links before visiting them.
   How?
   If you hover over any link in most browsers, it will show you the link in the bottom corner, and you can check if it's a legitimate link

On your smart phone, carefully holding down on a link will reveal the links destination.

If you are not sure about the destination, 'copy link destination' then maybe google it or put it into A.i. for further information.

I was going to write more, maybe I will later, but for now I'm going to change course slightly and ask you all to:
Post a reply with your suggestions of how people can protect themselves from being scammed.

@mcsamm @ocd @ladyaryastark ... any suggestions?

Thanks for reading.

Have a great day / night 🙂

Clifford

Hive (HAiV3.com) Founder

P.s. If you want more great advice on web3, cryptocurrencies or A.i. visit our website.

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