What is scamming?
Scamming is no longer a fringe phenomenon. Behind the innocent-sounding term lies a multitude of sophisticated scams that are used on a massive scale, particularly via email. Whether phishing, CxO fraud or romance scams, in this article you will learn how modern scams work, how to recognise them and what measures you can take to effectively protect yourself and your company.
Any type of fraud, not only in the legal sense, and especially internet fraud, is summarised under the term scamming. This also includes scam emails (usually in the form of phishing or spam). As a rule, scammers actively deceive their victims and skilfully exploit their good faith by pretending to be companies, customers or friends, for example.
What types of scamming are there?
As scamming involves both offline and online fraud, it also includes romance scams, investment scams, false sweepstakes and many other scams. Romance scammers are also known as marriage scammers. The perpetrators pretend to be in a romantic relationship.
The most common methods of email scams include:
Are scamming and phishing the same thing?
Although scamming and phishing are related, they differ both in terms of the methods used and the objectives.
Romance scamming, for example, usually aims to defraud someone as directly as possible and demand money.
With phishing, the initial aim is often to obtain access data or other sensitive information. However, a direct demand for money can also be made here – for example in the form of fake invoices. In any case, the aim of phishing is also to defraud the victim of money.
How do I recognise scam emails?
Both are types of scam that aim to deceive victims. Different psychological tricks are used for this purpose, for example:
Typical characteristics of phishing emails can also include attached links, attachments or forms, a fake email address or formatting errors.
In CxO fraud or business email compromise (BEC), the attackers pretend to be managers or other decision-makers in a company and induce employees to transfer money to their account. In some cases, the identity of the employee’s own superior is faked, in others that of a customer or supplier, e.g. to send supposed invoices in their name.
However, developments in the field of artificial intelligence are making it increasingly difficult to recognise phishing and scamming. So how can you protect yourself?
How can I protect myself from scam emails?
We recommend the following measures to protect yourself from scamming:
Conclusion
Whether offline or online, scamming comes in many forms. In the field of electronic communication, the boundaries between scamming and phishing are blurred. Ultimately, however, the security of your company is always the target of criminals. Effective anti-scamming software protects you and your company from dangerous scamming attempts.
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