Top scams, top scammers during COVID-19 pandemic

TOP SCAMMER IN THE WORLD: Ramon Abbas — known to his 2.5 million Instagram followers as Hushpuppi (or Hush, and Ray Hushpuppi)— is considered by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to be one of the world's most high-profile fraudsters. He faces a prison sentence of up to 20 years in the US after pleading guilty to money laundering. The social media influencer funded his luxurious lifestyle by cybercrime, according to an FBI report

TOP SCAMS DURING COVID-19: Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, malicious cyber actors have gone on great lengths to utilise global interest surrounding the latest information on the virus. These "threat actors” take advantage of users by registering website domains related to COVID-19. Fake websites and applications typically claim to share news, testing results, or other resources. However, they only want your credentials, bank account information, or to infect your devices with malware.

RIFE: Scams related to "stimulus payments" in the US have cost consumers an estimated $676 million, with a median loss of $400, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). A stimulus check is money sent to a taxpayer by the US government to stimulate the economy by providing consumers with some spending money. For example, amid spiking demand for COVID-19 tests spurred by the omicron, authorities have warned consumers about scammers selling fake or unauthorised at-home rapid tests online — or charging for tests that are administered for free by medical offices and public health departments.

MAIN SCAM TOOLS: It appears that cyber criminals closely follow the headlines, and adapt their messages and tactics as new medical and economic issues arise. As of January 29, 2022, the FTC reported having logged more than 676,000 consumer complaints related to COVID-19 and stimulus payments, nearly 75% of them involving fraud or identity theft. The most common digital scam tools: phishing emails and texts, bogus social media posts, robocalls, impostor schemes.

'PHISHING' EMAILS: Scammers have capitalised on COVID-19 information, especially via vaccine-themed phishing emails included subject lines such as the following: “Vaccine registration”; “Information about your vaccine coverage”; locations you can receive the vaccine”,“Ways you can reserve a vaccine”, “Vaccine requirements”. Phishing emails also spiked during the pandemic, according to the Centre for Internet Security (CIS).

TOP APPS USED FOR SCAMMING: A poll of 726 online scam victims from 2021 conducted as part of the study to find out where most scams are taking place. These are the top 10 platforms ranked in descending order by number of reported scamming incidents, based on the SocialCatfish.com listed — with Facebook right on top, with 152 victims; Google Hangouts with 99 victims; Instagram with 80; WhatsApp and Plenty of Fish had 50 each. (Source: socialcatfish.com)

WHO FALLS FOR SCAMS THE MOST?: The psychology journal SAGE, in one study, found that “females were more likely to be victims of sweepstake scams, whereas males were more likely to be victims of foreign lottery scams.” And another study shows “older adults were more likely to fall prey to investment scams, whereas younger adults were more often victims of work-at-home and business scams.” The report, May 17, 2021, was titled “The Scams Among Us: Who Falls Prey and Why”.

18 MILLION SCAM EMAILS BLOCKED EACH DAY: Google claimed that, in 2020, that it blocked 18 million scam emails related to the coronavirus pandemic alone — every single day, according to a BBC report. The perpetrators can be — and often are — located far away from their potential victims.

100 MILLION PHISHING EMAILS: Hundreds of types of scams exist: Advance fee scams, phishing scams, romance scams, lottery scams, online employment scams, online shopping scams, charity scams, scamming websites, and more. The total number of “phishing” emails per day was close to 100 million. In 2020, 49 million American consumers lost $56 billion due to identify frauds and various scams — through data breaches, phishing emails, robocalls, etc., according to a Google report.

$1.86 BILLION LOSS FROM "EMAIL COMPROMISE SCAM”: According to the International Crime Complaint Centre (IC3), in report published by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the first scam with the highest amount of money loss was the Business Email Compromise (BEC) Scam. It caused a loss worth $1,866,642,107 impacting 19,369 victims ($96,372 was lost per victim on average), the 2020 report stated.

$600 MILLION LOSS IN ‘ROMANCE SCAMS’: The second scam with the largest amount of money lost was the romance scam inducing a loss worth $600,249,821 with 23,751 victims ($25,272 was lost per victim on average).

$336 MILLION LOSS FROM ‘INVESTMENT SCAMs’: The third scam causing the highest amount of money loss was the investment scam of $336,469,000 with 8,788 victims ($38,287 was lost per victim on average).

$265 MILLION LOSS FROM ONLINE SHOPPING SCAMS: The fourth scam with the highest amount of money loss was the online shopping scam (non-payment/non-delivery scams), causing a loss of $265,011,249 with 108,869 victims ($2,434 was lost per victim on average), According to the IC3 report.

$219 MILLION LOST IN IDENTIFY THEFT SCAM: The fifth scam with the huge amount of money loss was the identity theft scam accounting for the loss of $219,484,699 with 43,330 victims ($5,065 was lost per victim on average). Efforts are being made to work with countries around the world to combat this issue, the FBI report stated.

BEST WAY TO AVOID SCAMS? The report said that the best way people can avoid scams is through education, password managers, and allowing for AI technology to find scam emails within their inboxes. We also found out that scammers will use any piece of technology they can get their hands on, but will mainly use data breaches to get their hands on victims’ personal information and phishing scams to steal passwords and financial information.

NEVER GIVE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION: With many organisations and employees working from home, users could let their guard down and be more susceptible to emails from unverified senders. The CIS advises people never to give out personal information, including banking information, ID number, or other personally identifiable information (PII) over the phone or email.