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Johannesburg - Online scamming has increased dramatically during the last few years, and the World Cup seems to be fertile territory as scammers take advantage of the insecurity of visitors to a foreign land.
And some scams seem to keep on working, no matter how much publicity they receive.
The Nigerian 419 scam is repeated again and again. The phony “you have won a million dollars in a lottery, just send bank details” con has now surfaced with a World Cup background.
Using the World Cup logo (badly copied) to give authenticity, the scammers lure in the unsuspecting with news of a $2,8m “prize” they have won.
Felix Erken, managing director of Junk Mail, a classified advertising publication, says 3% to 4% of Junk Mail’s 50 000 online ads booked every week are rejected as suspected scams – either by Junk Mail’s vigilant moderators, or because victims report them..
“Users used to be too embarrassed to admit they had been scammed,” he says. “Now they are coming forward.”
Booking accommodation around World Cup time is fraught with problems, Erken warns. “Make sure the place you are booking really exists, and that the agent is authorized to act as the agent. People have arrived on holiday to discover their holiday apartment doesn’t exist, or has been triple-booked.”
Erken says he takes scamming very seriously and works hand-in-hand with the SAPS Cyber Crime Unit.
“All classifieds placed with us are moderated – and rejected if they look suspicious.”
A soon-to-be-launched website automatically filters all classifieds to identity phrases most commonly used by scammers. Users also have to register and verify their email addresses.
There are several kinds of scam. The 419 (named after a piece of Nigerian legislation to stop this kind of fraud) usually has a person claiming to have knowledge of a large amount of money ($20m or more), but he needs another conspirator with an offshore bank account to put the money into.
Once you’ve disclosed your bank account details, the crooks clean you out.
In the “pet scam”, victims are led down a garden path of ever more payments to rescue some animals, heartbreakingly portrayed in a photograph.
The fraudulent payment scam involves showing a forged deposit slip apparently showing payment for an item, which is then handed over. But the money hasn’t been paid.
Erken says that when buying or selling through classified ads, it is important to make personal contact and not to limit transactions to email.
“Internet transactions can seem very convincing – until you try to verify who you are dealing with.”
- Fin24.com
