The plague of unsolicited automated phone calls isn’t abating. By studying robocalls, scholars at the Robocall Observatory are developing ways to help shut them down.
While some online services such as banking do warrant using your true information, many sites shouldn’t require the same level of disclosure. Here’s how to protect yourself in such cases.
Australians were also cheated out of A$400,000 last year in charity scams.
Dean Lewins/AAP
There have been scores of scams reported in Australia since the bushfires started in September. This is why fraudsters take advantage of those in need.
Don’t end up like this person.
fizkes/Shutterstock.com
Nir Kshetri, University of North Carolina – Greensboro
Cryptocurrency fraudsters have swindled their victims out of hundreds of millions – even billions – of dollars. What do they do to earn people’s trust and then take their money?
Scammers impersonating the Australian Taxation Office have fleeced Australians of more than $830,000.
Shutterstock
As curious social animals, humans are more trusting of people than we should be – especially when we’re dealing with people over the phone, email or via SMS, in the absence of body language.
The public needs help from officials who can protect and serve.
kirill_makarov/Shutterstock.com
The highly controversial Bible Museum in Washington, D.C., has just announced the withdrawal of five manuscripts deemed counterfeit. Where did these fragments come from and how did they get there?
Scam emails and phone calls are on the rise as it becomes ever easier to orchestrate fraud from anywhere in the world. New research sheds light on what makes some of us more susceptible than others.
Millions of dollars lost in fraud in 2017, up on the year before.
Shutterstock/Pearl diver
The amount of money lost to fraud in Australia continues to rise, and scammers are developing new ways to target victims. It’s a warning to all to be on the lookout for anything suspicious.
Why do people continue to send money when caught in any online romance scam? Researchers are now finding the techniques these fraudsters use are similar to those in domestic violence cases.
Jamaica’s lotto scammers have gotten rich tricking American seniors and gamblers into thinking they’ve won the lotto, then demanding a modest ‘processing fee.’
Gene Blevins/Reuters
Lotto scamming — a criminal enterprise largely targeting elderly Americans — is lucrative in western Jamaica, where it is thought to be behind 50 percent of all area murders last year.
‘I don’t care what they say about me,’ P.T. Barnum once said, ‘as long as they spell my name correctly.’
Everett Historical/Shutterstock.com
The new movie about P.T. Barnum couldn’t come at a better time: It’s impossible not to see his ghost in our culture, in our advertisements and in our president.
Confidence scams carried out online are still rampant.
R. Stevens/CREST Research
Cybercrime affects individuals and families as they navigate online life. But significant efforts focus instead on cybersecurity, protecting institutional networks and systems – rather than people.