Page jacking
If you click on a link and find yourself at an unexpected website, you may have been ‘pagejacked’. This happens when someone steals part of a real website and uses it in a fake site. If they use enough of the real site, Internet search engines can be tricked into listing the fake site and people will visit it accidentally. The fake site could contain unwanted or offensive material. As an online merchant trading via a website, you need to know that your site is not being stolen in this way. Unfortunately you cannot prevent page jacking; you can only deal with it after you know it is a problem.
Advance fee scams
An advance fee scam is fairly easy to identify as you will be asked for money or goods upfront in return for giving you credit or money later. These advance fee scams can seem convincing and have taken in many people. One example of an advance fee scam plays out in online auctions. If a buyer sends you a cheque for much more than you asked, be suspicious. If you accept the cheque and refund the extra money to the buyer, you may find out later that the cheque was bad and that you have lost the whole amount.
Bad cheque scams
Always be wary of unusually large orders, even when the customer is paying in advance by wire transfer (an extremely safe method of payment when performed bank-to-bank). Though the transaction could be perfectly legitimate, pay attention if the customer asks for your bank’s address or suddenly asks to pay by cheque instead of by transfer. In both cases, the customer may be about to pull a bad cheque scam. Both scenarios allow the customer to deposit money into your account by cheque. If the cheque is a clever fake and you accept it as payment, you lose both the money and the merchandise.
Fake money orders
Usually a money order is one of the safest ways to receive payment. The amount is prepaid by the customer, and a bank passes the amount on to the merchant. Because the money is handled via a third party and can be transferred internationally, many online transactions are made using money orders. These are difficult to counterfeit, but be especially cautious of money orders from high-risk areas such as Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East or Russia, as counterfeit money orders from these areas are unfortunately becoming more common.
Wire transfer fraud
As long as you avoid transfers via cash offices and stick to transfers performed bank-to-bank, wire transfer is a very safe way to move money around. This does not apply if you are asked to accept money and then pass it on to someone else via wire transfer. If that happens, be suspicious, especially if you are asked to do this by anyone you do not know well. You may think you are helping someone, but actually this is a form of money laundering used by organized crime. Though your money is not being stolen, falling victim to wire transfer fraud can get you into trouble with the authorities.[12]
ATM Fraud
All ATMs run on the Widows platform. “Hacking into any of these is as easy as hacking into a computer, and everyone knows the levels of sophistication fraudsters have reached”. Even as banks are adopting high-end anti-skimming and surveillance products, the easiest way to perpetrate an ATM fraud is through an insider. Security agencies are advising banks to carry out proper background checks on their employees.
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