I’m sure most of us have received strange emails and inbox messages in our respective social sites, with only one thing in common: how to get rich in a very short span, maybe shorter than a housefly’s mortality rate.
Forget about the emails which have a narration of an orphan in an orphanage somewhere in the Congo or West Africa, who’s using a priest’s phone to talk to you, and then she falls in love with you on day one, not minding whether you’re a guy or lady. On day two she tells you she’s an heiress worth $5 million. She tells you to send your bank account to put her inheritance, then she comes over and you live happily ever after.
There are scammers who have scammed large corporations both locally and oversees, posing as CEOs, respected signatories, politicians, and yes, heirs and heiresses. Today, some are even posing as charity groups to help cancer patients or COVID-19 victims. This is a frightening proof that no one is safe from fake business ventures or deals.
Well, here are some of the ways of knowing a scammer for the first three days you chat with him or her:
- Excessive flamboyance
Their introduction, body of their story and salutations makes you feel as though you have received an email from a royal family by accident. They even add fake signatures and stamps.
- Google absence
If you google a company’s name they claim they own or work for, you won’t see anything at all. If you do, maybe some victims saying how the so called company scammed them. You’ll find such info in anti-scam sites like Econsumer.gov, scamwatch.gov.au and bbb.org.
- Deals too good to be true
They will tell you they’ll earn about 10% to 20% of what you make from the venture, probably in Forex partnerships, cryptocurrencies and rare stones trades. Who would want to do a business they’ll earn less than 50% in this hard-hit pandemic capitalistic world? Warning: never let anyone tell you that they can trade for you, even if they claim to be monks from Tibet.
- Seeming forceful or in a hurry
They’ll hurry you up to fill a form or give out account information, even three days after knowing you. Imagine opening a new bank account right in front of a customer service officer making gestures and ranting, while showing you the time on the clock. That would make a news headline.
- Conflicting contacts
A business location reads somewhere in Europe, but the contacts are from Asia or Africa. You can use truecaller to check out the codes of those numbers, to be sure where the scammers hail from.
- Fake turnaround videos or photos
They’ll send you videos or photos of guys or girls posing behind powerful automobile vehicles or mansions, if they suspect you doubt them. Those are so called folks who were saved from the gutter of poverty and helplessness. In the videos, you’ll hear the new tycoons say how the investment company helped them, but won’t hear them mention the company name. Legit companies should take watch of this virtual piracy. It can ruin their reputation in the long run.
- No customer support or live chat
Have you seen such sites while you’re trying to get through this COVID-19 pandemic at home? Avoid them at all cost! I tried one site, and the customer support wasn’t active at all. The emails are either absent or dummies.
- Contacts not making sense
Once I came across a site with phone contacts +12345678910. At first you would think your eyes are playing a trick on you, until truecaller proves you’re right. Emails don’t make sense too. So bugs bunny-like.
- Shy investors
They never want to be seen in skype or whatsapp video calls. They would prefer just calls. That explains everything.
- Constant changing of phone contacts
I have encountered chaps who change contacts twice each week. There is a possibility that a target suspected them, and blocked them. This then forces them to get new phone contacts to scam people of their hard-earned cash.
These are lists I would come up with. If you have any other, I would be really glad to read them down in your comments. Until next time….
Stay safe!
IGNITE KENYA 
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