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Similarly to a traditional Carnival celebration involving attendees masking their faces, the Internet allows catfishers to mask their true identities.. Catfishing refers to the creation of a fictitious online persona, or fake identity (typically on social networking platforms), with the intent of deception, [1] usually to mislead a victim into an online romantic relationship or to commit ...
Catfishing is when a person uses false information and images to create a fake identity online with the intention to trick, harass, or scam another person. It often happens on social media or ...
[10] [5] The scammer usually attempts to obtain a more private method of communication, such as an email or phone number, to build trust with the victim. [ 4 ] [ 11 ] [ 5 ] Because the scammers are working in groups, someone in the group can be online and available to send e-mail or text messages to the victim at any hour. [ 5 ]
Catfish scam artists probably did a little bit of research, via your online profiles, to find out about you. They may know your favorite movies, TV shows, bands and so on.
“Catfishing and Scam Awareness,” a recent report from peer-to-peer payment platform Zelle, found that significantly more consumers in Q3 2022 reported being the victim of a “catfish” or ...
An automated message says "that someone has ordered a free medical alert system for you, and this call is to confirm shipping instructions" before the call is transferred to a live operator who requests the elderly patient's credit card and identity card numbers. The device is not free; there is a high monthly charge for "monitoring".
• Fake email addresses - Malicious actors sometimes send from email addresses made to look like an official email address but in fact is missing a letter(s), misspelled, replaces a letter with a lookalike number (e.g. “O” and “0”), or originates from free email services that would not be used for official communications.
Another way gift card fraud occurs is when a retailer's online systems which store gift card data undergo brute force attacks from automated bots. Tax refund fraud is an increasingly popular method of using identify theft to acquire prepaid cards ready for immediate cash out. [4] [44] Popular coupons may be counterfeited and sold also. [45]