Josh More, a Senior Security Consultant at RJS smart security was in the market for a new camera, and was almost scammed when he saw a deal on Amazon that was only $1,836.73 instead of the normal $3,299.99 for a Nikon d800. It's a very interesting story, and you can learn something from this. I am quoting a very small section of his blog post:
"Most scams use a hook to cause a reaction. The idea being that if you are reacting, they get to control you. If you take the time to stop and think things through, you take control back and can usually spot the scam. Common hooks involve Urgency, Uncertainty, Sex, Fear or Anger. In this case, its all about Urgency, Uncertainty and Fear. By setting the price so low, they drive urgency high, as youre afraid that you might miss the deal. They then compound this by telling me there was an error in the shipment, trying to make me believe they are incompetent and if I act quickly, I can take advantage of their error.
The second email hypes the urgency, trying to get me to pay quickly. I did not reply, but if I had, the next step in a scam like this is to sweeten the deal if I were to act immediately, often by pretending to ship my non-existent camera with a bonus item (like a cell phone) overnight if I give them payment information immediately.
Of course, if I ever did give them my payment information, theyd empty my checking account and, if theyre with a larger attacker group, start using my account to traffic stolen funds." Read more about how they do this and do not let this happen to you.
Here is the full blog post:
"Most scams use a hook to cause a reaction. The idea being that if you are reacting, they get to control you. If you take the time to stop and think things through, you take control back and can usually spot the scam. Common hooks involve Urgency, Uncertainty, Sex, Fear or Anger. In this case, its all about Urgency, Uncertainty and Fear. By setting the price so low, they drive urgency high, as youre afraid that you might miss the deal. They then compound this by telling me there was an error in the shipment, trying to make me believe they are incompetent and if I act quickly, I can take advantage of their error.
The second email hypes the urgency, trying to get me to pay quickly. I did not reply, but if I had, the next step in a scam like this is to sweeten the deal if I were to act immediately, often by pretending to ship my non-existent camera with a bonus item (like a cell phone) overnight if I give them payment information immediately.
Of course, if I ever did give them my payment information, theyd empty my checking account and, if theyre with a larger attacker group, start using my account to traffic stolen funds." Read more about how they do this and do not let this happen to you.
Here is the full blog post:
