Fraud Prevention 10 Ways to Stop the Scammers
Keep your money out of the hands of fraudsters by following these fraud detection and prevention measures. Fraud-related offenses are big business. In fact, the RCMP’s Commercial Crime Branch believes that fraud-related crime costs the country between $10 and $30 billion per year. Here are some suggestions for detecting and preventing fraud. Firms like TheClaimers help prevent these scams.
1. Turn Off All Communications
Suspicious of a seemingly too-good-to-be-true offer or fundraising solicitation? Take no chances. Delete the email, recycle the fax or letter, hang up the phone, or say “no thanks” and close the door. You can also add certain hurdles to the procedure, such as a call display on your phone, a peephole in your door, and an email spam filter. Many people are scared to be rude but keep in mind that you owe recruiters nothing – not even your time and attention.
2. Make Inquiries
It can be difficult to determine whether a request or company is legitimate or not. Crooks have been known to use familiar company names and pose as employees of financial institutions. Phishing emails, which are made to trick you into entering your financial information into an online form, are also becoming more realistic in appearance.
Scammers would like you not to examine too closely; therefore, they will frequently try to conceal their identity or provide a few specifics about the deal in question. However, any purchase or donation should be preceded by some investigation, and it is your right to ask questions, request information and references, and take your time to think things over.
3. Understand Their Strategies
There are several types of scams and strategies for deploying them, yet there are certain common threads. Aside from a lack of knowledge, keep an eye out for:
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Requests for payment in advance to collect a reward or apply for a job, or payment by an insecure means such as cash or money order.
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You are requested for personal or financial information that you should not provide, such as your social security number.
- High-pressure sales techniques.
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Excessively emotive appeals
- Unbelievable offers, such as enormous money for a job that requires no qualifications or expertise.
4. Make The First Contact
Instead of responding to solicitations, take the initiative and contact groups directly. For example, if you’re looking for a new long-distance calling plan, contact providers to learn about their current specials. If you want to make a donation, contact the charitable organization directly; this will save the group money on fundraising services. When you have a financial strategy, you won’t feel bad about saying no.
Also, the fraud detection API documentation is designed to help developers integrate fraud prevention and detection capabilities into their applications. The API offers tools to monitor transactions in real-time, look for suspicious activities or patterns, and provide geolocation data to verify the location of the user and detect potentially fraudulent activities.
5. Keep Your Information Private
Your financial information can be used to perpetrate identity fraud, and criminals are always looking for new ways to obtain it. Worse, if you freely provide sensitive information such as your personal identification number (PIN), you may be voiding any protection provided by your bank or Credit card company.
Knowing when to share and when to keep the knowledge to yourself is your best defense. As an example:
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Employers only need your social security number after you’ve been hired, but job fraudsters want it right away.
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No one, not even your bank, needs to know your PIN. You should not disclose it to anyone, and you should always shield the keypad when entering it.
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Don’t give away your credit card information, especially the three-digit security code on the back of your card, unless you’re making a purchase with a company you know and trust. Avoid using insecure means such as email or fax as well.