Scam calls that end in gift card scams or money per post scams have been getting a lot of attention since a while, especially since Mark Rober got in on the action against scamming centres with other Youtubers who have been doing it for a while.
But it seems to be a more anglosphere thing, which makes sense language-wise, these centres being India-based.
What type of scams are the most common in your country?
From my experiences:
Generally tied to my email address – phishing emails pretending to be from DHL or other courriers, saying I have to pay a missing fee to get my package
Netherlands – Whatsapp messages about Roblox; I assume this ends up in a gift card scam
Switzerland – call spoofing, so much call spoofing. Sometimes silent, sometimes it’s a “health insurance survey”. One time I picked up, the caller had such a thick Indian accent in his German that I couldn’t understand, so he got fed up with me and started insulting me lol.
\- also very common were phishing emails posing as Postfinance (bank)
Portugal – text messages with a phishing link posing as CTT (post), claiming you have a package to pick up.
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By far the most common ones nowadays are the ones related to OLX (online marketplace) where they pretend to buy something from you and than post a fake link that you must enter to supposedly receive the money.
Pretending to be public servants (usualy done by 2-3 people) to old people so you can enter their house and steal or straight up ask for money (ex. need to check the pipes) used to be quite common as well.
Just looked at my spam texts again and the most common ones are:
– A package from the Post Office which won’t be delivered unless I pay a fee
– My health insurance card/phone contract/training day allocation (in France the government allows you a set number of days off work to attend courses or training) is about to expire and I’m obliged to click on a link to renew it.
A common scam in tourist areas of Paris (particularly Montmartre) involves people ambushing you and trying to tie a string bracelet around your wrist, then making you pay for the bracelet and intimidating you if you refuse. If you go up Montmartre it’s worth keeping your hands firmly in your pockets and being vigilant.
In London I remember there was a common scam going round about 10 years ago where a woman would pretend to find a valuable ring on the ground, make up an excuse about why she couldn’t keep it herself and so ask you to keep it in return for a small sum of money.
And obviously because I’m an academic I get about 20 emails a day from fake journals asking me to submit articles to them.
Germany is currently being swept by a plague of automated “This is Europol/Interpol. Your German ID card has been used in connection with criminal activity. Please press one to speak to an officer.”
The message is in English and the “officer” always has a typically English-sounding name; they try to get you to provide personal information to “check against their records”. I sometimes get two or three calls a day, despite the fact that I hang up while it’s still the robot speaking.
In Sweden the by far most common kind of scam is welfare-related scams.
Sweden, Pay tax or duty on a package, otherwise they will not declare it in customs.
Or selling rare stuff to you, and you pay upfront, it have been the most common thing to do when doing business on internet or over phone for 20 years. So there is a lot of victim. Blame it on naive trust. But it’s sad that people use others good faith.
Also money laundering true Swish, it’s a direct pay system via app, they send you money, you go and take it out at a ATM an give them money, poff, you just become a criminal because you tried to be nice.
I don’t know if it really belongs under scams, but beggars outside stores begging for money, it was really common for 2-3 years. Suddenly it was beggar outside even the tiniest shop in the middle of nowhere. And now they are gone again, (human trafficking?)