Last month I was targeted by yet another scam, this time on Skype. I knew well in advance what I was getting myself into before I even hit the "accept" button, and thought I would share some of the knowledge I have gained over the last few years on how to identify such things.

I must admit I wasn't always so savvy to the scammers - I was actually a pretty gullible and trusting guy, but I have definitely educated myself on the big red flags of scams now. I am still trusting, that is just my nature, but definitely not so gullible now! This is mostly from having been the target of 5 scam attempts that I know of in the last 3 years....

The first was via Facebook, and was easy to spot before I even thought about accepting their chat request thanks to their own stupidity.

The second was an AirBnB IPO scam that I almost fell for to the tune of USD$6000, but thankfully I was smart enough to pick up just enough red flags before committing actual money.

The third was a dating scam which I did fall for at first, but quickly came to understand. I'm not talking about that one too much here since I have previously written about it, but there are some crossover points that I will bring up.

The fourth was a website-based scam that I did fall for when the DAI protocol upgraded, but thankfully only lost about $20. I'm not talking about that one here at all since it doesn't fit the "direct contact" aspect.

Then the scam via Skype makes 5.

So the basics of a direct contact scam - the contact. Whether it is by phone, Facebook, Skype etc. they all involve someone reaching out to you, attempting to gain your trust, before eventually trying to get money out of you somehow. The problem (for the scammers) is that their contact with you is also their major point of weakness.

When someone reaches out to you that you do not know, you need to do as much research on them as you can, and give them only the minimum information necessary to get enough information in return to confirm the scam (or not).

On any site/service, if they have a profile photo do a reverse image search on it. That is what tipped me off to the Skype scammer - their profile photo was decent, not overtly sexy, but when I did a reverse image search it turns out it is a photo of a porn star known as Talia Shepard. Here is the photo in question:

If I hadn't done my research I would not have known that there was something suspect about the photo!

But even in knowing I was curious what the scam was, so I accepted. Since they tried repeatedly to video call me (which I declined, choosing to ask questions in chat only) before they gave up, I can only assume it was going to be either a sexy call where they would require money before doing anything (I might be single but no thanks), or something where they would record me in an attempt to blackmail me (good luck with that, I haven't worked since last year), or something along those lines.

But back to other scams....

Anywhere that has a profile (Facebook, dating sites etc.) you should check for inconsistencies or identifying information.

My Facebook scammer had some identifying likes on their profile - a bunch of Nigerian small-time musicians and local sports clubs, but nothing else (I'm pretty sure they didn't realize this information was publicly visible). Yet in the first few exchanges "she" set up a story about being an Australian model who was currently working in Ukraine. The specificity of locale given by the likes does not add up with the information they had given me!

On a side note, this was well before I had even considered moving to Ukraine myself, so the location they set up is somewhat ironic now!

Over to the dating site scammer briefly - she had her star sign listed in her profile, and claimed her birthday was only a few days after we met in January....

But having congratulated my ex-wife on her birthday only days previous I knew exactly which star sign covers that part of January, and it was nowhere near what the scammer had in her profile!

A distinct lack of some information on social media can also be an inconsistency - how many people, really, would have a Facebook account with only 1-2 photos and no friends or post history, but begin talking to a stranger??

Also (similar to the profile inconsistencies bit) look for inconsistencies in the things they say and do. If they claim to be a native English speaker but their English is not native level you have an obvious sign.

If they give contradictory statements or say one thing but do another also take note of it - my Facebook scammer told me how "she" was a great listener.... and then didn't even attempt to answer 5 of my next 6 questions, and only answered one because I pushed for it 😅

"She" also told me they wanted to take things slow, yet was talking marriage and children after only 3-4 days 😂

And apparently they were also a highly religious lingerie model 🤣

So inconsistencies are one of your biggest sources of information into whether you are being scammed. If you learn to look for these things you will go a long way towards protecting yourself from social media based scams.

I haven't spoken about the AirBnB IPO scam yet. This one was not social media - but a phone call. However the guidelines for protecting yourself are the same even if via different mediums - take in as much information as you can, research it, and compare everything.

In a phone-based scam this is harder (I am honestly a terrible listener in phone conversations), and I did not manage to retain the bit where I was told how they got my contact details (obviously they were trying to rush through this bit so I didn't question it), but this probably would have been my first red flag if I hadn't missed it.

Eventually they have to send you something though, so check for inconsistencies there. Simply having a website and official looking email address should not be enough to convince you of legitimacy - also search out their company name.

Sometimes this may be difficult - for example the company who attempted to scam me were "SM Investment Advisors" which is a common enough name when I searched it, and I don't think anyone had yet reported them as a scam yet so I didn't find any negative reports.

They did send me their URL in an email, and let me tell you it was actually quite impressive - none of the usual website flags such as typos, inconsistent language, broken links, etc. - it looked like a legit professional website. However for being one of their top brokers, Mr. Bill Kennedy was strangely not listed on their team page, and he had to send me a link to his PDF profile via Google Drive, which felt so so wrong - my first red flag! (and funnily enough 16 months on and their website now has no team members listed on their team page).

So websites can easily look professional, and this is not really unexpected by me - I am a web developer myself so I know how easy it is to make a decent webpage with minimal effort.

So what can you do?

You should also search the domain name on WhoIs and ensure it matches the timeframe of the business. No supposed high-end brokerage like SM Investment Advisors will have only had a website since the end of 2018 when their site states they have been in business since 2009. I did look them up here, and this was the second red flag I picked up about them.

I was then sent an official document for creating a new account with them - but one of the fields in the PDF did not even have enough space for me to enter my details! This was red flag number 3.

The last red flag, which is not so applicable to the other scams, was that I heavily researched the product they were trying to sell me - the (supposedly) upcoming AirBnB IPO.

I was searching daily for this IPO to verify its legitimacy because everything at that stage was just rumour - there was talk from AirBnB about the possibility of an IPO but no hard facts. Finally I found an article (mere hours after it was published) that quoted one of AirBnB's founders as saying while they were prepared for the possibility of an IPO in 2019, they had not yet decided if it would happen in 2019.

So either AirBnB's founder was lying to the press and saying something completely antithetical to what would generate buzz for an IPO while the IPO was actually already set in stone and a nobody like me was in on the ground floor for massive profits, or the broker was lying to me....

I may have been gullible but I wasn't stupid, and after questioning this "broker" on the article he pretty quickly gave up. Crisis (thankfully) averted.

So, regardless of the source of the scam you have a few key points to take away from this. Whenever you are interacting with an unknown:

• Listen/read/absorb in an attempt to take in as much information as you possibly can
• Don't take anything at face value, and most certainly do not trust what they say/write without external verification
• Continually compare what they say/write against everything they have said/written previously to see if there are contradictions or holes in the story
• Do your research

and hopefully you can avoid those scammers too!