Scammers Approach Victims with Too Good to Refuse Offers

• Scammers are employing novel trickery, offering money to victims and delivering on their promises.
• The catch is that holding the money won’t last for long, as stolen cards are reported and transactions are reversed.
• The best thing to do when you receive such a message is absolutely nothing at all.

Kaspersky is presenting two interesting schemes that are taking place on the internet right now, involving excellent social engineering techniques. In both cases, the scammer is offering money to the victim, but this is nothing other than a trick to get them hooked. We have seen scammers trying to pluck money from people on tenebrous but convincing pretenses, but this time is different, as the scammer is offering money to the victim. This method is locking the recipient of the message into the “what could go wrong?” mindset.

The first case focuses on a freelance designer who receives a request to design a logo for a client. The scammer approaches the freelancer via email, telling him that their website is under construction and that they need a new logo and some other materials for it. The “client” is eager to get started immediately, so he approves the tentative drawings from the freelancer and offers to pay him $3000 to move forward. In the meantime, he asks him to transfer another $1500 to a collaborator of the client, who couldn’t receive the amount directly from him due to undetermined “technical problems”. So, the freelancer does the job, gets the $4500, and transfers the $1500 to the third party. What happens a few days later is that the card used by the “client” is flagged as stolen, the payment of the $3000 to the freelancer is reversed to the original account holder, but the $1500 remains in the pocket of the scammer as that was a legitimate non-reversible transaction.

Another case is an unsolicited transfer of money to the victim’s account by a scammer. A phone call or text follows then, informing the victim that the transfer was done by mistake, asking them to return it. If the victim returns the amount, the original transaction vanishes, and the scammer is making a clear profit. This is actually something that has been going on for years now, but people are still falling victims for it. If you have received an amount by someone, just tell them to resolve it with their bank and do nothing else. Or even better, block the number that called or texted you, and consider reporting it to your bank.

Have you received a scammer’s message that reminds you of the above? Share the details with us in the comments section down below, and help others stay safe by sharing this post through our socials, on Facebook and Twitter.