How To Identify  Fraudsters And Stay Safe!!!

By Rotimi Onadipe

In this digital age, business and internet play a very important role in our daily life but sadly also , they are avenues for fraudsters and cyber criminals to steal our money, property, personal or sensitive information.

Fraud is the intentional use of false information in an attempt to illegally deprive another person or organisation of money, property, or other benefits. A fraudster is simply defined as someone who commits fraud. Examples of fraud are romance fraud, check fraud, debit & credit card fraud, ticket fraud, tax fraud, internet fraud, investment fraud, lottery scam etc. The warning signs of fraud vary according to the type of fraud.

The best and safest way to beat a fraudster is to have proper knowledge and orientation about his characters and strategies.

Recognising and understanding observable warning signs can help individuals, companies & organisations to understand, detect, prevent fraud and avoid any psychological, financial or reputational damage.

In order to create a successful preventive measure, identifying fraudsters with the following wake up calls is the first of many steps to be taken.

How to identify fraudsters:
1. Many of them use fake profile on social media platforms.

2. They tell lies a lot in order to convince their victims to trust them.

3. They spend much time to talk to people in order to get personal & sensitive information from unsuspecting victims.

4. They claim to know about almost all kinds of business so as to make sure unsuspecting victims invest their money in any of their fraudulent business proposals.

5. They create friendship with as many people as possible so as to increase their chance of getting victims.

6. Many of them drive expensive cars so as to convince unsuspecting victims that they can't steal their money.

7. They have many emails, social media accounts and platforms which makes it easier for them to get as many victims as possible.

8. They have some addictive behaviour e.g. internet or social media addiction, drug addiction, gambling, cyber sex addiction etc.

9. Many of them are very respectful in nature so as to gain trust from unsuspecting victims.

10. They do a lot of research to get as many information as possible about their victims.

11. In most of their fraudulent activities, the men among them use women as accomplices to persuade men to fall victim.

12. In most cases , they don't give up on their victims untill they succeed in defrauding them.

13. Many of them have established cordial relationship with law enforcement officials so as to evade detection and justice.

14. Many of them work with fake documents that look real to convince unsuspecting victims.

15. They have accomplices in almost all the countries of the world.

Conclusively, we must be aware that proper knowledge about the characters and strategies of fraudsters and cyber criminals is our greatest weapon against them.

Rotimi Onadipe Tel: +234-8169121819 Email: [email protected]