Scams have changed dramatically over the years. In the past, they were largely characterised by door-to-door sales, often involving products that were sold with false promises or that did not deliver on their promises when purchased. In recent years, however, scams have become increasingly digitised and complex, with scammers increasingly utilizing modern technologies, such as the internet to carry out their activities.
The first wave of online scams began to emerge in the late 1990s with the increased popularity of the internet and the relatively few regulations that were in place to police it. These early scams were primarily focused on phishing, whereby unsuspecting email users were sent messages from fake lottery companies or banks. The messages would typically contain links which, when clicked, led users to malicious websites with the intent of stealing financial information or passwords. Other approaches such as pyramid schemes, vishing (fraudulent telephone calls) and malware attacks also began to emerge.
More recent years have seen the emergence of more sophisticated and intricate scams, such as advanced fee frauds and romance scams. Advanced fee frauds involve convincing victims to send money in advance in order to receive a larger payoff (which usually never arrives). Romance scams involve scammers posing as attractive people online and requesting money after gaining their victims’ trust.
Scammers have also become more adept at targeting vulnerable people, such as elderly people, young people, and those with limited technical knowledge. Furthermore, the rise of social media networks have opened up further opportunities for scammers, with social media users often less able to discern which communications are legitimate. Scammers can target more people and spread their messages more rapidly via social media.
Today, we also face complex and difficult to detect forms of cybercrime, such as ransomware attacks and cryptojacking. Ransomware attacks involve hackers infiltrating a system and encrypting its data before demanding a payment in order to return the data in an unencrypted form. Cryptojacking happens when hackers exploit a device’s processing power in order to mine cryptocurrency. These attacks often take place without the victim’s knowledge, until the impacts of the attack are detected.