Stopping the scams! Are we doing enough?

Riddle Time!

A rapidly growing industry which is full of creative people however what they do is illegal and I can bet they have targeted each one of us at some point in our life. Their targets are growing extensively and mode of operandi is becoming more and more sophisticated.

Yes, the scam and scammers.

After a very long time I was scrolling through Instagram reels and I came across these ads from Shop Direct and Schuh for shoes which were unbelievably cheap. I was actually looking at their websites last night so fair enough they have some nice retargetting campaigns and we all know about cost of living so who does not like super cheap branded shoes?

There was just one problem! These offers were "too good to be true" and this is my mantra to avoid scams. If something is too good to be true, I have to investigate and if I am not 99.9% sure of it being legit, I move away. Now you can argue that there might be instances when I did not do thorough investigation and lost a deal of a lifetime but I am sure the probability of being scammed is always high statistically.

In the screenshots below, you can see how close to perfection, they have created the ads and then the fake websites. If you do not look closely at some minor details like URL, spelling mistakes at About us page etc. then it's easy to fall prey to these scammers. And interestingly, they have even created fake Instagram profile pages as well which are static pages with a message from Facebook that this advertiser is not even on Instagram. And finally there is also a Facebook profile link. Looks like the scammer forgot to hide his details. Oops!

They are somehow retargetting the intentional buyers and I am not sure how but I am impressed. Anyhow, I reported all such accounts to meta and I am sure there is a panic in their offices right now.

On a serious note, I am going to whinge about 3 things here:

1. ARE THE COMPANIES DOING ENOUGH?

And I am not just talking about one company here but everyone involved. How come advertiser is not reviewing these ads before publishing? and what are the companies on whose name this fraud is happening doing about it?This consequences of fraud are only measured monetarily. A reserve for fraudulent transactions is set every year and that's it. I remember when I received fake emails to submit my road tax, tv license and income tax, I spent quite some time to compile those email addresses and send them to relevant authorities after finding the process to report them. All they said was thanks for the info, and to date, I get emails from the same email addresses which then discouraged me to report anything again because why would I waste my valuable time on something about which they do not care. So the question is, are the companies doing enough to eradicate it? Because if they are not then these scammers will not stop.

2. THE IMPACT IS NOT JUST MONETARY

Yes, the consequences of scam are not just monetary as these companies think. It is reputational damage and for some individuals, it can be mental torture. No one likes being scammed because it can make a person feel dumb and such person will not even share their experience with anyone else due to embarrassment. It can really take a toll on a person's mental health and although I have just said it in a few sentences, it is a significant issue to consider and talk about. Then comes the stage called 'waste of time' to go through the process of claiming any financial loss and the mental stress with it. An individual's time is as important as a company's time so better avoiding putting the customers in such situation.

3. THE ERA OF TECHNOLOGY

The technological changes in the world at the moment are rapid and fast. Every day there are new technologies, new solutions and the world has become a miracle for a person who saw it 40 years ago. Are we tackling the scam industry with the same speed? Can we afford to be reactive in this matter? Do we consider vulnerable people before releasing any technology? Think about it. If an organisation thinks that a one-off course on how to identify a scam will help their customers forever then it's wrong. They probably need one course every day or maybe a different approach to tackle this problem. This brings me to the most important point. Governance and reforms. We need some strict rules in place to discourage scammers rather than creating a reserve to refund people and not chasing the culprits. I know it can be hard but everything is hard in the beginning. There are complications like cross border scamming, time and resource to identify the culprits and training the customers but an actionable approach needs taken before Internet becomes a scam market and personal data becomes a weapon. We need strong policies on a global level to reduce and discourage this practice rather than setting aside reserves and funds to tackle the losses and that will make Internet a safer place for everyone.

Feel free to comment your thoughts and share your ideas on how organisations and regulatory authorities can do better in this domain to fully protect the consumers as well as reducing the growing percentage of scams.