Theme-:" How Do You Protect Yourself From Online Scammers?"*
One thing I have realized is that greed is the reason why people fall victim to scammers especially online scammers, I am not saying this out of head knowledge, I am saying this out of experience and I can attest that I was greedy that was why I got scammed too.
I can not remember the full details but one hot afternoon I came back from school feeling hungry and had just a thousand naira on me, but for some reasons I came across a post asking us to send the money to be able to receive double of the money, like I said, I can not remember the full details, but yeah I ended up sending the last money on me and when I tried to reach out back after an hour, to get a double of the money, I realized I was scammed, whomever it was blocked me after receiving the money and till today I am painted that i let myself get scammed by that.
The good thing is I learnt my lessons and never indulge in such act, meanwhile I have seen people who never back down from such, they just have so much trust in that and they keep giving until it becomes too late Many people like myself have gone through the same tricks or even worse, and every time I hear such stories I realise it was greed, that pushed us to become victims of scammers.
Yeah, a system is supposed to be set up to be able to catch those who are involved in this acts but the truth is no matter how many is caught the existence of scammers especially online scammers is not and never going to go into extinction any time soon as it has come to stay especially in this state where the economy is terrible and people are drained trying to survive, they would be ready to do anything that won't need them doing too much again.
The best we can do for ourselves is to not be greedy and be very conscious and smart about everything we see online, make verification from the right source, and never be in a hurry to do anything, once you are being rushed to do it, take a brief pause to think hard and deep, and then do the needed cross-checking to be sure you are safe.
It's not going to be easy, but to be on the safe side, it would be better to take the necessary precautions, ask questions, verify information, Google, and make sure you are not in a rush or being rushed. Be careful, even when you do not see the need, because they could strike any day and at any time, without warning.
I won't forget how the other day I was called and told to that I was invited to join a particular class that was scheduled to happen on WhatsApp and such every member of the group was sent a code, to be able to access the meeting, and then the caller asked me to call out the code number that was sent to my phone to his hearing, indeed the class was real because it was scheduled to happen that evening but I knew something was wrong when I was asked to call the codes back to the sender, indeed, I saw the code but instead I told him I didn't and so he sent again a asked that I call it, so I did but another number, a random number.
When he realized that it wasn't what he sent, he cussed me out and ended the call on me, and that was how I escaped that, later that day, the admin warned everyone to not listen to anyone who says them and says he was from the group, that she was the only one allowed to call anyone and we didn't need any codes to be able to be in the meeting. I just couldn't help ask myself, what the person wanted to achieve by doing what he did, and what if I had fallen for his tricks and called out the codes, what were his intentions?
With the way AI is taking over everything, every scam is dangerous especially online scam, because once they have access to your important details, you are at their mercies and I am going to say with the way my country is, it is hard to get a swift help from service providers, so instead of being at the risk or at their mercy, be conscious of where you put in your details and who you give it to, because it can be used to rob one of their hard earn money.
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The image used is mine