First of all, don’t panic, breathe, and calm down, or you’ll end up messing up even more. Becoming a victim of an internet scam or fraud, a.k.a. getting scammed by a fake website or getting phished, is almost like a daily chore: a phishing attack happens every 39 seconds and only 38 percent of the world’s organizations can afford a sophisticated enough system to initiate a counter-attack, according to Cybint, a cyber education company. “How does that happen?,” you may ask. Well, that happens because the scams by internet websites (phishing attacks) are a part of social engineering (SE).
Why me?
Because SE utilizes diverse socio-psychological methods to creep up on the victim and then phish out that personal data from them either directly or by implanting a virus to do it in their stead. SE scammers evoke a fake sense of trust by pushing the right mental trigger buttons, which relate to emotional states like fatigue or sympathy. You may say that, “I’m a conscious user. That’ll never happen to me,” but then remind yourself why you clicked on this article and about those 39 seconds we mentioned above. The message with that sinister link to a fraudulent website may come from a trusted colleague or a friend, who may have been phished before, too. The typos will seem right, you’ll be curious about the topic, the link will come right at the time when you were scrolling through social media or elsewhere while being bored, it will be in the field of you interest, saying something about a new listing on an exchange and then - boom - you’ve been scammed.
The first step to help yourself is report the internet scam or fraud.
Resources to report to about being scammed
Google Safe Browsing
Microsoft IE & Edge
Google Adwords Campaign
Ethereum Scam Database
Bonus links for Google Chrome Users
EtherAddressLookup
MetaMask
Phishing is a hazardous event that may endanger your financial and personal life if it is not addressed correctly and consequentially. You may find the details about the steps to take to prevent an internet scam or a fraud and about which resource to use, when, and how by reading out article on “How Do I Report Internet Scams/Fraud”