The rate of scams is increasing daily in our society, everyday hardworking people lose their hard-earned money to online scammers through social media, online businesses and even digital transactions. Scammers can be really cruel to deceive others for personal gain, that's really an act of wickedness, and each day, the scammers get smarter and gain the trust of gullible people, and reap off their hard-earned money, investment, efforts and struggles.
Well, I believe anyone can become a victim of scam, it's not always the greedy, desperate or careless person that can be a victim of a scam; anyone can. Recently, a friend was a victim of a scam because she decided to show kindness, there are thousands of reasons people fall victims. The scammers understand emotional intelligence and know how to manipulate the emotions of their client until they get what they want.
They come in different ways, from making you feel there's excess profit for you, to giving unbelievable discounts, pretending to be who they are not and even developing romantic relationships with clients, many ways to deceive a person.
I can relate to a few scam, one is online shopping. I found a vendor on TikTok years ago contacted and made a payment, not knowing it wasn't the original a real account, the real business owner was being impersonated. The fact that this scam account looked original, the seller had attractive pictures, a very convincing review and the business account really looked legitimate. I couldn't even believe I fell for such a scam that day, because it felt really believable.
I made payment to the scammer and waited for my goods for days, until I realized I had been blocked and that was how I lost money.
Unfortunately, I'm not the only one that can relate to this kind of scam, many people have been victims too.
Another scam that I almost became a victim of is the investment scam (Ponzi scheme), but that was a predictable one, and I knew I was dealing with some scammers, so I knew the right time to withdraw my investment. I knew when to pull out my money and when the quite at the end I didn't lose. I also didn't convince people to join. But at the end, watching how other strangers who didn't know how Ponzi scheme works cried out. I really felt pity for them and made up my mind never to join Ponzi scheme again, they only gather peoples money and disappear without any form of pity.
My last experience, I wasn't sure of the person's intentions and I don't need to be, but I just concluded it was a scam, maybe trust issues, but I'm grateful I never fell for that. This one happened to be an old friend who became all nice to me for a period of time and one day asked me to register a simcard for him in my name, that he was in Ghana and needed a Nigerian number urgently. I didn't trust him enough to even consider doing that, and I was wondering why I would be the first person to be called for that, when he has family members in Nigeria not too long after that, a lady was arrested in my area after a simcard used to scam was traced to her, and I was grateful I never agreed to that regardless of what I could gain from helping him. This is when I realized it's dangerous to trust people.
These experiences teach me a lot about how to be careful, the importance of verifying information about company accounts before purchasing things online, don't trust all online reviews. Matter how sweet and convincing an offer might be, never fall for it, think before accepting.
I believe victims of scams should not feel ashamed to speak about their experiences to others, because sharing these stories and experiences can help educate others and prevent them from making similar mistakes too.
Also, if you ever become a victim of a scam, do well report to the right authorities and stay calm , preserve evidence like messages, receipts, account details, and chat screenshots. The fact is that recovering lost money is not always possible, but acting quickly may improve the chances of getting what's lost.
The truth is that we cannot completely eliminate fraud from the world, but we help by creating awareness , informing others, staying cautious, and prepared. Sometimes, the most valuable lesson from a scam is learning to verify before trusting anyone.