While the Internet is great for completing translations in record time, watching entertaining content on the go, and doing work online, it is also an easy space for scammers to dupe innocent people. The Internet is fraught with scammers and fraudsters who manipulate individuals to steal their identities and money. The article talks about a few money-making scams that one should know about and how to identify them in case one receives messages from scammers.

Here are four such scams to watch out for:

1. Pyramid schemes
The idea of a pyramid scheme is for one to participate in a program where an individual is promised unrealistic returns on investments that don’t exist. The initial investors make quite a bit of money and end up recruiting new people and selling investment products to others. The plan primarily relies on money from recruitment fees and not the number of products or services sold. Most pyramid schemes present themselves as multi-level marketing operations; however, legitimate multi-level marketing operations gain profits from selling goods and services to customers, which is not the case with pyramid schemes.

2. Job opportunity scams
This is a major scam where an unsuspecting individual receives an unverified email offering a job, which is usually not in their area of expertise. Those who accept are paid through a money order or check for an amount greater than the scammer first offered. The fraudulent employer then asks to send back the difference. When one does this, they realize later that the check or money order was fake, and the money sent from their account to the scammer is no longer retrievable. One should avoid opening emails where the job offer is too good to be true and verify it directly with the respective company or authorities before accepting an offer.

3. Ponzi schemes
In Ponzi schemes, scammers who often pose as portfolio managers offer to invest an individual’s money in schemes with substantial payouts. Unfortunately, the money one gets initially is paid by other similar unsuspecting individuals. More often than not, these schemes The scheme falls flat when the portfolio managers don’t have new investors to lure in.

4. Giveaway scams
A growing scam on platforms like social media is a giveaway scam. Here, a fraudster may create a fake celebrity account with a handle similar to the official one. They may then host a competition wherein people are required to participate to win prizes like a smartphone. The scammer then contacts the unsuspecting individual, indicating that they have won the competition and that only the delivery fee needs to be paid to send the gift. When the individual pays the fee, they never receive the prize. After the scammer dupes the individual of the money, they delete the account. Therefore, one should always check for verified profiles before signing up for competitions. Influencers who host legitimate giveaways never ask for a delivery fee or payment details.