Confidence Trick News

Confidence tricks are as old as criminal activity. The art of con is based on deception, yet it is also about trust and ruins the victim financially and emotionally.  In the digital environment of today, the confidence trick has shifted ground. Newspaper articles quite often feature stories that underscore a new breed of sophisticated scams.

The Evolution of Confidence Tricks

The term “confidence trick” was coined in the mid-19th century, explicitly named for confidence man William Thompson. He bilked New Yorkers out of money by engaging them in conversation and then asking them to borrow money on the pretext of familiarity and trust. It is a sophistication of schemes elaborated over time, reacting to advances in technology, communication, and more within society.

Digital Scams on the Rise

Really, with the coming of the Internet and mobile technology, conmanship has taken on a new face. The apparent anonymity that digital communication offers lets conmen have most of their victims in sight to scheme large-scale operations. Phishing emails, fake websites, and social media scams are quite common among con artists in exploiting unsuspecting people. These cybercriminals mainly intend to exploit people’s emotions, like fear, greed, and love, to give away sensitive information or extort money from the person.

Types of Confidence Tricks in the News

Online Romance Scams

The most tear-jerking types of confidence tricks making headlines today seem to be online romance scams. Fraudsters log into dating websites or social networking sites to create fake profiles, then feign being somebody else. This eventually leads to them developing emotional attachments with the victims—sometimes even over weeks or months. Once they think they have enough trust, they prepare a scenario where they are in a crisis and really need some money. 

Most of the duped persons, hoping they are sending a fortune to help a loved one in distress, soon realize that the person they have been communicating with does not exist at all.

Recent news stories show how some of these scams can leave individuals bankrupt, having lost their life savings to criminals. In 2020 alone, the FBI stated that Americans fell victim to romance scams, losing over a billion dollars. This effectively made it one of the world’s most costly confidence tricks.

Investment Frauds

Another very common confidence trick reported in the news is investment frauds such as Ponzi schemes and pyramid schemes. They simply cheat people by promising to give them high returns on very low-risk investments. In fact, the returns are paid out from the money that new investors inject and not out of any profits earned from the investments. When there are not enough new investors to pay returns to earlier investors, the scheme collapses.

Perhaps no investment fraud is as infamous as Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, which recently managed to bilk investors out of an estimated $65 billion. More recent cases involve fraud in cryptocurrency investment, where a spike of interest in digital currency was used by criminals to trick investors.

Impersonation and Phishing Scams

As regards the impersonation of a bank, government agency, or another well-known firm to defraud personal information or cash, impersonation and phishing are a subclass of confidence tricks. There are many ways these scams can be played out by impersonation and phishing. 

Most involve emails, telephone calls, or text messages appearing to be from a trusted source requesting account details, resetting a password, or some other payment to be made. Big news spreads about major phishing attacks of a large scale that tend to end up costing thousands of people their personal information. 

Charity and Disaster Scams

Charity and disaster scams are perhaps the cruelest in that they take advantage of an individual’s or the public’s very good intention—to help those in need—during times of tragedy. Scam artists may set up sham charities or impersonate and request money for alleged legitimate organizations supporting any variety of causes: natural disaster relief, medical emergency situations, and social welfare projects. Such scams tend to increase following major disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and even pandemics.

How to Detect and Prevent Confidence Tricks

The first step to not being conned is to be alert to a confidence trick. Some of the common warning signs are:

• Unsolicited Contact: Most scams make the first contact, may it be through email, phone calls, or social media messages. Any contact from someone whom you do not know should raise a cautionary flag.

• Too good to be true: If it sounds that way, probably it is. Be cautious of promises for great returns, easy money, or surefire successes.

• Pressure to act immediately: Scammers quickly push for action without giving a problem time to check out the information.

• Asks for personal sensitive information: Good organizations will never ask for sensitive personal information over the phone and through email, such as passwords or unique personal numbers.

• Asks for Payment via Untraceable means: If someone requests payment via gift cards, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency, take this as a red flag and stay alert. Transactions with these means of payment are untraceable and non-recoverable.

How to Protect Yourself Online

Not falling for confidence tricks in the digital age and applying proactive measures are signs of vigilance. 

• Strong Passwords: Have strong passwords that are unique to your online accounts. One may use a password manager, which keeps them.

• Two-factor authentication (2FA) should be enabled: Turn on 2FA on your online accounts whenever possible. This will create an extra layer of security by demanding a second form of verification—other than your password.

• Be Careful of Unsolicited Requests: If you get an unsolicited request for money or personal information, take a minute to validate the request by calling the person or organization directly using known contact information.

• Monitor Your Financial Accounts: Go through your bank statements periodically, including those related to credit card accounts, for unauthorized transactions. On finding something not in order, contact the concerned financial institution with all possible haste.

• Keep up with the news: Educate yourself about the latest in con games and swindles. The best way to avoid becoming a victim is to be fully aware of how most such scams work.

Overall, tricks represent an ongoing and growing threat, using trust and emotion to dupe the unwary. You may protect yourself by recognizing the numerous forms scams take, being aware of ways they try them on, and exerting a bit of selectivity on your own activities with helpful hints from news stories. And, when something seems fishy or too good to be true, you know it might be better to take a step back and inquire before you take some action.