Protecting Yourself from Social Engineering Scams: Tips for Recovery

social engineering scam

Did you ever receive a call from an unknown person informing you that you have won a big amount and they need your bank account details to transfer the money? Did you see a suspicious email offering a free trip to China, Switzerland, Russia, or any other foreign destination? Are you thrilled with these offers and going to transfer your sensitive financial details to anonymous individuals to receive the so-called reward?

If yes, you need to change your mood, as doing so will wipe out all your earnings, steal your identity, or cause severe damage. Chances are higher that professional cybercriminals are trying to cheat you financially using different social engineering scams.

So, what are social engineering scams, and what should you do to protect yourself from these fraudulent activities? Let’s learn.

A Brief Introduction To Social Engineering Scams

Simply put, social engineering scams are different manipulative techniques used by cyber criminals to extract your sensitive financial details and ultimately steal your money. They may include the temptation of winning lottery tickets, a large amount of money, a trip to a foreign destination, expensive food or merchandise offers from popular companies, realistic-looking but fake job offers, and arranging a face-to-face meeting with a celebrity you are crazy about, etc. Such scams may occur through direct conversations, phone calls, emails, websites, social media channels, investment schemes, etc.

Social Engineering Scams Statics- 

  • As per a report by KnowBe4, 91% of all cyberattacks occur with a phishing email,
  • In 2022, phishing scams increased by 61% and 
  • IBM reports that average data breaches (using social engineering tricks) cost companies/individuals $3.86 million. 

How to Protect Yourself From Social Engineering Scams?

forex scam recovery

To protect yourself from different types of social engineering fraudulent activities, you should follow the below-mentioned recommendations- 

Give Up Your Love For Freebies
In today’s complex economic environment, most people have limited monthly income, but their expenses are sky-high. Consequently, they always search for free items or services (like 20%-50% discounts on purchasing 2 premium products, buy one and get one free, etc.) to save resources. It is one of the main reasons why many social engineering scams are successful.

Remember, nothing is free in this world. Someone has to pay bills for goods and services. So, give up your love for freebies as soon as possible. It will help you save hard-earned money and potentially avoid social engineering fraud. Investigate discount offers and redeem them only if they are genuine. 

Practice Safe Internet Browsing
Many cyber criminals are on the World Wide Web ready to take your money away if you make just a single mistake. So you should be careful while browsing the internet and visiting websites. Here are our recommendations-

  • Avoid publicly available Wi-Fi as much as possible. Use your internet connection while browsing different websites on any internet-enabled device. Protect the privacy of your internet login ID and keep changing it regularly.
  • Use updated software, a firewall, and anti-virus on all your internet-enabled devices. Cybercriminals will not be able to break into your system and steal your sensitive information.
  • Never accept friend requests from unknown persons on multiple social media channels. They might be potential cybercriminals looking for your information to break into your bank account and take your money away.
  • Always use two-factor authentication to log in to your bank account or other digital assets. It will protect your account from being hacked. Also, you will get instant notifications on your registered email ID and mobile number if somebody tries to log in to your e-account. Always pay attention to notifications received and do the needful to protect your digital assets if required.
  • Keep a secondary backup of your data either on a cloud platform or on separate hardware. It will help you retrieve essential information after successful online hacking attempts.
  • Be alert if someone pressurizes you to invest quickly in a particular investment scheme. Take your time to investigate the reputation of the investment platform, and its track record, and decide accordingly. Don’t invest if you feel something is wrong with the investment scheme.
  • Never share your sensitive banking information with any third party claiming to give you a big prize. 
  • Delete suspicious emails & don’t browse unsafe websites. Hackers use these two to extract your financial information and scam money. 

Use ​Funds Recovery Services

funds recovery services

Sometimes, despite practicing all security measures, online scams occur. It may happen to anyone—working professionals, individual entrepreneurs, small and big-scale companies, investors, crypto mining experts, etc. If you become a victim of social engineering fraud, don’t hide it. Instead, contact a company that offers crypto scam recovery services.

Crystal Recoup is a leading firm with several years of experience dealing with financial fraud recovery cases. Get in touch with us, share the scam evidence, and explain how the financial embezzlement happened. Our experts will start working on your case and see the possibility of the recovery of stolen funds. We use numerous techniques to chase the money trail, discover wrongdoers, and regain the stolen money. It will help mitigate the extent of the forex scam, recover the money partially or fully, and gain access to compromised e-accounts.

Conclusion

Social engineering scams are increasing rapidly and causing great financial and psychological problems for victims. Enhance your knowledge about different financial scams and use these recommendations to protect yourself from being attacked by cybercriminals. Use our fund recovery services to recover the lost money. We are always ready to help you and protect your digital assets from online scams.

We are a leading financial fraud recovery firm. We are licensed & Regulated.

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