Years back a thief had to use a lot of brain work to break a safe or break into a house until they learned that lying and emotional games were the key to their success. Today a lot of approaches are thought through and combined into a tasty and believable lie to rob unsuspecting people. It is no-longer only about pick pocketing and snatching, but has taken the form of using high end methods. Some of the methods that have left victims in shock include:
Con Human Resource Agencies
These put out adverts and bait the large population of unemployed people. Knowing people would do anything to get a job and earn a living. These crooks choose to earn a living by lying to their unsuspecting victims. One of the red flags one has to look out for here, is if their is any monetary attachment to the job offer, recruitment process or interview. Otherwise it all looks legit. They could hire classy office space in a good location to impress and look smart, making it look legit.
Con Job Offers
These are increasing by the day and are closely linked to the con employee recruiting agencies. Sometimes they work concurrently. They spread the word about the job on social media and sometimes even the newspapers. Putting a minimal amount they will recover after getting some cash from the potential candidates for the so called jobs. At times they use a contact to give reference to as many numbers as possible of job hungry colleagues; feigning to be legit. A call will come in through a phone call or a message by an email, disguised as a head hunt. Once again the red flag is any monetary attachment to it as well as the sometimes overt readiness to employ you even before proper clearance. These are dangerous because they use unsuspecting people to get more victims. From the curriculum vitae contacts and also from those they ask to give them reference to a person who may need that job. Moreover the job offers are normally too good to be true – and they are not true.
Phone Cons
Gone are the days when the phone snatchers would grab a phone off someone’s hands. Today the phone is not only snatched but contacts are tampered. The thief tries to extort as much money as he or she can from the victim’s contacts. This they do using empathy driven messages to lure the contacts into their traps. They ride on the attachment a victim has on a contact to pay attention to their false alarm and demand for money. The red flag is in the sudden demand for a quick financial transaction which is emotionally driven. It is wise to do some serious checks before remitting anything to the thieves.
Among the phone cons are those who call and try to get as much information about you as possible. They call you a name or two in a guessing game, prompting you to mention who you are. Then they ask where you stay. These could be part of a racket about to break into your house, shop or office. They also appear to have the wrong number when you begin to sense their scam. It is best one ignores calls from people they do not know. Others pretend to be a person one knows based on ones submission. If the receiver says ‘Simon’, immediately the crook takes on the form of Simon and keeps taping into the receiver’s facts till he states a fake deal for instance a suppliers deal in which a profit will be made but he needs a top out of some million cash.
Con Friend
A number of victims emerge here because many believe in creating relationships with strangers. After all that is how friendship starts. But the con men and women know this and will scheme to achieve a momentary relationships just to get what they want. While playing with their victims emotions to gain enough ground to rob, these frenemies go an extra mile to be warm and caring. It could be that nice neighbour on the bus who has an eye on ones phone. Or that acquaintance at work who has their eye on ideas or the acquaintance who has a long term agenda like becoming a spouse.
The Emotion Tool
This is used in most modes of operation for the con men and women. It could be a cry for help that tags at the victims heart or a feign of genuine care or an unbelievable mind blowing offer. Lately some people have stumbled on children left to cross a road or people pretending to have been knocked on the road. Automatically the emotion for humane rescue comes in. But the moment the car stop. The heist begins. Others use babies placed at the door step to get the attention of their victims.
A combination of theft tactics, both conventional and intuitive are in place, in the current times. Something new is being developed everyday. Including hacking with intent of blackmailing. And the world needs to be more alert than ever and readied to curb criminals minds.
