[Siiw]

I have encountered a new type of scammer in the last couple of years. It starts with a friend request from a stranger. They are "trying to find out how this site works" or they "need contacts in the country they want to move to", etc. In the beginning, they talk about normal things, but the conversation gradually turn to money. They desperately need money for a passport, or school for their children, food, something. Of course, the only way you can help them is by creating an account or logging in to this shady looking money transfer site.

I no longer accept any friend request from somebody I at least haven't talked to before.

[germainebull]

I have encountered a new type of scammer in the last couple of years. It starts with a friend request from a stranger. They are "trying to find out how this site works" or they "need contacts in the country they want to move to", etc. In the beginning, they talk about normal things, but the conversation gradually turn to money. They desperately need money for a passport, or school for their children, food, something. Of course, the only way you can help them is by creating an account or logging in to this shady looking money transfer site.

I no longer accept any friend request from somebody I at least haven't talked to before.

These scammers are getting sleeker by the day.

But it would take someone with impeccable convincing abilities to lure me to perform such uncertain actions.

[earthsalt]

Same here, now the number has been reduced but I used to get almost one such mail mostly in my Yahoo inbox or other social media sites. Most of these emails originated from a particular African country via UK.

Your mention of yahoo has alerted me to some previously overlooked fact; I have never received these emails on my gmail email. I've however received many on my yahoo email.
What gives?

[amitkokiladitya]

Thanks for the valuable information . It will be of a great help to all of us.

[earthsalt]

Any stranger who approaches you on social media and offers you a too-good-to-be-true offer/opportunity is almost always a scammer.

[skysnap]

This is one channel I keep tab on for watching some of the online scams.

https://www.youtube.com/user/mbayowambayo/videos

There are also some channels telling you about tech support scams. Youtube has tons of such good channels.

[thisnthat]

Unfortunately, there are tons of scams out there. That's why I try to be very careful with my personal info (even though it's nearly impossible to retain any privacy these days).

I don't accept friend requests from anyone I don't know, at least not on my personal pages. I'm making separate accounts for "business."

[earthsalt]

it's nearly impossible to retain any privacy these days)

In your opinion, what is the largest threat to online privacy? Hackers? Tech companies?