Understanding Scam Victims

1. Understanding Scam Victims by: Vidushi MT10020

2. Idea! • The main idea behind the success of the scams is that Hustlers know more about the psychological aspects of human nature than the security engineers which ideally should be the other way round! • For stronger security systems, security engineers should take into account the human psychology as they are the end users at the end of the day!

3. LINGO! • Victim - mark • Perpetrator - Operator or Hustler • Accomplice of Perpetrator - Shill • Alex - Operator • Shill – Jess (Pretty girl), Paul

4. SCAMS!!

5. Monte • This scam involves many Shills n operator. • It involves playing with a deck of cards or discs. • The operator moves the cards on the table in the full view of Mark n he has to identify the winning one. • Its not so easy as all other Shills help the operator in this scam by influencing the Mark to invest money by investing themselves. • Mark never gets to chose the right card, when he invests real money, as they always use some trick by which he loses. • Tricks used are like bending the corner of card, swapping position of discs when operator pretends to cough.

6. Lottery Scam • Jess identifies a young n wealthy Mark n descends with her charm. • When Mark is trapped, Shill comes in, who knows Jess • He has won a lottery ticket, but cant cash it as he is an illegal alien. • So he offers a deal, asking her some part of money n letting her keep the rest. • She confirms the winning numbers to prove to Mark that its real. • They both pay Shill half of the money n Jess lets Mark to cash the ticket, n give her her share later, as its FAKE!! • This scam may take several days or weeks.

7. Ring Reward Rip-Off • Jess buys a cheap ring. • Impresses a barman (Mark) in a pub n ensures he gets to know she is rich n the ring is very expensive and leaves. • Then she calls Mark saying she lost the ring. • Paul finds the ring n asks for a reward, for which Jess agrees to give £200 but Mark tells Paul that reward is £20, that’s when hustlers know they got him! • Paul haggles n agrees for £50. • Mark is too happy to get £150 and pays Paul £50 from the TILL!

8. Van dragging • Hustlers post a sign outside a warehouse saying that door is broken n put a phone no. so that delivery people call that no. (actually Hustler’s mobile) instead of ringing the door. • Delivery van comes, the delivery man(Mark) reads the sign and calls on the no. • Hustlers are hiding nearby. • They come dressed as warehouse workmen and collect the delivery. • Mark is assured and hands over the load, which happens to be £10,000 worth . • As Mark leaves, Hustlers come with their van. • Load the boxes in their van and disappear.

9. Home Alone • Jess places an ad of selling a car at a bargain price in a local daily n puts the address of a house she knows will be empty that afternoon. • Mark comes. • She keeps her phone off the hook so shills know what is going on! • She collects money from Mark. • Shills enter dressed as policemen to arrest Jess, a well known fraudster, n intimidate the Mark to stay put as he might be guilty as well. • They run away with the money as he stays put!

10. Jewellery shop scam • Its almost the same as Home Alone. • Here Jess attempts to buy a necklace n is arrested by the Shills for paying with counterfeit cash, which is actually genuine. • They arrest Jess. • Mark is assured n thanks the Shills. • They take the necklace n the money bag to police station n never return!

11. Valet steal • Hustler dressed as a car park attendant, sneaks into a car park as soon as the real one leaves for a break. • Mark drives in a luxury car. • Hustler takes the key n takes the car. • He has also the opportunity to drive to his home n empty it, if the home keys are there.

12. Gadget scam • Hustlers sell a device which recharges a prepaid smart card with some amount. • He convinces Mark by showing him the top up, where actually he replaces Mark’s card with his card already having the money using a sleight of hand. • Count Lustig sold a machine which could manufacture 100$ bills but took 24 hours to do so, but it could print only one or two, so he sold the machine n made fortune. • He once sold Eiffel tower to a scrap dealer 

13. Counterfeit pen con • Hustlers pose as policemen n go to a pub n give the Mark a special pen which differentiates a genuine note from a fake one. • But while giving the pen he replaced that with an original looking pen. • Jess goes to the pub n exchanges a fake note with a real one n the Mark cannot distinguish them. • Idea- Note cant defeat the pen, just replace the pen!!

14. Cash machine con • Hustlers build a fake ATM n deploy it. • The front was of a real ATM but inside it was hustler’s laptop n they were controlling it all. • When a mark swipes his card, the hustler grabs it n swipes it on their PC. • They have all that is required to produce a cloned card. • And they take out the money. • Meanwhile, the display says that there is a problem n ATM cant dispense cash.

15. Recruitment scam • This is a very easy n hard to break scam. • Hustlers set up a fake recruitment agency n as a part of the sign on procedure they collect all of the personal details of the Mark like dob, bank details, phone no., pin etc.

16. Shop phone call scam • Jess goes to a shop with a parcel for the shopkeeper n she knows he is not there with the help of a pretext phone call. • She then asks the assistant to call the shopkeeper n then speaks to him whether he wants the parcel. • He agrees n then disconnects the call but Jess continues to talk n it seems to the assistant that the shopkeeper agreed to pay her some money in return. • So he pays her!! • Modern Version!!

17. Exchange rate rip-off • Hustler offers to exchange a foreign currency which he wants to get rid off, with a native one for a good deal. • Shill is interested but has half the money so he asks a Mark n he says yes! • Hustler does not wants to handle money in public, so they decide to use the hat of Shill. • After he leaves they split the money but they find that except for first n last note all others are fake! • Alex wants to call police but Shill asks not to as there might be an organized crime gang n they may risk retaliation from the gang if Hustler goes to jail. • The catch was the hat already had the bundle of fakes!!

18. Thank you!