The most common scam types to watch out for

Opportunities for scammers

Scamming is a crime where scammers will create a situation where you will just give them what they want, whether it is your money or your personal information (which they can later use to take your money or commit crimes using your data). To achieve this, most scam types will focus on creating trust and urgency.

• Creating trust: scammers will often be impersonating someone, whether it is a bank, an authority, a utility provider, a benefactor, or a relative.
• Creating urgency: scammers will often depict a situation where you need to act without delay (and without thinking) if you want to avoid an unpleasant result of your inaction.

When these two things are present, even smart people can act rashly, so it is important you learn to recognize such situations. To help you with that, below we list some “tells” that will help you recognize the most common scam types and some best practices to avoid getting scammed.

What to watch out for

Whether you get a fraudulent phone call, text message, or email, the below tells should make you suspicious that something is not right.

1. Channel: You do not usually receive messages from this sender on this channel. E.g. you would not expect to receive a text message from the police – they will send you regular mail.
2. Language: You do not usually receive messages from this sender in this language. E.g. your supervisor does not normally write to you in Hungarian, or the Hungarian police will not write to you in Chinese.
3. Sender’s email address: Make sure the message comes from the right address and the right domain, e.g. every email from Helpers will come from the @helpers.hu domain (which you can whitelist) and not from @wannascamyou.hu. Make sure the domain name is written correctly, without typos, and that e.g. @microsoft.com is not replaced by @rnicrosoft.com with an r and an n instead of an m.
4. Buttons and hyperlinks: Before you click, you can check the URL where the link takes you by hovering your mouse over the button or hyperlink. Make sure that the URL is something you would rightly expect, without any typos, on the accurate domain, e.g. the website of the Immigration Office is at oif.gov.hu, not at oif.hu (with the “gov” missing) or oiff.hu (with an extra letter) or oif.eu (on the wrong domain). Scammers can even copy entire websites so the page you arrive at would look legit, but it can be used to steal your login data.
5. Shortened link: Link shortening services can easily hide malicious URLs. Be wary of such shortened links, especially if they come from “authorities”.
6. Too good to be true: If you get offered a deal that seems unreasonably good, there is a chance it is a scam. If you get a “newsletter” that takes you to a website of very heavily discounted goods, consider if those prices are realistic even at a discount. A fake online shop can be a trap for collecting personal data and credit card information.
7. Nothing comes for free: If a scammer promises you a huge amount of money and you don’t have to do anything, “just” something small, like submitting your data, or making a small transfer to them to “verify your data”, that is a scam.

Best practices

If you are not sure whether the message you received is real or a scam, the best thing you can do will be to ignore the instructions and try to validate the content of the message from an alternative source.

• If it is an email, call the sender on phone. If you don’t know their phone number, do not just make an internet search (because scammers can build convincing copycat websites that can fool even search engines), but find the last legitimate communication, e.g. the last letter you received from the Immigration Office.
• Set up 2-factor authentication for as many services as possible. This way, even if your login data gets stolen, scammers will not be able to access your other data.
• For online payments, use a dedicated online bank card that has limited funds. This way, even if your bank card data get stolen, there will not be much on the card to steal. (However, if you report a transaction as fraudulent, the bank will probably return your money.)
• Do not use the same password for different services. This way even if one of your passwords get stolen, it cannot be used to access other services.

Once you recognize scam, the actual best practice will be to ignore the message altogether. You might also want to block or blacklist the sender, or report the message as spam or fraudulent.

Examples of various scam types

Knowledge is power

Knowing these common scam types lets you avoid them and stay safe. Watch out for the most common tells and be wary of offers that sound too good to be true. Check for authenticity whenever you can: watch out for language, typos, or unfamiliar procedures, and verify information through independent channels. By keeping these simple practices in mind, you can easily reduce the risk of getting scammed.

Data security at Helpers

We at Helpers take data security very seriously. We prefer email communication because that is traceable, and we usually call clients only if they should expect it. Instead of asking for personal documents in email, we usually ask our clients to upload documents in safe online storage, e.g. in SharePoint. If you are not sure whether an email we sent is real, you can always call your dedicated account manager on their mobile phone or our office on +36.1.317.8570.

Helpers has 20+ years of experience and committed team of 25+ professionals, dedicated to make your plans a reality in Hungary. Whether you need assistance with business setup or residency application, we are here to help. Reach out to us anytime and tell us how we can be of service.

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