The Year in Scams

Politicians Scam artists are in a tough line of work. Sure, the number of potential victims is massive, but every year the targets get savvier and social media channels informing them get better. It's no wonder that the scams of 2011 are so much more creative than the ones we saw just a few years ago. Even their diversionary tactics like “Blackbusters” and “Tourette’s”, designed specifically to keep your eye off the ball, are getting more innovative.

Social media scams. With over half a billion users on Facebook, it's as wide a target as a scammer can hope to find. Sorry, but that tempting app promising you a better future in return for a cross on a piece of paper? Fake. The invitation to participate in a public consultation on the issue of the day? Also fake. The decisions have already been made. It’s a con to make you think you live in a democracy and you have a say in how it is run. Whenever you come across one of these remember that if sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Like Cuddly Ken promising to save Londoners £1,000 over 4 years by reducing fares on London Transport. Or conning £10billion out of us for a vanity project which will benefit the economy by £1billion. Slashing one budget only for another to cost us twice as much and "reforms" that waste opportunities. These fiddlers are burning our economy.

Disaster scams. Disasters gave scammers all the occasions they need to send out "fundraising" emails. Usually signed by someone like Baroness Warsi, Ed Miliband or Nick Clegg these spam emails try to convince you that your lifestyle is under threat from some Banking Crisis or other and that there is no money left in the piggy bank when the reality is they and their mates have already got it all. It’s just a ploy to get you to donate even more money and tax to the worthy causes of the likes of the Bankers, Vodaphone and Goldman Sachs and Tony Bliar.

Employment scams. With unemployment stuck around 9% nationally, plenty of people were looking for work this year. The thing is they are not looking in the right places, ie abroad. All our meaningful and worthwhile jobs have been exported to places where forced labour is cheaper. There are only so many “Diversity Advisors” the UK can employ. The trick here is to get you to work for nothing either as an Intern or as a volunteer in the Big Society at Tescos. Once they’ve got your personal data via your resume, they can then track you and cut all your benefits.

Scareware. This is mainly the province of the Daily Mail and the establishment press. Stories of undesirables and foreigners screwing the system and living a life of luxury on your tax pounds while you try to hold down a job and pay the rent or mortgage. Of course the real villainous thieving bastards are noshing it up at your expence in Westminster while suppressing reports that challenge their plans to screw deal with all the scroungers and disabled people.

Phishing. So many small and medium sized businesses were affected by hacking this year—either through direct attacks or attacks on marketing partners—that nobody with an email account should have been surprised at the surge in spam volumes from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs demanding payment. And, of course, there were the inevitable phishing emails purporting to be from hacked companies asking these businesses to log into their sites and verify their financial details. This of course does not apply to politicians, ex-politicians or the large companies who fund their parties.

What will 2012 bring? More of whatever works—which means more personalized, credible, and convincing scams. If you want to stay protected, remain vigilant—and use good, trustworthy sources of information. You need to proactively stop threats before they reach you, like don’t open the front door to anyone wearing a rosette, report political email spammers to SpamCop and filter out unwanted advances and promotional offers from Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson et al.

Hopefully this year political scams will be someone else's problem.

The original of this article can be found in the Trend Micro Newsletter here.