Scams Search Website?

mando7 on 03/02/2023 - 16:04

Hello OzBargainers,

These days, I have been seeing so many posts on Reddit on scam text messages/emails/whatsapp.
According to scamwatch.gov.au in 2021 alone Australia lost a freaking $2bn to scams!!🤯

Are there any websites where before getting scammed, people can check the legitimacy of the text messages/emails/whatsapp message that they receive?
I know scamwatch twitter handle shares few scam screenshots when people report it. But that's most likely after-effect of scam whereas I am looking for a website as a preventative measure.

Just curious to know if people would benefit from a website like this where one can copy & paste the message/email they received and website will tell you "how likely it is to be a scam or not?" Any thoughts?

Please vote, thanks!

Poll Options expired

  • 2
    Yes, that would be really helpful
  • 15
    No, I don't want to use 3rd party website to know if it is a scam
Internet

Comments

  • CodeXD on 03/02/2023 - 16:05
    +6

    Isn't that what ozb forum is for?

  • AustriaBargain on 03/02/2023 - 16:07
    -2

    2 billion isn't much when you consider our houses value alone are supposedly increasing at a rate of 2 trillion per year. The average person should be more scared of the rising cost of rent and home ownership than scams.

    • TEER3X on 04/02/2023 - 13:16

      Agree, my house is easily worth 2bn

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 03/02/2023 - 16:17
    +6

    99.9% of scams I’ve received so far are so poorly done that if you fall for it you only got 1 person to blame.

    • Muzeeb on 03/02/2023 - 17:02
      +3

      The yelling and screaming male primary school teacher?

      • Jimothy Wongingtons on 03/02/2023 - 17:41

        I understood that reference

        • sss333 on 05/02/2023 - 14:35
          +1

          Did I miss a great OzBargain thread

    • AustriaBargain on 04/02/2023 - 13:48
      +2

      Hey mum/dad, I'm at Woolworths and I forgot my card. Can you transfer me $500?

      • Jimothy Wongingtons on 04/02/2023 - 14:12
        +1

        Me: bro I don’t even have $500 spare after my weekly expenses

  • freefall101 on 03/02/2023 - 16:33
    +4

    If you need to check if it's a scam then it's a scam.

    Personally, I just ignore everything that I don't know the person. If I do know them and it looks suss (which has happened all of twice), I just call them. If it's a message my account has been hacked, I go directly to my bank's website myself - I never click links supplied by someone else.

    Most of the scams seem to be someone who is horribly lonely and they've fallen in love, stupid enough to believe there's easy ways to tonnes of money or are told their loved one is in dire need and they never just call them and talk to them.

  • Switchblade88 on 03/02/2023 - 16:38
    +3

    Greetings! I am a Nigerian Prince and I have just setup a new website to check if a link or site is a scam.

    Here is our page showing how it works: https://r.mtdv.me/ozbargain

    I promise that only good sites are approved and never any bad sites.

  • mando7 on 03/02/2023 - 16:39

    Definitely not for the tech-savy ozbargainers I suppose. For the other generic population (elders, non-tech savy, etc) , if you were to take a guess would this work?

    • Switchblade88 on 03/02/2023 - 16:43

      If you have to put the trust in a third party to verify your links then that's just another avenue to be scammed.

      As per my example above, anything can be spoofed to look legitimate and anything can be spoofed to make other scam sites look legitimate.

      • mando7 on 03/02/2023 - 17:02

        Thanks for your quick demo @Switchblade88. I meant a website something on the lines of this: https://www.emailveritas.com/url-checker/r-mtdv-me

        • Switchblade88 on 04/02/2023 - 13:15

          That website just proved my link to to be not malicious. (It's not. Or is it??)

          So that just proved my entire point - you cannot trust a third party tool.

    • Jimothy Wongingtons on 03/02/2023 - 16:51

      Who is held liable with the third party goes nah it’s legit… and it’s not

      • mando7 on 03/02/2023 - 17:08

        I would say it is as good as an AI with the data pushed. The output would only say how likely it is to be a scam eg: This message is likely to be 95% scam based on the content and link in the message content (www.ato.net). However we could not find the phone number(04123xxxx) you received from in our database hence 95%.

  • holdenmg on 03/02/2023 - 17:02

    Hi, I think there was a site you could cut and paste Feedback or Reviews (such as from eBay) that would score whether the feedback was genuine or just planted. anyone?

  • Baysew on 03/02/2023 - 17:05

    I have found it useful to do a search on the first sentence of the suspected email. Usually it will come up with a match if it is a scam.

  • Trying2SaveABuck on 03/02/2023 - 17:30

    the law just needs to get hard on scamers anyone involved in a scam and it isnt not hard to track should be fined 5x the value of the scam and given 6mo min term jail

    • mando7 on 03/02/2023 - 17:36

      Most of the scams happen from overseas and are difficult/impossible to track. The only way is to educate and prevent people to fall for these scams.

      • Trying2SaveABuck on 03/02/2023 - 20:14

        easy enough to track wouldnt be hard to work with o/s governments to arrest these people make 2-3 examples and i reckon 90 percent of them would stop

  • AwesomeAndrew on 03/02/2023 - 17:43

    If someone knows about scams they are already less likely to get scammed, so that's a start.

  • garetz on 03/02/2023 - 18:41
    +1

    If people are stupid they will fall for scams, that's a prerequisite. People will fall for the scam, and not even bother to second guess if it is even a scam to begin with.

    This kind of site will help after the fact but not prevent the scam to begin with.

  • payless69 on 04/02/2023 - 02:31

    Just get comrade 'bo to hand the entire admin to Xi?

  • sam-1966 on 04/02/2023 - 12:29

    There used to be a great site called www.thebaysidediner.com that covered ebay scams and others. I still miss it.

  • TEER3X on 04/02/2023 - 13:20

    Scammers are getting pretty sophisticated these days, through social engineering or whatever.

    Not that hard to fall victim tbh.

  • mando7 on 06/02/2023 - 09:08

    Thanks for all the responses guys. I suppose a 3rd party site is not believable but something similar from a government site could be helpful. Cheers!

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