Google's New Program Will Help Users Spot, Prevent Internet Fraud

Google’s new program would help its users spot scams and prevent internet fraud.

In partnership with Cybercrime Support Network, Google’s new program would help users spot scams and prevent internet fraud.

This, as Vint Cerf, the Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist of Google, noted that there had been record-high scam reports during the recent months. Citing information from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), he stated that USD 1.9 billion were lost to scams in 2019.

Internet fraudsters started to take advantage of the pandemic as they became more active than before, thus, several scams that revolved around the coronavirus were said to have seen victims lose over USD 40 million to scammers. Also, highly-credible scams about bogus contest winnings or overdue payments were reportedly causing users to lose more than USD 3,600 per minute.

With this, Google and Cybercrime Support Network officially launched new Scam Spotter program in order to educate users on identifying and preventing internet frauds.

In a blog post, the said program advised its users to do the following:

Slow it down.
Fraudsters may create a “sense of urgency” so that scammers can bypass users’ better instincts, thus, users may take their time and ask questions in order to avoid being rushed in a bad situation.
Do a spot check.
Users may do their research in order for them to double-check the details they’re getting.
Don’t Send.
No creditable person or agency would demand payment on the spot. If users think that the said payment felt “fishy”, then users advised not to pay to those scammers.

For more information about this program, you can visit this link.