Financial Exploitation Online & How to spot it

This week's focus is on exploitation, one of the most common online harms.  This article will focus specifically on financial exploitation which can happen to anyone.  It is important to recognise the signs of exploitation so that you can avoid becoming a victim.  

What is Financial Exploitation? 

Financial exploitation is the process of perpetrators persuading victims to hand over sums of money through acts such as fraud, blackmail, and scams.  TSB found that 86% of impersonation fraud cases over the year originated from Meta platforms (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp).  

It is important to recognise the identifiers of exploitation to avoid falling victim yourself.

Fraud occurs when someone deliberately deceives a victim into securing money by illegal means.  This can be paired with a scam initiative or conducted by someone with a close personal connection to a victim.  Fraud can branch out from financial exploitation and include identity theft to further the gains of the perpetrator.  Victims of fraud often don't realise they have been defrauded until it's too late and they have already lost money.

Look out for irregular payments from your bank or any suspicious messages.  Never give your bank details or personal information to anyone online that you don't trust. 

Blackmail involves coercing victims into handing over money with the overhanging threat of embarrassment or discreditation.  Perpetrators of blackmail keep information on their victim, often false information, and threaten to release it if certain demands are not met.  Blackmail can be incredibly harmful and the overhanging threat of embarrassment is usually enough to secure their success.  

Look out for any threatening messages or anyone who claims to hold compromising material.  In some cases this material doesn't exist and the threats can be diffused by contacting the police. 

Scams are related to fraud and include schemes where criminals try to steal your personal information or large sums of your money.  Scams have become more sophisticated with the development of the internet and social media with scammers often trying to imitate legitimate companies to make you part with your cash.  Scammers try to inject urgency into a situation to try and make victims hand over money before they recognise that they are being scammed. 

Look out for fake websites, emails or texts claiming that you owe money to a company or bank.  In most cases your bank will never contact you by text message.  If you have any doubt, make contact with the company to verify.

Stay tuned this week, our next post will focus on how you can act against attempts at financial exploitation.  

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