Gaming is an integral part of entertainment for kids and adults alike. The scams and fraudulent activities associated with gaming are also gaining prominence day by day. From cyberbullying to phishing attacks, gamers become an easy target of people who befriend them like fellow players.
Here are a few useful ways to identify harmless gamer friends and real fraudsters who try to befriend you with an ulterior motive. Pay attention to whom you connect with when you are playing and stick to friends you know well in real life to stay on the safer side.
Most fraudulent gamers will not stay on a particular forum or a game network for a long time. If you check their profile, you will notice they are recent joiners, have a low score, and are not very talented in gaming.
Real gaming enthusiasts will give importance to playing while fraudulent people will try to chat and get to know more details about you. They will ask simple questions to kill time preventing you from playing and try to establish a good rapport.
Safety Tip: Never give your original email id or other important details to gaming friends. Always have a fake email account that does not reveal any of your real information like your original name. Chat with gaming friends only through the fake email account chat rooms.
Asking for Money
Gaming fraudsters often start asking for money from you directly or indirectly. They will help you by doing small monetary favors like paying for your data to make you feel obliged to them. Later, they will cook up a pity story and ask you for money or ask you to transfer a huge sum of money for some emergency.
Safety Tip: Never get monetary help or return the favor to people you met online. Indulge in such activities only with friends and colleagues from your the real world. Never trust virtual friends as anybody might be using their name to get money from you.
Cyberbullying
Do not trust gaming friends who praise you too much or demean you unnecessarily. Online fraudsters attack vulnerable people psychologically, bullying them into believing they are worthless or a misfit. Sometimes, they make the person believe they are too clever to lose before others.
They start giving you cheat codes and teach you other ways to cross-game levels easily. After a certain point of time, they start blackmailing you to do favors for them stating they will expose you won through cheating to other game mates.
Safety Tip: Never succumb to cyberbullying. Be confident in your skill and say ‘no’ to all other petty means to win. Say ‘no’ strongly to such friendly offers and cut the contact with such fraudster friends. Report to the gaming site or company if necessary.
Asking for Personal Information
Fraudulent friends will also try to get as much personal information from you as possible. Never reveal your real information like your name or address to any person you befriend online. They might extract various details from you in various ways. For example, the stranger in the chat might ask, “my brother goes to this school. Where do you study?”
Be careful not to reveal personal information even accidentally to online strangers. Never give them your social media details. Share such information only with close friends and colleagues you meet in person every day.
Safety Tip: Keep the chat strictly about the gaming stuff and never allow the conversation to diverge into personal life. Cut the chat if the friend insists on learning more about you. If you really want to establish a genuine connection with them, get their original name and check whether they are a genuine person through Nuwber. Do not share any details about you even if you have a slight doubt they might be faking the id of another person.
Sending Stuff to Download
Several fraudster friends target you to get your work details and steal money from you. They will establish a good rapport with you and ask you to buy something from a third-party website. It might be a gaming cheat code or an iPhone for an unbelievable price.
Do not fall prey to such tricks. Always make your purchases only from genuine “https” secured websites. Do not give your bank or credit card details to any of the unheard websites recommended by strangers you befriended online.
Do not download stuff from the link they send as it might contain various malware which might harm your system and even steal important details from your devices. Normal friends will refer you once to such sites and forget about it. Fraudster friends will keep pressing you to visit such sites or download from the link they sent till you become their victim.
Safety Tip: Try to use a VPN network to mask your details from others tracking your IP address when you are chatting. Always have a good antivirus installed into your system. It will warn you if there is any malware or virus trying to enter your system.
Common Traits of Fraudster Friends
- They will not reveal much about themselves or give you any precise details about themselves.
- There will be lots of mismatches in the information they give about themselves. They will say they are employed to one person while they lie that they are a student to another friend. You can find out such mismatches easily if you dig further with all your chat mates or game mates.
- Fraudster friends will often force you to do something like making a purchase or using the cheat code they give or download something from the link they send. They will coerce you in various ways until you heed their request. It is the greatest cue they are expecting something from you.
Gaming is relaxing and provides a great solace to everyone in the virtual world. Taking some extra precautions to stay safe online will help in avoiding people who try to cheat. Filter out the real friends from the numerous fraudsters to play safely using the tips given above.
