Scammers using Skype invitations to initiate scams

Scammers use a variety of popular platforms to try and lure you into any number of scams.

Advanced Fee Fraud – i.e. scams that trick you into believing you’re going to inherit a large amount of money as soon as you pay out a fee or charge – is more popularly initiated by unsolicited emails. That is to say, Spam email.

But scammers are increasingly using a number of other methods of initiating contact, like the below screenshot, which shows an invitation on Skype.

You can see from the invitation that scammers are using the optional “personal message” feature you can send with an invitation to get their initiation spiel across to the victim.

Despite being started with a Skype invitation, the template of the scam seems to remain the same. A stranger trying to sneak away a large amount of money, wanting to use your bank account as a conduit, whereupon you’re promised a substantial cut of the profit.

The same, tired old story.

People who take the hook are then instructed to pay the scammer a series of costs, what the victim assumes are costs that naturally accrue when completing such hefty financial transactions, but in reality are just made-up fees that are duly stolen from the victim.

The only difference in our example above is that in this case it has been initiated by a Skype invitation. Not an email.

Do you know anyone who could get tricked by this kind of scam?