Top 5 Scams I See As A Private Fraud Fighter 

By Ryan Kelly

Keep an eye out for the Top 5 Scams seen by Ryan Kelly, a professional comedian with a master’s degree in homeland security. Known for his TikTok series where he turns the tables on scammers, Ryan uncovers the most common tricks used to deceive people. In this blog, he shares his experiences, humor, and expert knowledge to help you recognize and outsmart these scams. Join Ryan Kelly in the fight against fraud as he exposes the tactics of con artists and equips you with essential insights.

Scam 1: Fake Purchases and Call Center Scam

So you get an email from “Paypal” saying you purchased something that you definitely didn’t purchase and the “customer support number” to call. You get on the phone with them and they tell you your account has been hacked and they need to connect you to the “Paypal Secure Server” to check your accounts safety.

You then go to the website or download the app, (Normally Any Desk or something similar) and boom they are in your system. They are rifling through any file you have, previously stored passwords, emails, social media and photos.

Easy Solution: If you do get an email from a company go to their official website to call their customer service, or at the bare minimum check if the numbers match. If they don’t it’s a scam.

Scam 2: You’ve won money!

Sorry to burst your bubble but no one wants to give you money and you definitely didn’t win money from a contest you never entered. However, you’ll get calls, emails and texts from all sorts of people saying you won money and you just have to pay a small fee to claim it. Once you do they are gone with that fee.

Easy Solution: Don’t respond to their emails, calls or texts, once you figure out it’s a scam, call them on it and exit the situation.

Scam 3: The Government/Service requires you to take care of an unpaid bill.

So you get an email/letter from the government or a public service provider saying that you owe them money and you’ll be arrested or your power shut off, etc. You can pay them promptly at either, a link to a credit card (which is a cloned page where they swipe your data) or through gift cards or bitcoin. Weird, I didn’t know the IRS liked amazon gift cards and bitcoin?

Easy Solution: If you’re paying someone in a way you think is weird, it is, stop immediately. Not only that but the government is old school, they want things done simply and you can call them to check. Also, always check for spelling mistakes or government agencies that sound weird. My favorites I’ve gotten are “The United States Supreme of Courts” and the “UN Customs Inspection Officer of the United Nations Agency”.

Scam 4: USPS Package Scam

You ever get a text that says something along the lines of your package can’t be delivered, please put in your credit card information or confirm your details at this link. DON’T DO IT! Check if it’s sent from an email address, if it is, it’s not a postal carrier. You can always check through their official websites. Never respond to these specific links they’ve sent, they are cloned and no matter how real they look they aren’t.

Easy Solution: Go to the official website you shipped something from and check there.

Scam 5: Blackmail scams

By far one of the most common scams I get sent multiple times a day is a blackmail scam. This also almost exclusively targets men. You find a pretty girl online, and you guys start messaging. Things are going well, you’re ignoring the obvious spelling errors and that she won’t Facetime you, meet in person or anything to verify that she is real. She may send you some pictures, but spoiler alert they are from random online sources (you can check that by running a reverse image search). She then asks you to send her some pictures and you do. Oh no, now she’s threatening to leak them to your friends and family through your entire instagram account. Turns out She has a 234 country code and this Nigerian guy is going to hold this over you until you pay him money. Then once you pay him, you’ll have to pay him again. He’ll do this until he drains you dry, so don’t pay him even once.

Easy Solution: DO NOT SEND PICTURES OF YOUR DICK! It’s not hard, or maybe you are but keep it to yourself. You wanna show people your bits, do it in person, with consent, privately!

Top 5 Bonus Tips:

Use a VPN (Any, it doesn’t matter).

Do not repeat email and passwords for accounts. They get into one they get into all of them.

Use an IP Logger and send links to people you’re not sure about, they claim to be in the US but are in Sweden, seems suspicious.

Check all email addresses, if you get an email from anyone, double check. Almost no one does professional business from a Gmail account. Do not respond to that!

DON’T CLICK LINKS OR DOWNLOAD ANYTHING SENT TO YOU! No matter what it is, if it’s a business, they have it available on their website, go there.