genman

Should have written a book to plug. Honestly though what would you write about?

Although you're talking more about "long game" type confidence artists, there's plenty of scammers that operate on shorter time frames, especially out of places like India or Nigeria.

But they do raise the same flags as you list.

Flag #1 - Scammers often pose as "giving you a refund" which is hundreds of dollars for "free"

Flag #2 - They often say if they aren't payed they will lose their job or they have children to feed

Flag #3 - They pretend to be working for Microsoft (or another large corporation)

Flag #4 - When they tell you to wire money or buy gift cards, they tell you not to reveal that you're paying Microsoft or whomever. Or if you go to the bank, not to tell anybody why you're sending the money. Usually they try to shame victims ("you made a mistake") so they won't admit to strangers why they are buying gift cards or sending money.

Flag #5 - They solicit calls via email, phone calls. They edit the HTML of your bank transactions to make it look like they sent you "too much money" which you need to repay. They exploit remote access tools to gain access to your personal information.

Flag #6 - They ask you to wire money to foreign bank accounts in Thailand. Or money mules in the US.

Flag #7 - "Refund" scams are really a form of beak wetting.

If they can't convince a victim of something, often with remote access software they can take over a victim's PC or phone and buy gift cards when the victim is not watching.

Do you cover these sorts of scam artists? I think "small money" overseas scams are much more prevalent than these sort of long-term con artists. Frustratingly they are much more numerous and difficult to combat.

Are you writing a book? Documentary? It would make for a funny story if you did it right.