For e-mail scams and extortion attempts, the fraudsters depend on a secure money transfer. Safe for the fraudsters means fast, irreversible and untraceable. With sometimes hair-raising stories, it is explained why the payment has to be made in this way.

STOP!

Think about whether the money can also be transferred in the classic way (domestic transfer, credit card, PayPal). Especially with the following payment methods:

• Cryptocurrencies: e.g. Bitcoin, Ethereum – payments are unstoppable and untraceable. Popular with ransomware and scareware
• Foreign cheque: these can still bounce weeks and months after cashing. The money received is booked back by the house bank. If you have delivered goods or transferred commissions, you will be left with the damage. Popular with the Nigeria connection.
• International transfers and Western Union: Transfers are generally not reversible. If the payment is made abroad, access to the payee is much more difficult.

see also:

• https://www.polizei.bayern.de/kriminalitaet/internet/betrug/index.html/56975: Prepayment fraud, foreign cheque
• https://www.westernunion.com/de/de/fraudawareness/fraud-types.html: Scams that like to be carried out via Western Union