SCAMS

Digital Ethnography Project

By- Yashi Bothra
OVERVIEW
• Introduction to Affinity Space

• Description of Affinity Space

• Group Roles and Status

• Group Norms

• Posting Guidelines

• Data Analysis

• Social Media Crossover

• Conclusion
INTRODUCTION TO AFINITY SPACE
• Scamming is increasing each day and is costing
people thousands of dollars. Scams look so real
that anybody unaware about them can easily fall
for them, so it has become important to educate
people to differentiate between real and scam.

• This is an affinity space where people inform and

ask others about all types of scams.

• It was created on January 21, 2009.

INTRODUCTION TO AFFINITY SPACE
• Common types of scams
o Advance fee fraud
o Lottery, sweepstakes and competition
scams
o Dating and romance scams
o Banking, credit card and online
account scams
o Job and employment scams
o Golden opportunity and gambling
scams
o Charity and medical scams
o Computer hacking
o Online shopping, classified and
auction scams
DESCRIPTION OF AFFINITY SPACE
• People here post information about any Online, offline,
email, or postal scams going on to educate others about it.

• Individuals who believe they are being scammed can post

questions here and have them answered by people who are
knowledgeable about all types of scams. 

• Victims of any type of scams share their story to warn others.

• People also post some tips and suggestion to avoid falling for
such scams.
GROUP ROLES AND STATUS
• Group members should adhere to all the group rules.

• Group members can post content, share opinions, and ask questions.

• They can reach out to Moderators is if they have any issues within the group.

• People who consistently give good advice will be given the "Quality Contributor" flair.

• Moderators configure parameters for the community, like what kind of content should be allowed.

• Mods can remove links and comments from their community if they find them objectionable or
off topic. They can saso ban a spammer or other abusive user from submitting to their community.
GROUP NORMS

• Personal information like phone numbers, addresses, names (fake or not) is not allowed
unless the individual is a public figure.

• Posts and comments should not focus on advertising your/a personal/professional,

advertise your/a business.

• Soliciting members to contact outside this forum via DM's, emails, chats, etc is not
allowed.

• Use respectful language to convey thoughts and opinions.

GROUP NORMS
• Do not suggest illegal activities.

• Personal army attacks like asking people to harass individual for you is not accepted.

• No low quality posts or off topic posts.

POSTING GUIDELINES
• Include all the relevant details in order to receive quick advice.

• All the external links should be treated as suspicious and be careful while visiting any
unfamiliar website.

• External links, such as websites or videos, must be posted as a self post or image. Link-
only posting feature is not allowed.

• While posting an article, you should copy and paste a few relevant paragraphs and submit
them along with the link in a self post.
DATA ANALYSIS
• Both males and females participate.

• Age ranges between 18-50.

• There are about 245k members in the community.

• People frequently post and comment.

• There are 50+ posts in a day.

• Nearly all the new post gets a comment in a day.

Comments may vary from 0-30 in a day. It is quick
and easily to get an advice.
SOCIAL MEDIA CROSSOVER
• There are various Facebook groups relating to scams.

• These purpose of these groups is to spread awareness and protect people.

• There are also groups where people share ways to waste time of scammers.
SOCIAL MEDIA CROSSOVER
CONCLUSION
• Scammers use bad tricks to lure people into their scams.

• They can get into our phone, email, postal mail, text, or social media, and steal our
personal information.

• People in this community are here to protect individuals from such scammers.

• Group rules and guidelines make it easier for individual to trust the information available.

• No matter whether you have encountered a scam before or not, it is always a good idea to
be a part of this community to be aware of things going on around you.
SOURCES
https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/hot/

https://nt.gov.au/law/crime/scams/ten-most-common-types-of-scams

https://www.facebook.com/groups/658244517970325/
https://www.reddit.com/r/help/comments/1f0zni/what_are_mods_for_and_what_are_their/