Scams and frauds and theft can and do happen all the time. The tragic part of this is that while these actions are a new norm, falling victim is also happening all the time.
How can you spot scams and fraud attempts before you become a thief’s next victim?
Let’s look at some common red flags and markers of a scam. We will cover the main red flags, as well as some more subtle actions.
Unexpected Contact
A scam usually starts with someone you do not know. A scam will often use fake emails, text messages, voice calls, letters or someone who shows up at your front door unexpectedly.
Let’s break down some specific methods scammers use to contact victims.
Robot Calls
The easiest way that this occurs is by using automation. Scammers can have programmic phone calls reach you without ever experiencing fatigue. As well, scammers from across the world can hire voice actors that are native speakers, or use AI audio to create ‘English-American’ speakers.
Live Calls
Randomly you may get a call from a real person, but from a random business. They might represent a business you have never had an account with. Or, they could represent a global business but have an unexpected reason for their call.
Random Emails
Fewer and fewer scam victims come from email messages. However, we still see volume of emails from Target, Amazon, UPS, and other locations. You have no recent purchases and no recent deliveries.
Social Media Platforms
A growing trend is for victims to receive messages in their DMs from what they feel are trusted friends and families asking for something, just “out of the blue”. Or, they also get a reply to a message from a Facebook Page or a YouTube comment trying to initial a conversation.
Sense of Urgency / Fear of Urgency
You are asked to take action IMMEDIATELY – in fact, it is demanded of you. Something is likely off if you are pressured to send money quickly (like limited time offers) or threatened with law enforcement action.
Let’s Go With FOMO
FOMO (fear of missing out) is also another method of using urgency in a scam. Usually this is done with a simple phrase like “this offer will expire tomorrow if you don’t act now”.
Human nature leads us to never want to miss out on something. When we have control of taking action within a certain amount of time, that gives the possible victim even more control to perform that scam or fraud action. We are, after all, always worried about missing out on the “next big thing”, or even just missing out on something that could easily benefit us.
The Poorly Awesome Power of “NOW”
If you have a phone, you’ve likely received some type of spam or scam call demanding that you act “now”. For humans, the word “now” when it comes from a point of authority, creates an air of impact. Which, unfortunately, very easily leads to fear, without a lot of extra work or energy.
If a caller, an emailer, an SMS sender, a DMer states “do this thing NOW”, it probably isn’t actually a requirement.
Unusual Payments or Payment Methods
Are you being asked to take part in a complicated or odd payment method? It likely is a scam. Examples include buying a gift card and giving the code or cashing a check and returning an overpayment.
Gift Cards (with codes)
Microsoft Technical Support does not use gift card codes to pay for services. Apple Technical Support does not accept gift card codes for payment. The IRS will NEVER accept Amazon Gift Cards for payments. A gift card code is a sure sign you are being targeted by a scammer; and worse, you’re in the middle of a scam.
Cryptocurrency
Unregulated, untraceable… two big red flags for a truly legitimate business doing business not being legitimate. A scammer wants anonymity. A scammer does not want a paper trail.
Wire Transfers
Western Union and normal bank transfers are one-way transfers that most legitimate businesses will never use as a payment method. If the person on the other end of the line says this method is the only way to send money, and not a check, or money order, other other payment, this is likely a scam.
Digital Payments
While digital payments are not odd, a sheriff’s department, or the IRS, or your credit card company asking for them is a bit odd.
What are the primary digital payment platforms scammers use?
- Venmo
- Paypal
- CashApp
- Zelle
What else should you know?
There are always going to be red flags for a scam. Unfortunately, there is no one single list of those red flags. These are simply some of the most common scam and fraud red flags currently out there.
While there is no complete and total list, as we always say, the more information you have and the more education that you gather, the less likely you are in turning into a victim of a scam.