How to spot a scam
Scams are a very popular these days. I get up to 20 scam emails in my inbox daily, which filters them into a whole special folder called Spam. I am going to go over some of the warning signs and red flags that can indicate a scam. This is not limited to email, it is common sense factors that should ALWAYS be used, in mail, email, person, phone, and even with friends and family.
Contents
How to spot a scam
Each of the things listed here are things that individually do not make something a scam, but if you see more than one of them used in any piece of communication in person or digital should be red flags.
Is it addressed to you?
In emails, regular mail, scammers phone calls, and in person visits, the one thing that I see most is the fact that scams are designed to be used on many many people, and therefore cannot be individualized to you very well if they are going to be "bulk produced" to scam everyone. The first thing anyone should check is whether the potential scammer has your name and information correct, or whether it is something that could be sent to 1,000 people with little or no changes to the message. If any message misspells your name, its an indicator you need to look into it more before responding or following their instructions. Any bank or financial transactions should be able to verify their own identity by indicating some piece of information that only they would know (or at least something a scammer would not know). Ask them to properly spell your last name, or verify half of your phone number (say the last 4 digits).
Actual Example:
Dear friend, I contacted you because you have same name identity with our late client and can perfectly fit in as next of kin Please endeavor to provide me with the following so that we can discuss in details 2)full name
Nowhere in this message do I see my name, yet the sender claims I have the same identity as his "client"
Is it legal?
A huge portion of scams are from countries that are asking the receiver to do illegal things to get quick and easy payoffs with little or no work. Here are some of the common ones I come across in emails:
- Being asked to impersonate a "rich businessman" that recently passed away so you can have his "leftover bank account"
- Being asked to loan someone money so they can withdraw even more money, and then "split it with you"
- Anything to do with a foreign King's, Queen's, or Prince's money
Actual Example:
I was his account officer and have in my possession all the documents required to present you as his beneficiary next of kin.
This is clearly not legal, it is called fraud and identity theft if I were to help this scammer falsify my own identity
Are there guarantees?
A persons "word of honor" on the internet is always insufficient. If you find an opportunity to send money to someone for ANY reason that appears to be "easy money" with only a strangers word of honor, avoid this. If you send money over the internet without having the approval of your own bank that it is a legal and safe venture, you will probably never see it again. On the internet, peoples word of honor is worth as much as a mouse-click. If the potential scam is an individual person, they can not guarantee anything financial, they have literally no backing and should not be trusted.
Actual Example:
I work with one of the leading Banks here in London, UK.
This is the closest to any type of backing this scam had in it, just a city that says "one of the leading banks", which can obviously not be verified with the "bank"
Is this how the world works?
Some of the more effective scams I come across are ones that say things that do not make sense, and this is why "common sense checks" are important when you get a message like this. The world works pretty much like a lot of us think, mainly, money is not free, and people do not get random free money.
Actual Example:
The International Monetary Fund IMF is compensating all the scam victims 1,700,000 million each, and your email address was found in the scam victim's list
Nobody gets messages like this returning scam money. The world is just not that nice, its a case of "too good to be true" and should show up on your BS detector.
What do they need from you
Anyone contacting you with email, phone, fax, etc, should not need to ask you for your information. If they already have your contact info, they do not need you to verify it, and if they dont have the info, its a scam and you should not send it. This kind of scam is commonly used in identity theft type scams as opposed to "get rich quick" scams.
Things you should NEVER give to people if there is even a chance they are scammers are:
- Name
- Address
- Occupation
- Age
- Social Security Info
- Bank Info
- Money or Wire Transfer
Actual Example:
we need your information as where we will be sending the funds, such as, Receiver name:-________ Address:-__________ Country:-____________ Phone number:-_____________
This is just asking for information from you without providing their credentials, sometimes called Phishing (like fishing for info but with a Ph)
Your full name and address Your telephone and fax numbers Your occupation and age
Yet again asking for information that they should already have (if they actually worked for a bank like they said in this scam)
How proper is the message?
Most scammers are not very good at speaking English properly, or using real terms that banks might use. Most scams are riddled with misspellings and inaccuracies, so check the grammar. The poorer the grammar, the more likely it is a scam.
Actual Examples:
and your email address was found in the scam victim's list.
This says literally the VICTIM had a list, and I was on it. Victim's implies ownership to the victim themselves. It should read "scam victims list" if it was referring to the scammer's list owned by him/herself
1,700,000 million each
First of all, this means 1,700,000 x 1 million = 1,700,000,000,000. Literally spoken, "one million seven hundred thousand million each". Not to mention the lack of currency units, is it Dollars or Sand Grains? This just screams scam to me.
Where is the message from?
Emails
Whether you are checking in on a phone call, email, or snail mail, look where it comes from. Check the "reply email" when they ask you to respond. Any non-scam email or phone should originate from a legit sender like @bankofamerica.com or @jpmorgan.com or some email that will actually go to a legal and legitimate address. If the reply-to email is a public email service like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc and asks you for secure information, do not respond.
Go to the site you are getting the email from if it is a company email, see if it is a company you would trust. Gmail and Yahoo for example are exceptions, these are trustworthy companies, but scammers can sign up for public email addresses from these companies to send spam and scams.
What is the extension on the email, aka "domain suffix" - say @wellsfargo.com the suffix is .com -- this indicates an American company and website. Some popular scams originate in third world countries or countries high on the corruption index. Check where the email came from in the "From:" field, and where it goes to in the "Reply-to:" field. If they do not match, scam probability is high, legitimate emails come from and are sent back to the same address most times.
Actual Examples:
Reply-To: xxxxx@mail.mn = Mongolia xxxxx@mail.tw = Taiwan xxxxx@mail.cn = China
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains Check out this page on wikipedia to see where your email comes from, and where it goes to.
Telephone
If you are checking a telephone scam, a good way to know is to see if it is international dialing codes, NOT a 10 digit US phone number like "555-555-5555" which other than being all 5's appears to come from America. If you get a number that starts with +11 or any other prefix, be very weary, as other countries are the primary origin of scams.
Snail Mail
Dont look at the return address, look at the stamp that the post office put on the letter and compare that to the return address. Scammers can put anything they want on the return address to make it look real, the post office stamp however (usually a pink/red circle with a state and city stamped onto the letter) is official from the post office. If the addresses do not match, be weary.
Who is the message from?
Verify the person you are talking to is who they say they are if you are on the phone, but without giving ANY of your own information out. If they are a bank, ask them to verify the last 4 digits of your phone number on file, or the month of your birth, or the last 2 digits of the credit card they gave you. Never ask for a full piece of information, just a part of it (enough to verify that they did not guess it). The point is you want verification that they are who they say they are.
Types of Scams
Scams accomplish a few tasks if they succeed, from identity theft, to being tricked out of money. Here are some of the goals your scammers may have:
Information (Phishing)
A lot of simple scams just want your name/address/age to add you to their "mailing list" which will send you future scams. Its a great way for scammers to get enough information about you to pretend they know you. Be weary for any email asking you to send your information to them, especially if you are over the age of 60. There are special mailing lists sold on the internet that include massive collections of senior citizens name/age/address/phone/email/possible relatives. Seniors seem to be the main target of scammers, because they did not grow up on the internet, and also because they grew up in a time where trust COULD still exist between strangers. These lists of seniors are bought by scammers and are often used to steal even more information or convince the person to give up money or wire money to the scammer. Success rate for scams is highest for targets over the age of 60, so if you are 60+ be extra careful.
Money Tricks
Another favorite type of letter/email sent by scammers is the "wire me money" scam. Do not ever wire money out of the country unless you ask your bank in America IN PERSON whether it is safe. You are not only risking the money that you wire out! I have heard of scammers gaining access to peoples entire life savings by wiring $1000 to the scammer using improper safety methods.
Grandpa! Im stuck in Peru!
This happened to a couple I know recently. They got a phone call from "their grandson" who was in Peru, and had claimed to be involved in a car accident, and had broken his nose which is why he did not sound like himself. In this case, the person I know was aware of the fact that his grandson NEVER called him grandpa, so a common sense check worked in this case. In other cases like in email versions of this type of scam, it is harder to tell because the communication is 1-way. This same person had a different scam from his "cousin" in London asking him for a wire transfer because he had lost his luggage. This one was harder to verify, so the person asked his bank who told him it was almost surely a scam. If you are not sure, ASK YOUR BANK FIRST.
