Scammers are skilled and clever people who make a living from scamming others. They’re criminals who’ve led the arts of manipulation and deception to perfection, and a quick Google search for the phrase “scam horror stories” should be able to show you just how much they can do if they want to. Of course, you don’t want anything to do with them, since having any connection has a pretty good chance to make you a victim of their work. So, let’s see what methods they might use to get to you, and also what you might do to avoid them.
Snail Mail Scams
Scammers don’t often use snail mail, and the reason for that is the fact that it’s a bit expensive. That doesn’t mean that they don’t use it at all since it has a far better chance of capturing the attention than a regular email.
How Do Scams Even Work
Well, most of the time, you get an envelope with a sticker that says “OPEN IMMEDIATELY,” which is done to create a sense of urgency and importance, so that you’ll think it’s some serious business. Inside, there will be a piece of paper with the newest scam, promises, claims, probably some false facts too. Next to it will be a form that you’ll need to fill, send some money, and that’s it. You’ve just made a scammer happy.
What You Can Do
There are several things that you can do to stop this junk mail from constantly arriving, and on several levels. First, if you’re not sure whether the mail comes from a real company, or is it just another scam, you can always try to find their email address and ask them to stop sending you the mail. If they do, they’re real. If they don’t even after 90 days have passed, you most likely have a persistent scammer on your hands. So what now? Well, after you receive their next envelope, stuff it with something heavy.
The heavier the better. Then send it back, so that the scammer will receive it and have to pay for the service. That should be enough to explain to them that you’re not going to allow them to make you the victim. You should also contact the FTC and report the problem, they might be able to help as well.
Email Scams
Most of the emails that scammers send around will end up in your spam or junk folder, thanks to the clever filters that we now have, but you should still be careful because the occasional extra sneaky scam might find it’s way to your inbox as well.
How Do These Scams Work
The most common form of email scam is called phishing. This works pretty simply as well; the scammer will try to make an official-looking email, that’ll resemble the ones you’ve been getting from your bank or some similar institution. Their goal here is to try and get you to reveal your personal information, anything that might end up allowing them to steal your money is fine with them, so be careful what you open. This type of scam has the most success with older people who aren’t used to it, although everyone might make a mistake and end up robbed of their data, and later money as well.
What You Can Do
Protecting your email is pretty much impossible, as these things tend to travel around, and there’s not much that can be done about that. What you can do, however, is train yourself how to recognize the fake emails. Most of the clues are really simple, they include bad spelling and grammar, weird domain names, and a lot of requests for personal info. Report those that you’re suspicious of and, of course, do not reply.
Phone Scams
Even though the National Do Not Call Registry might be a huge help when it comes to telemarketing, it won’t protect you from scammers that found your number, so be prepared for that.
How Does It Work
You might get a call from the scammer who’ll claim that he’s someone who he is not. He’ll then try to make you give up some of your money, or maybe an information that might help in stealing it. Some of them even do missed-call scams, where they call you and let the phone ring only once so that you don’t have a chance to pick up. Curious about who called, you’ll then call them back, and they’ll then connect you with a pricey entertainment line.
What You Can Do
First things first, stop the real salespeople by registering your number at donotcall.gov. If you continue getting phone calls after that, you have the right to report the case to the FTC. And when it comes to recognizing scam calls, you might want to watch out for thing like calling outside of business hours, or the person on the other end not explaining who exactly they are, or why are they calling you, or if they try to put pressure on you, try to make you decide immediately about something, those are all reasons for suspicion, and more than legitimate reasons to report someone to FTC.
SMS Scams
This too is one of the scam methods, and they can be very persistent here as well.
How Does It Work
Much like email scams, texts too might claim that they’re from someone who you trust or at least someone official with whom you have some business. The sense of urgency is often included, as well as a link to a certain website. If you try to open it, you might just start downloading some malware in the background, or trigger some other mechanism that can allow scammers to take control of your device and steal your data.
What You Can Do
First of all, you can try to figure out the area code from which the message arrived, and avoid those that you don’t recognize. These texts are known to often arrive from outside of the US, so that’s a clue right there. You, of course, shouldn’t respond to those messages, or any other from unknown sources. You might ask your call carries to investigate the number, and if it’s an international one, and you usually don’t have anything to do with international phone calls, you can block them out completely.
For more information about these types of scams, you can turn to sources like the FTC, Federal Communications Commission, the National Fraud Information Center or even Better Business Bureau. These organizations have info, knowledge, and resources to help you get rid of any and all scammers that might start bothering you. This is especially important, since the tactics that scammers use are constantly evolving and getting even more sneaky and clever, and they’re designed to trick honest and decent people, so it’s pretty important to try and protect yourself before they try to establish a contact, and not after the scam has already begun.
