Commonly known SCAMs

Job Scams

Definition: Bogus job postings, recruitment emails and online ads, often illegally using legitimate company names, are all tools scammers use to defraud people seeking employment. Be suspicious of quick offers with high salaries or prepayment requests for coaching, training or certifications. Many employment scams also offer advanced payment for supplies. These checks will often bounce, costing the victim money.

Romance Scams/Online Dating Scams/Catfishing

Definition: Romance scammers contact their victims through dating apps or social media to try to establish a romantic relationship with the individual in order to access their money and personal information. Scammers use fake identities and back stories to gain their victim’s trust.

More About Scams

Microsoft/Tech Scam

Definition: Phone scammers may masquerade as tech support employees for a major company (ex. Microsoft) in order to take their victim’s money and install a virus on their computer. Scammers may call from what seem to be legitimate company numbers using caller ID spoofing.

Catfishing

Catfishers create fake identities on dating apps and social media to coax their victim into fake online relationships. The scammer often moves quickly to personal channels such as phone or email, using the victim’s trust to acquire money or personal information, or for help in hiding their criminal activities. Most victims never meet their love interest in person.

Grandparent/Family Emergency Scams

Definition: Scammers sometimes prey on grandparents by claiming their family members are in jail or in trouble and need money quickly. They use personal information such as family member names and hometowns to seem more convincing.

Lottery and Sweepstakes Scams

Definition: These scams involve someone claiming the victim has won a prize. However, they say the victim must pay a fee or provide sensitive banking information in order to get it. The scammer keeps the money, and the victim gets nothing for it.

IRS Tax Scams

Definition: Scammers sometimes pose as IRS agents, threatening legal action and demanding money or personal information. To appear legitimate, scammers may attempt to spoof an IRS number or email address.

Holiday donation and Charitable Giving Scams

Definition: Scammers call asking for charitable donations, often during the holidays or after large-scale disasters. The scammer may make up phone charities or spoof a real charity to trick the victim out of their money.

Home Repair Scams

Definition: Scammers will send brochures offering expensive home improvement services at unusually low costs, or they will mail an offer for a free home inspection that results in expensive repairs that are unnecessary. In some instances, the scammer will show up at the victim’s home and try to gain access by posing as a utility repairman or home insulation inspector, flashing something that appears to be an identification card as a way to convince the victim to let the scammer enter their home or perform repairs on the spot. The victim is usually left with a large bill and a faulty repair job.

Free-Trial Scams

Definition: Free-trial product offers that consumers receive over the phone or the internet may be too good to be true. Victims are asked to pay a small fee by credit card. This can lead to other unwanted charges, or the victim may be unable to cancel after the trial runs out, forcing the individual to pay for the product in question.

COVID-19/Coronavirus Scams

Definition: Phone scammers are preying on fears over the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, calling and texting consumers with scam offers for free home testing kits, bogus cures, fake health insurance, and more.