How do I know if I’m being scammed?
Scams come in many forms, including phone calls, emails, text messages, and even face-to-face interaction. Some can be rather obvious, while others are a little harder to detect. Although there are many vectors a scammer may attack from, there are a few common characteristics that can give away a scam.
Lets take a detailed dive into each of these characteristics so you’ll know what to look for.
Urgency and Fear
This is one of the most commons scam tactics: convince the victim they must act fast or else. If you’re moving too quickly, you won’t have time to stop and think about what you’re doing, which is exactly what they want.
Example: If you don’t pay now, we will send the police to your home.
Imposing urgency and fear can take on many forms. Scammers may use threat of violence, blackmail, guilt, legal action, loss of a valuable opportunity… the list goes on. Using the example above, the scammer may be posing as law enforcement, threatening to arrest you or incarcerate a family member if you don’t comply. They could even be posing as law enforcement from another country, a common claim where the pretext is that they are holding a family member captive and you must pay a ransom in order to secure their safe release.
They may create a problem over the course of a phone call, perhaps pretending they’ve accidentally sent you money they weren’t supposed to send. They may tell you that if you don’t send the money back right away, they will lose their job or you will be in significant legal trouble.
“If you get a call claiming to be from the IRS, FBI, or another government agency demanding payment, this is a scam.”
In reality, legitimate agencies will never require you to pay any debts immediately over the phone. If this were legitimate, you would likely be given a time frame in which to comply. And, if a legitimate agency did accidentally overpay you, this issue would be handled through your bank, not by manually paying the company back over the phone. Law enforcement especially will never call you and coerce you to pay bail or the like over the phone. Additionally, you will never receive a call from government agencies like the IRS or the FBI requesting payment over the phone. If you get a call claiming to be from the IRS, FBI, or another government agency demanding payment, this is a scam.
Vagueness
Scams will often make broad claims, usually reading from a script (or copying one) designed to fit a wide range of people. They’re hoping that by using urgency you won’t notice this. However, if you’re on your toes, this can be one of the first signs of a scam.
Example: I’m calling from your insurance company…
They may not give specific company names, just broad agency categories that sound like they hold authority. They could claim they’re an insurance company, a collections agency, a tech support service, a bank or credit card company, etc.
Some scammers will claim to be an intermediary agency between you and a group of legitimate businesses. For example, they may make the claim that they handle transactions for “all major banks,” or even name a handful of the more popular branches in your area.
It’s important to note that a single scam call center may be working under multiple facades. This might be the reason for the vagueness in the beginning of the call. It is not uncommon for scammers to put out fake websites for multiple different Anti-Virus companies, all with the same handful of phone numbers, all of which are directed toward their call center. If the individual on the other end of the line doesn’t immediately identify themselves and the company they work for, try asking them by asking who you are speaking with.
It’s very important that don’t lead them into an answer here. For example, you wouldn’t want to say “Am I speaking with McAfee Anti-Virus?” because now they know who you were trying to get in touch with. Instead, if something about the call feels off or too vague, simply ask “who am I speaking with?” If they do not give you a direct answer, they give the wrong answer, or they say they are working for a multiple companies, you are likely speaking with a scammer and it is best to hang up the phone.
Attempts to Evoke Sympathy
Scammers will try to make you feel bad for them, preying on your emotion in order to manipulate you.
Example: If you don’t send this money I will lose my job.
Sympathy is unfortunately one of the most powerful tricks a scammer can pull. Many of us want to help out others if we have the ability, and this desire becomes even stronger when we think we are responsible for their misfortune. This type of emotional manipulation is the backbone of most Refund Scams. In essence, the scammer will try to trick you into believing that you’ve made a mistake and have been sent more money than the intended refund amount. They’ll claim that if you do not send the money back, they will lose their job.
They might even fake a wailing cry on the phone to convince you of how distraught they are. It is truly disgusting the lengths these scammers will go to in order to steal your money. In reality, no money has actually been sent to you, and they are just trying to prey on your emotions in order to steal your money. Refund Scams are covered more in depth in the video on the home page of LearnAboutScams.org, and you can read more about them under the Common Scams tab.
If you feel that the person on the other end of the line has been trying to make you feel bad, or to get you to sympathize with them, you can bet that this is a scam attempt. This is easier said than done, but try to keep a look out for calls that should be professional but quickly turn emotional. If you can pick up on this shift, you may be able to spot the scam and stop it in its tracks.
“Know that their storytelling and guilt tripping is all an attempt to steal your money.”
Of course, it isn’t always a shift, because this doesn’t just occur when talking to customer support scammers. There are many charity scams and donation scams, often seen on social media, that involve strangers reaching out to ask for money to either aid them or a cause they supposedly represent. They’ll ask you to make a payment directly to them or ask you to click on a link to submit payment information. If you encounter this, know that their storytelling and guilt tripping is all an attempt to steal your money. I am certainly not discouraging donating to charity, but you should always conduct your own research before making a payment to any cause. It will help prevent scams like this.
It’s also not uncommon to see scammers posing as family, friends, and loved ones on social media. Many of us have received messages from a family member’s account that don’t quite look right. Maybe they contain a strange link or a request for money. Even if this might be normal to get a message like this from one of your family members, please reach out to them by phone or on a different messaging platform before clicking any links or sending any money. It’s likely their account has been compromised and they have not actually sent that message to you.
As you can see, there are a lot of vectors a scammer can take with a sympathetic pretext. That is why evoking sympathy can be one of the most powerful tools in a scammers toolbox. Keep an eye out for this one. It might be difficult to avoid getting wrapped up in the emotion, but if you can just take a second to step back and think about what you’ve learned about emotional and sympathetic pretexting, you might just be able to spot the scam and hang up the phone before it’s too late.