Rules-of-Thumb for Avoiding Scams
The following three rules are good practices for avoiding scams altogether. If you follow these three basic anti-scam hygiene practices, you’ll make it significantly harder for scammers to victimize you.
1.
Never answer the phone if you don’t recognize the phone number.
Ignoring spam calls is your most basic line of defense against scammers. If they can’t reach you, they can’t scam you. Keep your voicemail clear and anyone with an important message for you will simply leave a voicemail and you can call them back. Most scammers won’t even leave voicemails, they’ll just give up and call the next phone number on their list. After a while, you may even notice fewer spam calls as scammers realize your number isn’t worth calling. Picking up the phone will only reassure the scammers that your number is active, no matter what you say to them.
Many modern smartphones even have an option to silence calls from unknown numbers. If you’re good about saving known numbers to your contacts list, this can be a valuable tool for avoiding spam calls.
2.
Never respond to or click on links in text messages from unknown phone numbers.
Text messaging is becoming a more lucrative vector for scammers every day. You’ve probably received a spam text message once or twice (or a thousand times), maybe claiming you’ve won a gift card from Amazon or directing you to a website link where you can learn to “Make Millions Working From Home Right Now!” Or maybe the spam seems to be coming from a less malicious source, like a political campaign office. Regardless of the pretext, you never truly know who the messages are coming from, even if they seem benign.
It’s difficult to determine the true intentions of links found in text messages. That’s why it’s best to simply avoid clicking them. But don’t just avoid the links; avoid responding altogether. Even if a message tells you something like “Reply with STOP to opt-out,” replying with anything will let the sender know the number is, at minimum, still active. There are even some scams that start with an intentional wrong number text message, where the scammer tries to develop rapport with the victim after “accidentally” texting their number. Again, it’s just best not to respond, delete the message, and block the number.
3.
Never respond to or click on links or attachments in emails from unknown email addresses.
Emails are another very common scam vector. Many free email services have half-decent spam filters nowadays, so you’d probably see a handful of malicious emails if you decided to peruse through your spam folder (though we definitely don’t recommend this). There are a few red flags you can look out for to spot a phishing email. Check out our Red Flags page for more info on that.
Some of these spam emails, scam emails, phishing emails, whatever you’d like to call them, are so advanced that even a trained professional might find it hard to distinguish them from a legitimate email. They can replicate the graphics and design of retail store emails, social media services, and many other types of legitimate businesses to the point where it’s hard to determine whether or not you’re looking at the real thing. As with the previous two rules, if you’re uncertain of the source of the email, its best to just avoid opening it altogether.