3 common types of online scams and how to avoid them

The past few years have seen a steady rise in fraud, with $12.5 billion in losses in 2024, according to the FTC. And anyone can fall victim — the FTC found that young adults ages 20-29 are the most likely to report losing money to fraud.

Online scammers relentlessly try to gain access to financial accounts or access other sensitive data. To help you protect yourself, we've put together a list of the most common types of scams, so you can identify them, and — more importantly — avoid falling for them.

1. Phishing scams

Phishing scams cover a wide variety of attacks. Common ones include an email or text message that asks you to follow a link to verify your information. This is usually under the pretence of verifying your account due to "fraudulent activity," such as from a bank, a credit card institution, or even a shipping company like UPS or Fedex. Another is Wi-Fi phishing, when hackers create a look-alike Wi-Fi hotspot to attract users and then steal their information.

Plus, scammers are continually adapting to the times. There's been a rise in job offer scams, with emails or texts advertising a tempting job opportunity and asking for sensitive data like your Social Security number or direct deposit info.

How to identif phishing scams

The No. 1 giveaway on email scams is the sender's address. True, online scammers have gotten better and better at this, but if the email address doesn't even include the name of the business it claims to be from, you can bet it's a scam. Another common approach is a subtle variation on a real address, like "[email protected]" instead of just "[email protected]."

It's important to look out for these other tells as well:

• Generic greetings: Phishing messages usually have generic greetings like "Dear customer" or will use the first part of your email as a greeting (e.g. if your email is [email protected], the greeting will go something like "Hi, silversurfer...."). That is a big red flag, because your actual banking institution has access to your name and sophisticated systems to customize the message to include it.
• Links: If you actually have fraudulent activity on your account, or need to verify anything, your bank will never send you a link. Every email or text that comes with a link asking you to verify your account unprompted (verification emails for signing up for a new service are exempt) should be considered as suspicious.
• "Too good to be true" details: In the case of job offer scams, watch out for a "recruiter" contacting you unsolicited, talking up a job that offers good pay for little work. Also beware of a recruiting text (already iffy) that targets several phone numbers at once (a dead giveaway).

How to avoid phishing scams

• If you see a link asking you to verify your account or give personal information, even if you're 99% sure it's legitimate, always investigate first. It's better to be safe than sorry. Use a known phone number or email address — one you look up online, get from a mailed statement, or read from the back of your credit card — versus anything in the suspect email or text.
• When using a public Wi-Fi hotspot, confirm the actual network name, type it in carefully, and watch out for look-alike network choices. Once online, avoid sensitive actions like online banking and consider using a VPN (virtual private network) to encrypt your use.
• To avoid job scams, don't engage with anonymous texts or emails. Apply directly through company hiring portals or on a reputable job-search site after verifying the opening with the company.

>> Read more: How to protect your data on your mobile device

2. Romance and dating scams

Also known as "catfishing," these romance scams involve making the victim believe that the person they're talking to online is real in order to build up to a "relationship" so they can ask the victim for money. Various reasons are given for the request, including "so that I can fly out and see you," "so I can pay for my apartment so you can come visit me," amongst many, many other creative lies.

How to identify romance scams

These may be harder for people to recognize since they're done within a vulnerable context — the victims want to believe it's true. But if you ever meet someone online (whether on a dating app, on social media, or otherwise), there are a few quick guides you can follow to make sure you don't fall for a catfish.

• Fast-paced romance: Look out for "love bombing." If the person on the other side of the screen is professing profound emotions and escalating the relationship in a very short time, that's a red flag.
• Avoiding in-person or video call meetings: If you've only seen the person's profile picture (often fake or a stock photo), that's also a red flag.
• Request for money: Probably the biggest red flag, but if they at any time ask you for money – for an emergency, travel, medical issues or other "hardships" – it's time to put the brakes on the relationship.

How to avoid romance scams

Know the limitations of online relationships, and be skeptical if someone insists on staying online. If you've never met a person in real life, or even had consistent phone or video calls with them, don't give them any of your hard-earned money.

3. Tech support scams

If you have a computer, you may be vulnerable to these scams, whereby scammers pose as tech support from legitimate companies (Microsoft, Apple, etc.) and claim there are issues with your computer. They will then ask for remote access to "fix the problem," secretly copying over any personal information to their own system, and as a bonus, demand payment for their services.

How to identify tech support scams

This is probably the hardest one to identify, so it's important to keep these in mind:

• Unexpected pop-ups and urgency: Sure, things go wrong on your computer that need tech support. However, real tech support will never initiate contact via pop-up messages, nor would they create a sense of urgency with claims like your computer has a virus that needs immediate attention. Remember: tech support is there to answer when you contact them, it's almost never the other way around.
• Request for remote access: This is a very important distinction to make. I've certainly been in situations where I had to have tech support remote access my computer to help me with an issue. But the difference here is that I am the one that reached out to them with my issue, and I've verified their identity (I used a legitimate chat box on their own website, I have their name, they verified my account information first). More importantly, the remote access is usually the very last step in their attempts to troubleshoot, and is not urgently demanded as the only fix.

How to avoid tech support scams

If you suspect there is something wrong you'd like tech support to look into, seek out support yourself. Head to Microsoft or Apple's own websites to find their tech support.

These are just some of the online scams that are always circulating, with new phishing scams popping up every month, but following these tips can help you with any that come your way.