Scam
A scam describes any fraudulent business or scheme that takes money or other goods from an unsuspecting person. With the world becoming more connected thanks to the Internet, online scams have increased, and it's often up to you to help stay cautious with people on the Internet.
A person who does a scam is a scammer.
How do I detect an Internet scam?
Because of the anonymous nature of the Internet, it's difficult to know who is trying to scam you. To detect or determine if someone is trying to scam you, first, always remember the proverbial saying, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." Most scams happen because a person is tricked into believing they've found an amazing deal or an once-in-a-life-time opportunity. Next, familiarize yourself with the different types of scams (mentioned below) on the Internet. By understanding these scams and other threats on the Internet, you'll have better luck detecting and avoiding falling victim to any of them.
Types of computer and Internet-related scams
There are thousands of scams today, but most involve stealing money, property, or information. Below is an overview of common scams.
Phishing
Receiving an e-mail from someone pretending to be your bank indicating you are overdrawn or made a purchase you didn't make and asking you to log in and verify the information. However, the link in the e-mail points to a fake site that logs your username and password information. See our phishing page for further information, examples, and related links.
Auction fraud
Someone selling something on an online auction site, such as eBay, that appears to be something it isn't. For example, someone may claim to be selling tickets for an upcoming concert that are not official and would not work. Software piracy is also rampant on all auction sites.
Donation scam
A person claiming they have a child or know someone with an illness and need financial assistance. Although these claims can be real, many people create fake accounts on donation sites to scam people out of money.
Threat scam
Someone sends an e-mail claiming to work for a company that found something wrong with you or your company and is threatening legal action unless you pay. Often, these scams can be quickly identified because they're asking for bitcoin as payment. See ransomware for further information.
Catfish
A person who creates a fake online profile to deceive someone. For example, a woman could create a fake profile on an online dating website, create a relationship with one or more people, and then create a fake scenario that asks others for money. See the catfish definition for further information and related links. See our catfish page for further information.
Cold call scam
Someone cold-calling claiming to be technical support (fake support) from a company like Dell, saying they have received information telling them your computer is infected with a virus. They offer to connect to your computer and fix the problem remotely. Additional information about this type of scam is found on the following page.
419
419, or the Nigeria scam, gives the impression you can gain a large amount of money and only requires bank information to deposit the money into your account. In reality, the bank information is used against the person, or the deposits are kept with no reward. See the 419 page for additional information.
Chain mail
Usually harmless, this scam spreads through e-mail and tells people to forward the e-mail to all their friends to get money back from someone like Bill Gates. See the chain mail definition for additional information and examples.
Dark patterns
A dark pattern is a user interface feature designed to trick users into doing something more beneficial to the company than the user or customer. See our dark pattern page for further information about this tactic.
Fake products and services
Fake products like fake antivirus and services like fake tech support are designed to deceive people and steal their money and information.
Online survey scams
Online survey scams are survey sites that say they offer money or gift vouchers to participants. See our online survey scam definition for further information.
Arbitrage (also called scalping or reselling)
Arbitrage describes someone who gets or buys something from one location to sell it elsewhere or buys all inventory to sell it at a higher price. For example, someone might get a free beta key for a popular upcoming game and sell it online for a profit. Another example happens with a popular new product like a PS5, where people buy out all inventory only to sell it online at a higher price.
Pig butchering scam
An SMS (short message service) scam where a random person attempts to get you to invest in a cryptocurrency scam. See our pig butchering definition for further information.
Pump and dump, rug pull, and exit scam
Sometimes abbreviated as P&D, pump and dump is a scam where a scammer invests in something that makes them money and then "pumps" it up by discussing its potential. Once the scammer has made a lot of money from everyone else investing their money, they "dump" the investment. Those who don't act fast enough lose all of their money. Recently, online influencers have talked up a cryptocurrency, NFT (non-fungible token), or other digital assets as an investment and got their followers to invest in the scam before selling their share. Other influencers have done a rug pull (exit scam) where a cryptocurrency is only created to make the creators money by taking all invested money after it shuts down.
Social engineering
Social engineering is a common hacker technique for manipulating someone over the phone, e-mail, or in person into thinking you're someone else. For example, someone may social engineer you into thinking they're a co-worker to access a computer. See our social engineering page for further information and examples.
Computer crime, Credit card fraud, Fake support, Hoax, Security terms, Spam