How Can You Recognize a Scam?

According to surveys, nearly 80% of people report being exposed to scams during a given year. Though young people tend to think of this as something that old people fall for, 18 to 24-year-olds had the highest median losses of any age group, and 35 to 44-year-olds were the most likely to be scammed. Scammers use psychology to manipulate you and that’s why they are so successful. No one who falls for a scam realizes it was happening until it’s too late. 

It’s safe to say that there are a number of scams going around all the time. And even if you think you’re immune, you’re probably not. In fact, your confidence that you’re not going to get scammed might make you the perfect victim, because he won’t see it coming. So how can you recognize a scam? It’s a tough question to answer even the fact that there are countless scams out there but damn it, we’re going to try.

Scam Signs

Let’s start at the beginning with what law enforcement has to say about scams. They’re the ones who most people call when something goes wrong, and most law enforcement agencies in most jurisdictions have put together information for their citizens about scams. This stuff has to be constantly updated because scams are always evolving. AI scams, for instance, are all the rage now, when 5 years ago no one had even heard of such a thing.

Fakery

Scammers will typically call you or contact you online, and they may make threats. They can pretend to be a government agency, a celebrity, or even family and friends. AI scams have become ruthless with that last one because AI can actually spoof the voice of a family member. You could be talking to someone and swear it’s your mother, your son, or maybe your brother.

They may also try to convince you that they are legit with spoofed phone numbers. You can see who called you and Google the number, and you’ll see it belongs to the police, the FBI, another government agency, or something else that seems legit. They may also call you from a loved one’s number. This is all done with VoIP technology and web services that let a client choose the number they want to appear to be calling from. 

 While some scams will try to scare you, others will try to exploit things. They might time their calls around tax time and pretend to be the IRS. They might be offering you a limited-time investment that is only available right now, or maybe they have tickets for some event that is happening soon. Anytime someone you don’t know is trying to get money out of you over the phone, you should be wary.

The Ask

At some point, the scammer is going to ask you for money.  This could come in several ways. They might be trying to scam you with an investment opportunity. They might be threatening that you owe money for fines or some other kind of serious issue that could have dire consequences if you don’t pay it. Or, if it’s a family and friends scam, they could present themselves as a loved one in serious trouble who needs money.

The scam is going to require urgency. They need you to act now, while they are still talking to you. If they keep the pressure on, you are less likely to stop and think about why this doesn’t make sense or about asking for outside opinions. 

They may need you to transfer money to an account right away. They may also want you to drop it off physically at a certain location, even give it to someone who they say is working with them. This could be cash, but often they will ask for things like gift cards or cryptocurrency, which are nearly impossible to trace. They may ask you to set up a new PayPal account or another online payment service. 

You should definitely be wary anytime a government agency or law enforcement says you need to give them cash right away for any reason.  The problem is that by the time someone is asking you for money, there’s a good chance you’ve already fallen for the scam and it won’t click that something is off by now.

Scam Stats

71% of people once told a Canadian firm that they were confident they could spot a scam. However, when tested, 96% of people fell for one.  If you are confident that you will be able to see a scam and not fall for it, you just might be the perfect target for a scam. Your confidence is a blind spot.

In 2023, cybercrime took Americans for a total of $12.5 billion. That was up from $8.8 billion in 2022.  There were over 880,000 reported incidents. Nearly $5 billion of that was just investment scams, the most lucrative kind of scam going. Keep in mind that many people are too embarrassed to report that they are victims, too. 

Impersonation scams are huge every year, and the most impersonated company for the purpose of scams in 2023 was Best Buy/Geek Squad, followed by Amazon. 

Scam Types

Because there are so many types of scams that you could potentially fall for, it’s worth looking into the specifics of each different kind. Remember, most people are too confident that they’re never going to fall for these. It doesn’t matter how intelligent you are or even if you’re extremely online savvy. Those are the kind of people who fall for these almost as often as those who don’t have those qualities. It’s hard to fight psychology, and in the moment when things are urgent and you’re scared, you don’t realize what’s happening until it’s too late.

AI Scams

The most insidious and arguably most dangerous scams to ever exist are now AI scams. Thanks to deep fake technology and spoofing, you can get a phone call from your spouse claiming to be hurt, or even kidnapped and in need of help, and never know it’s not really them until it’s too late. AI can clone your voice based on a three second audio sample. Do you have your own voice on voicemail? Have you ever made a video and posted it online? That’s all it takes.  As many as 70% of people say they aren’t confident they can tell the difference between a clone voice and a real thing.

Maybe you’re not convinced by a voice on the phone, maybe you need to have a FaceTime call and actually see your loved one. Well, AI can do that too. You literally cannot trust your eyes or ears any longer when it comes to scams. In 2024, a finance worker had a video call with his CEO and lost $25 million after it turned out to be a scammer using AI Deepfake technology. 

In France, a woman fell for a scam in which AI photos of Brad Pitt were used to trick her into thinking she was in a relationship with the actor for almost two years. In that time she lost $850,000 to the fake Pitt who claimed his own money was tied up in his divorce.

These video calls can also involve law enforcement or other officials. They may be well known, maybe people you’ve seen on TV before, or they may be just someone in uniform who looks official. If you don’t see the person in person, you shouldn’t necessarily trust what you see, especially if they’re trying to get money.

Also, it doesn’t have to be you getting scammed. AI can call your bank right after you get off the phone with them and maybe undo a transfer or send it somewhere new. 

 It’s very hard to spot an AI scam, but there are signs if you can take the time to pay attention to them and not get caught up in the moment. When it comes to AI video and deepfake technology, there are going to be glitches in what you’re seeing. Maybe the mouth movement won’t match the voice you’re hearing. Strange artifacts could appear and disappear in the background. Even simple audio might have weird pops and noises in the background. 

Law enforcement recommends you talk about this kind of thing with your family and come up with a safe word that you could all use to let each other know if it’s really you or not.

AI is also being used to make all the older scams more efficient and faster.

Phishing scams

One of the oldest types of scams on the internet, phishing scams typically involve getting emails from what seem like trusted sources. Maybe your internet provider, a story like to shop at, Google, Amazon, something like that. It will look official and it will solicit information from you. If you click on any links or fill out forms, you’re giving information to the scammers.

About 22% of all data breaches are the result of phishing scams. In a controlled test, 8 out of 10 organizations had at least one employee fall for a phishing scam.  

For everyday people, these emails will often take the form of an offer that seems too good to be true, like a free or cheap vacation. 

Another kind is more threatening, usually pretending to be from law enforcement or maybe the government requesting confirmation of details because you’ve been accused of something or are facing a fine. This creates a panic response in people and they are likely to try to make it go away quickly if the email offers a resolution.

Investment Scams

As we mentioned earlier, investment scams are a massive money maker. Remember, nearly $5 billion was lost to investment scams in 2023 alone. These can also include the infamous romance scams, where the victim forms what they think is a real relationship over the span of months only to find the person they think they love was never real at all, and they have lost thousands of dollars on an investment that didn’t exist.

Pump and dump scams are pulled by people who own stock in a company and encourage you and others to buy without letting you know they are already heavily invested. They get the price to go high and then dump all of their stock, tanking the value for you and everyone else. 

Other investment scams include crypto scams, where someone tries to convince you that you can make a killing investing in cryptocurrency.

Boiler room scams are big operations that look for big money. They may set up whole fake offices to dupe you, or elaborate and functional websites with working phone numbers and more. All of this is to lure in large investors, get people on board, then vanish with the money. 

Affinity frauds will target not just you but a group of people, like a church or community group, who all share similar interests and ideals. The scammer may join the group and eventually offer an opportunity to supposedly help everyone out. 

Charity Scams

These frauds will often appear after major disasters or a humanitarian crisis. Social media will be flooded with people asking for donations to help those affected. Sometimes, they will be from very well-known organizations, but others may not be. Some can even be from crowdfunding sites where it’s hard to verify who set up the fundraiser or who the beneficiary might be.

These kinds of scams can take on a lot of forms. You might get a targeted email, you might see it on a social media platform you use frequently, or they may even be boosted by friends or relatives who aren’t aware and give it legitimacy as a result.

There are so many kinds of scams out there, coming at you from so many directions. It’s really hard to keep track of all of them, especially with new ones popping up all the time. Whether you think you are immune to them or not, the most important thing to keep in mind is that if someone is asking you for money, you need to be confident you know why. You need to be 100% sure you know who it is who’s asking you. If anything seems off, whether it’s a stranger, the IRS, the police, or your own grandmother, put a stop to it and check back with them later on your own terms when you control the narrative, not them.