How to Avoid and Protect Yourself from Common Consumer Scams

Scammers really tend to be ahead of the curve on a lot of things lately. It might seem like no matter what you do, whether you report email, texts and social media mentions as spam, they still manage to get through. And with more technological advances it feels like they are better equipped more than ever to more quickly adapt to security measures. Whenever an increase in activity in a relevant industry arises, they try to take advantage of it amidst the height of its popularity and step on the gas.

How Consumers Can Safe Guard and Fight Back

Believe it or not, the best way for consumers to typically be on the safe guard against this type of thing is by searching the topic within a subreddit or check into trending topics on the BBB/FTC website. If you have a question about a text you’ve received, someone on reddit has most likely checked into it and experienced the exact same thing before. Besides checking online you can use the following tips to see what's going on.

Email Safety Precautions

Always check the route domain of the email to make sure you know where it’s coming from. This is the foremost tactic scammers use to send spoof emails and this tip alone should help save you a lot of frustration. Modern day emails have a lot of security measures so if an email is coming into your inbox it’s going through DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail) checks. There are also other security measures and authentication protocols emails go through (SPF, DMARC, etc.) however with DKIM if you can validate that email is coming from a domain you recognize you’ll be all the better for it.

Text Message Safety Precautions

Always be careful with text messages you receive. A great way for you to double check any suspicious text messages you receive is to check the authenticity via your cell phone provider and check the actual number your receiving a message from. If you are receiving a shortened text message it should come from a 5-6 digit number, as a part of industry standard compliance. Whatever you do, avoid clicking on links at all costs. Always hover over the link (or single press depending on your OS) before you press to see where it actually leads. Moreover, it has become really hard to verify who the sender of the text message is due to shortened text message numbers (they are usually only 5-6 digits).

This happened with many payment processors during the brunt of the pandemic. During that time, there was an increase in fraudulent activity from many payment apps like Zelle, PayPal, Square’s Cash App, etc. There were many things going on during this time period and a lot of confusion so consumers really weren't in the midst of chaos. Always being mindful and diligent. during times in which things are tricky and not going as planned. This is typically the time scammers will look to strike and take advantage of you.

What to Look Out For:

Most updates in regards to shipping happen via email! Although, the shipper will sometimes come in the form of a text message, you will also get an email with this information. The safest best is to look at where the email was sent from (for example if it’s from Costco, make sure the email domain is from costco.com)

etc.) and track the package directly from the company order status email. You can click on the tracking link within the email and always approve delivery without signing via that link (the one you received from the company you purchased the products from).

These measures should help you avoid all different types of scams, but unfortunately there always appears to be some new ones arising.