7 Ways to Spot an Online Scam

Online scams change constantly, but many follow the same patterns.

• Too good to be true: Guaranteed money or prizes for little effort.
• Urgency: Messages that say to act now or that time is running out.
• Unusual payment requests: prepaid cards, wire transfers or crypto.
• Requests for sensitive information: passwords, Social Security number or bank logins.
• Unknown senders: messages from unfamiliar numbers or email addresses.
• Poor grammar or mismatched links: hover over a link to see where it really leads.
• Impersonation: the message claims to be from a brand but does not come from its official site.

What to do

Do not click suspicious links. Verify through the official website or phone number, use strong unique passwords with two-factor authentication, and report scams to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.

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