Spot A Scam
Sam O’brien, expert at performance marketing platform Affise.com , has shared his tips on how to spot and avoid a scam…
SPELLING MISTAKES
A clear indication of a text scam is that the email or message is poorly worded with multiple misspellings, awkward syntax, and grammatical errors. Any legitimate message from a company would have been proofread and should be easy to read.
IMMEDIATE ACTION
A scam message often prompts recipients to act instantly and has a tone that implies emergency action is required. This is to play on the emotions of the person receiving the message and encourages them to take action immediately.
SENSITIVE INFORMATION Email and text scams will often ask for some form of sensitive information, whether it’s information like bank details, passwords and secret answers for security questions on your accounts.
THE OPENING ADDRESS Scam emails and texts will often address the receiver in a way that might appear
strange or uncommon. This could be in vague forms of addressing the victim, through names like ‘Sir’, ‘Madam’, or ‘Miss.’ Another way to spot a scam is to look at the email address they have sent the message from. If it has extra digits, numbers or a common ending such as user@gmail.com, stay clear.
DO NOT CLICK!
With so many scams coming through on laptops or smartphones, it’s important that those receiving such messages never click on any links inside the message. That’s because these links can open and download Malware onto the device which can not only steal personal information, but also slow down the device.
REPORT
Any suspicious or fraudulent messages can be forwarded to the number 7726, a free service that looks into fighting scams.
This way you can help the bigger picture and crack down on these criminals.