Internet, Phone, and Mail Scams

Scammers are always using new technologies and coming up with increasingly convincing scams, and it’s often hard to tell if you are being scammed. Be on high alert if you get an unexpected message, especially if you’re being pressured to act quickly or being asked for personal or financial information. Here are some tips to help:

• Don’t trust caller ID: Phone numbers can be “spoofed” to look like a familiar number, so don’t assume that caller ID is accurate. Voices can also be faked from audio clips. If you get a call and something seems unusual, or if the caller asks for personal or financial information, hang up. The longer you stay on the line, the higher your chances of becoming a victim.
• Develop family code words and minimize personal information on social media accounts: Develop simple ways of verifying if a family member truly is in trouble before responding to requests for financial help or personal information. Talk with family about designating “safe words” or asking a question that only that person would know the answer to. When creating a question, be mindful that scammers might have access to information from social media and other online sources. Strengthen your privacy settings on social media so that strangers don’t know facts about your life and your current whereabouts, including whether you or a family member is out of town. Also consider removing audio and video clips from your and your children’s social media profiles—scammers can use these clips to create fake voices and videos.
• Find and use the accurate contact information: If someone claims to be a government official, your bank or other company, or a family member asking for personal or financial information, or if anything else seems unusual, hang up and don’t reply. Don’t click on any links, since scammers often try to get you to click on fake links that are sent to you in texts, emails, or social media. Call the person or entity using their real phone number or go to the entity’s real website from your own internet browser – don’t rely on contact information provided in a text message, email, social media, or mail.
• Take some time and talk with trusted friends and family: Scammers often create false urgency to get you to act quickly. If you feel pressured to act, stop and take some time before paying any money or giving out any information, and seek a second opinion from your family and friends. And don’t forget: Real government agencies will never threaten you with legal action or arrest in exchange for immediate payment, promise to increase your benefits or resolve an issue in exchange for a fee or fund transfer, ask you to send cash by mail, or ask for payment in the form of gift cards, prepaid debit cards, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency.
• Protect your personal information and passwords: Keep your Social Security card at home in a safe place (not in your wallet), and provide your Social Security number only when absolutely necessary—if a business asks for it, see if you can use another number instead. Similarly, don’t share other personal information, such as account numbers or driver license number, unless absolutely necessary. Protect your online accounts and information with strong passwords: use different passwords for each of your accounts; make sure each password has at least eight characters and a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols; and consider using a reputable password manager.
• Check your bills and bank statements often: Check your credit card bills, bank statements, and other bills and accounts regularly. Report any unauthorized charges or withdrawals, unexpected bills, or other irregular activity to your bank or credit card company immediately. If you haven’t received an expected bill, someone may have changed the contact information on your account to hide fraudulent charges, so reach out to the company.
• Check your credit report: You are entitled to one free credit report every year from each of the three national credit bureaus: Equifax (equifax.com), Experian (experian.com), and TransUnion (transunion.com). Your credit history contains information from financial institutions, utilities, landlords, insurers, and others. By checking your credit reports at least once a year, you can identify signs of identity theft, as well errors in your report that could be raising the cost of your credit. Order your free annual credit reports by phone, toll-free, at 1-877-322-8228, or online at www.annualcreditreport.com.

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Phone Scams

Common telemarketing scams include calls from a number similar to yours; unsolicited offers for loans, credit card protection, and to lower your interest rates; and requests for charitable donations, especially after a recent disaster. Other scams include calls that seem to be from a family member or friend in distress—scammers can spoof phone numbers, fake voices to sound like your loved ones, and share information that you think only a loved one would know but that can be found online (such as names of family members and pets, birthdays, and favorite teams).

If you receive a call from an unknown number, do not answer it. Phone numbers can also be “spoofed” to look like a familiar number, so don’t assume that caller ID is accurate. Voices can also be faked from audio clips. If you get a call and something seems unusual, or if the caller asks for personal or financial information, hang up. Do not give any personal or financial information, and do not send money. If you are unsure, hang up and call them using their real phone number or go to their real website from your own internet browser – don’t rely on contact information that the caller gives you.

For more information on phone scams, see the FTC’s Phone Scams. For information on how to get fewer telemarketing calls, see Leave Me Alone! and Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

Email Scams

Scammers often use official-looking emails that seem to be from well-known companies or government agencies to trick you into entering your personal or financial information, clicking a link, opening an attachment, or otherwise installing harmful malware. Scammers can also spoof email addresses, website links, and logos that look like they belong to your bank, other legitimate companies, or the government. Scammer may also send emails that seem to be from tech support or your email service – for example, saying that your email box is full and that you need to log on through a specified link.

Be wary of emails that contain a false sense of urgency to make you act quickly. Be wary of generic greetings in an email, like “Dear Customer,” and of emails containing spelling mistakes and other typos. Examples of scam email messages include:

• “We suspect an unauthorized transaction on your account. To ensure that your account is not compromised, please click the link below and confirm your identity.”
• “Please click here to update and verify your information.”
• “Our records indicate that your account was overcharged. You must call us within 7 days to receive your refund.”

Never send personal information (such as credit card numbers, Social Security Number, or passwords) by email. Do not click on links or open attachments contained in suspicious emails – scammers can install harmful malware or send you to a webpage that looks like a real company so that they can steal your user name and password. Do not call phone numbers or go to websites listed in an email. If you are unsure whether an email is a scam, use your internet browser to look up the real phone number or website for the company or organization, and ask them if the email was really from them.

For information on how to get less spam, see Leave Me Alone!

Text Scams

Scammers often try to get you to click links sent through text, or to reply to text messages so that they can get your personal or financial information. They may try to sell you something, like debt relief services, or they may say you won a gift card or other prize. They may also impersonate your bank, another well-known company, or a government agency. Scammers can spoof phone numbers, so be wary even if a text seems to come from a familiar number.

Do not click on links that you get by text, and do not give out any personal or financial information.

For more information on text scams, see the FTC’s How to Recognize and Report Spam Text Messages. For information on how to get less text spam, see Leave Me Alone!

Junk Mail

Scammers send lots of scam offers and letters by mail. For example, they can pretend to be from your utility company, the IRS, a well known charity, or another legitimate entity, asking you to call them or go to a certain website. They may claim that there is a problem you need to address right away, or that they are collecting donations for a worthy cause, or that you have won a prize, whereas in reality they are just trying to get your money, your personal information, or your financial information.

For more information on prize scams, see Sweepstakes and Prize Notifications. For information on how to get less junk mail, see Leave Me Alone!

Junk Faxes

You may get junk faxes advertising bogus business or investment opportunities, faxes claiming you won a contest or got a job offer, and other faxes that try to get you to fax information back. If you get an unsolicited fax, do not fax back anything in return – you may be charged a high fee for doing so. Do not send your money or give out any personal or financial information.

For information on junk faxes, including how to file a complaint, see the FCC’s FAQs About Junk Faxes. For information on blocking junk fax, see Leave Me Alone!

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Scammers can be extremely sophisticated and convincing. If you have been the victim of a scam, understand that you were manipulated by someone committing a crime. Take these steps:

• Report the scam:
  • Report internet scams and other internet crimes immediately to the Internet Crime Complaint Center. This agency is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center and is the nation’s central hub for reporting cybercrime. Internet crimes include non-delivery of goods or services, computer hacking, advance-fee scams, business-opportunity scams, and other crimes involving the use of websites, emails, or other parts of the internet. If you are 60 years or over, you may call the National Elder Fraud Hotline at (833) 372-8311 for help in filing a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
  • Report all scams to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at reportfraud.ftc.gov and to the California Attorney General’s Office at oag.ca.gov/report. While we cannot resolve individual complaints, we use reports to investigate patterns and practices of fraud and other misconduct.
  • If you have lost money to a scammer, file a police report with your local police or sheriff’s department. Local law enforcement authorities are responsible for investigating violations of law within their jurisdiction. After investigating the crime, they may forward the case to the county district attorney’s office for prosecution, if appropriate. The decision whether or not to file criminal charges will then be made by the district attorney.
• Personal Information: If a scammer has your personal information, go to IdentityTheft.gov for a recovery plan. Go to oag.ca.gov/idtheft for more information and steps to take.
• Passwords or accounts: If a scammer has your account passwords, or otherwise has access to or control of your accounts (for example, your cell phone or online account passwords), go to the companies where you have the accounts and report the identity theft. Check for any unauthorized charges or changes. Create new, strong passwords for your accounts. Go to IdentityTheft.gov and oag.ca.gov/idtheft for more important information and steps to take.
• Money: If a scammer already took your money, it is often difficult or impossible to get it back, but you can try to take steps based on how the money was sent:
  • Unauthorized transfer from your bank account: Contact your bank immediately to report an unauthorized transaction and ask them to reverse it.
  • Credit card, debit card, gift card, or wire transfer: Contact the card issuer or wire-transfer company immediately to report a fraudulent charge or transfer, and ask them to reverse the transaction and give you your money back.
  • Money-transfer app: Try contacting the money-transfer app to report the fraud and ask them to reverse the transaction. If you linked the app to a credit card or debit card, report the fraud to the card company and ask them to reverse the charge.
  • Mail: If you sent payment by U.S. mail, contact the U.S. Postal Inspection Service immediately at (877) 876-2455 to try to intercept delivery. To learn more, go to USPS Package Intercept – The Basics. If you used another delivery service, contact them immediately to try to intercept delivery.
  • Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrency payments usually cannot be reversed, but try contacting the company you used to send the money to report the fraud and ask them to reverse the transaction.

For more information, see the FTC’s What To Do If You Were Scammed.

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