Romance scams
Romance scams are when criminals create fake profiles on online dating sites or dating apps with the hope of starting a relationship with you. Online dating scams prey on your vulnerabilities to create a quick emotional connection they can profit off. For example, in military romance scams, fraudsters pretend to be stationed far away and unable to meet in person. But that won't stop them from quickly building an online relationships and telling you they love you.

​

Phishing Scams (text, emails, calls, and websites)

Phishing is a type of cyber attack where fraudsters send unsolicited emails, text messages or social media messages claiming to be someone you trust. 

The scammer might even impersonate your boss and ask you to send them your log-in information for work. Any information you send — like account passwords or credit card numbers —  will go directly to the scammer and can be used to steal your identity. If you click a link, you’ll most likely download malware or ransomware onto your devices.

​

Shopping scams

Shopping online isn’t inherently dangerous. But even sellers on major platforms like Amazon can engage in online scams. In one example, a seller pretends to sell luxury goods at a steep discount — usually over social media sites like Instagram or Snapchat (and often using hacked accounts to avoid suspicion. But even though you receive a confirmation email and payment is withdrawn from your account, nothing shows up. Or if it does, it’s not what you thought you were paying for

​

Cryptocurrency scam

Plenty of people have become overnight millionaires through investing in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. But cryptocurrency is also rife with scams; nearly 15 scams are deployed ever hour Cryptocurrency scams can happen when someone tricks you into giving them access to your online wallet and steals your coins. Even worse, recently there has been a surge in fraudulent crypto recovery services, where scammers claim to help you recover lost crypto but really steal even more from you. In other scams, you might get contacted by someone claiming to have insider information about a new Initial Coin Offering (ICO). But after the initial rise in value, the coin's value plummets, with the scammers getting out at the top. Be especially careful if you regularly use Telegram, as crypto scams have been running rampant on the platform in the past years

​

Social engendering scam

Nearly every type of online scam relies on a form of social engineering. Social engineering attacks occur when scammers take advantage of your emotions to manipulate you into giving up money or sensitive information that can be used for identity theft and fraud. One of the oldest examples is the Nigerian Prince scam. In this fraud, scammers send an unsolicited message with an emotional plea for help. If you can help the Prince (or a government official) remove vast sums of money from the country, they’ll reward you with a percentage. All you need to do is wire them money to cover the legal costs or to pay for bribes. Any message like this is a scam and should always end up in the trash.

 

​

​

​

​

​

​