How to spot an online scam: Three dead giveaways

It’s easy to be fooled by scammers online. But it’s just as easy to spot those scams if you’re paying attention.

- IAN PAUL

It’s surprisingly easy to fall for an online scam even if you’re hyperaware of all the ways bad actors can trick you. Online scammers are playing a numbers game. If they send out their scams to enough people, they’ll find a few people who posses a magic combination: folks who are distracted by life and also concerned about the status of their online accounts.

That’s how I almost fell for an online scam. My credit card bill was coming due, but I was busy that month, and paying the bill was just one of many things percolating in the back of my mind. Then I suddenly got an email stating my bank was freezing my account if I didn’t log in. “Oh no!” I thought. “I’m late paying my bill.”

Without another thought, I clicked on the link in the email, even though I knew the right thing to do was type out the URL myself. I was just about to put in my login details when another thought came bubbling to the surface: Something seemed not quite right.

I checked the website address, and sure enough I was about to enter my details into a phony website designed to harvest login credentials from my bank. It was a near miss. I had almost been the victim of phishing. This happened despite the fact that I’ve reported on just these kinds of exploits. Heck, I’d even written several articles with security tips about how you should never click on a link to your bank from inside an email.

Caught at the right moment of vulnerability, anyone can fall for an online scam. When you’re prepared, however, spotting an online scam is a fairly straightforward procedure. Then when the stars align to make you susceptible to an online scam, you might save yourself by knowing what to look for.