Crooks defraud millions of people every year. Their schemes often combine new technology with lies to get people to send money or give up personal information.
Got an unexpected request? Don’t send money or give out personal information in response to an unexpected request — whether it comes as a text, a phone call, or an email.
Don’t rely on caller ID. It’s easily faked, so don’t use it to decide whether a call is real.
Ignore prerecorded sales calls. Robocalls like that are illegal unless you’ve given written permission to the caller to robocall you. Just hang up on them. Why do business with a company that illegally calls you?
Stop and check it out. Search for the company or product name with words like “review,” “complaint,” or “scam.” Search for a phrase that describes your situation, like “IRS call.” Search for phone numbers to see if other people have reported them as scams.
Talk to someone you trust. Scammers want you to make decisions in a hurry, so slow down. Tell a friend — before you give up your money or personal information. Talking about it could help you avoid a scam.
Consider how you pay. Credit cards have fraud protections built in, but many payment methods don’t. Paying with cryptocurrency or by wiring money through a service like Western Union or MoneyGram is risky. It’s nearly impossible to get your money back. Remember that the government and honest companies won’t insist that you pay using crypto, payment app, or by wire transfer.
- If someone tells you to buy a gift card and give them the numbers, that’s a scam.
- If someone you don’t know tells you to deposit a check and wire some of the money back to them, stop! That’s a fake check scam. Banks have only a few days to make funds from deposited checks available. But it can take weeks to figure out that the check is fake. If the check you deposited turns out to be fake, you have to repay the bank the full amount.
Sign up for Military Consumer’s free scam alerts to get the latest advice about scams from the FTC. And tell the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov
