Car Warranty Scam (Phone):
Goal: To sell overpriced and often worthless vehicle service contracts or gather personal information.
Common Tactic: Making Unsolicited phone calls claiming your car warranty is about to expire or has expired, often using aggressive sales tactics and demanding immediate action.
Celebrity Impersonation Scam (Social Media, Messaging):
Goal: To build a fake online relationship by impersonating a celebrity to eventually ask for money for various fabricated reasons, often preying on fans' emotions and trust.
Common Tactic: Using fake social media profiles, direct messaging, and fabricated stories of needing financial help due to emergencies or investment opportunities. this often overlaps with romance scams but uses the allure of celebrity
Grandparent Scams (Phone, Messaging):
Goal: To exploit the emotional bond between grandparents and grandparents to get money quickly
Common Tactic: Calling or messaging elderly individuals pretending to be a grandchild in urgent need of money for bail, medical bills, or travel expenses. Often using a sense of urgency to force the grandparent to act before common sense can kick in. Often urging secrecy.
Home Security System Scam (Phone):
Goal: To pressure homeowners into purchasing home security systems and services
Common Tactics: Unsolicited phone calls wanting to discuss home security systems and services. Often wanting payment upfront for a consultation that will not come.
Investment Scams (Messaging):
Goal: To lure a person into investing in fraudulent schemes that promise high returns with little or no risk, ultimately stealing your investments.
Common Tactics: Using sophisticated-looking websites and high pressure sales tactics to promote non-existent or worthless investments. Urging the use of Cryptocurrency, due to the untraceable nature. Can be apart of a wrong number scam, romance scam or celebrity scam.
IRS/ Government Impersonation Scams (Phone, Email, Messaging):
Goal: To scare a person into paying fake debits or penalties to avoid legal consequences like arrest or lawsuits.
Common Tactic: Aggressive phone calls, emails or text messages claiming to be from an official government agencies like the IRS, Social Security Administration, or law enforcement.
Job Offer Scams (Phone, Email, Messaging, Online):
Goal: To trick a person into providing personal information or paying for unnecessary "training" or equipment, or even participating in illegal activities under the guise of a job.
Common Tactic: Unsolicited phone call, text message or email offering a (usually) remote job opportunity. Or job listings on legitimate or fake job boards. Usually offering a vague and low effort position with well above average pay.
Lottery/ Sweepstakes Scams (Phone, Email, messaging):
Goal: To trick a person into paying taxes or fees upfront for a non-existant prize.
Common Tactics: Unsolicited emails, phone calls or messages claiming you have won a large sum of money or valuable prizes, and demanding upfront payments. Often trying to create a sense of urgency.
Medicare Benefits Scam (Phone):
Goal: To obtain personal information, such as Medicare ID number, social security number, or bank account details.
Common Tactics: Calling individuals and falsely claiming to be from a Medicare related agency, offering new benefits or requiring verification of information to maintain or add benefits.
Online Marketplace Scams (Online, Social Media):
Goal: Trick someone with a fake selling post into paying for goods or services that do not exist
Common Tactics: a fraudulent posting on sites like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace or other online selling platform, asking for payment upront for good/services that do not exist and will never be received.
Phishing (Email, messaging, Social Media):
Goal: To trick someone into revealing sensitive information such as passwords, credit card numbers, social security numbers or login credentials.
Common Tactics: Impersonating legitamate organizations like banks, government agencies, online services or co-workers/ supervisors, often creating a sense of urgency or fear to gain information.
Romance Scams (Social Media, Email, Messaging):
Goal: To build a fake online relationship with a personto eventually ask for money, solicit compromising photos or information that can be used for blackmail or manipulate the person into other forms of exploitation.
Tech Support Scam (Phone, Email, Messaging):
Goal: To convience someone that their computer or device has a serious problem (like a virus) and then the charge the victim for unecessary "repairs" or gain remote access to their device to steal data or install malware
Common Tactics: Unsolicited phone call or message claiming to be from well-known tech companies, and high pressure sales techniques.
"Oops, Wrong Number" Investment Scam (Messaging):
Goal: To initaite contact under a false pretense and then gradually steer the conversation towards a seemingly lucrative but ultimately fraudulent cryptocurrency investments
Common Tactics: A text message is received claiming to be from awrong number, engaging in friendly conversation, building trust, and then subtly introducing the topic if successful (but fake) Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency investments.