Search results
- Alice Richard
- Be sceptical and trust your gut. The very first thing you should do before engaging with any email or message is to proceed with caution. Scam messages can be so convincing that it's hard to tell them apart from the real deal – it's no wonder that people fall victim to them.
- Contact them directly. A surefire way to find out if an email or message is dodgy is to go straight to the source: the business or individual the message is supposedly from.
- Check for errors and inconsistencies. An easy giveaway for a scam is a dodgy-looking URL. Scammers are becoming savvier, creating email addresses, email signatures and websites to trick people.
- Google stalk them. Before you hand over a single cent or skerrick of personal info to a person or business you haven't dealt with before, look them up online.
- Overview
- Is it wise to scare text scammers?
- Ways to Reply to a Text Scammer
- Staying Safe When Messaging a Text Scammer
- Reporting and Avoiding Text Scams
Is it wise to scare text scammers?
Text scammers can be dangerous at worst and incredibly annoying at best, however, it may not be the best idea to engage with them at all. If you decide to mess with a text scammer, make sure you consider the risks and take precautions to stay safe when engaging with them. In this article, we’ll give you the best responses to mess with a text scammer, but we’ll also provide tips to stay safe when pranking them back and suggest better alternate ways to deal with text scammers to protect you and others who might be at risk.
If you respond to a text scammer, they may send or sell your number to other scammers. Avoid clicking on suspicious links and sharing personal info.
To scare a scammer, you could waste their time with silly responses, pretend to be an automated messenger, or resend them the messages they sent you.
Report all text scams to
the Federal Trade Commission’s Report Fraud site
It's best to avoid engaging with scammers.
Although it can be entertaining (and sometimes hilarious) to give scammers a taste of their own medicine, replying to their texts can invite more trouble than it may be worth. A single response can be enough to prove that your number is real, and scammers can potentially sell your information to other groups, inviting even more unwanted messages—getting your personal information may just be a nice bonus.
Waste their time by pretending to go along with their scam.
Don’t go all the way and send them money or click on links or anything, but play along to waste as much of their time as possible. Ask them questions, make plans you’ll never fulfill, and pretend to fall for their scam. Just make sure you don’t give them any personal information!
You can also mess with scammers by introducing ridiculous elements into the conversation, like asking them to communicate using a secret code made entirely of cereal brands.
Pretend to be an automated messenger.
One of the most satisfying ways to shut down a text scammer is to scam them right back—with a pretend automated message. As a bonus, you can also say that they’ll be “billed” or “charged” for your services to really mess with their heads. Here are some funny templates you can use:
“Thank you for subscribing to Random Bird Facts. Each morning you’ll receive a new cool fact about birds! You will be charged €10.”
Avoid clicking any links or attachments.
When texting back scammers, be careful to avoid clicking on links, downloading PDFs, or opening attachments. These could potentially have viruses or other malicious software attached to them that could steal your information or harm your devices.
Use a fake name and avoid sharing personal information at all times.
By openly sharing things like your pet’s name, the schools you attended, your family members’ names, or your birthday, you could give the scammer all they need to guess your passwords or answer security questions. If you want to mess with your scammer, make sure you don’t provide any real information.
Watch out for common texting scams.
Often, a scammer will pretend to be a person you know or a well-known company and send you fake websites or ask for your personal information. If you’re not sure how to identify a fake text message, here are some common texting scams to look out for:
The text pretends to be from the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx, or UPS claiming that there’s an issue with your delivery.
If you recently posted your resume on a job site, you may get a text or message where they claim to offer a job or send you checks in the mail so you will deliver your money to a secure address for them to pick it up.
They pretend to be a bank and ask you to call a number about suspicious activity on your accounts or ask you to reply “YES” or “NO” to verify whether a transaction was authorized.
The text claims to be from a well-known company like Amazon, offering a free gift card or reward.
- You've Won! Winning an unexpected prize sounds great, in theory. However, being notified of winning a contest you didn’t enter is a dead giveaway of a phishing text.
- The IRS is Trying to Contact You. Government agencies like the IRS will not contact you via email, phone or text message. If any legitimate government agency needs to contact you, they will usually do so via mail or certified letter.
- You Have a Refund Coming. Notifications involving money owed to you are enticing, aren’t they? “Our records show you overpaid for (a product or service).
- Verify Your Bank Account. Scams hiding under the guise of financial institutions like Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Chase have famously allowed scammers to steal tons of personal banking information from customers.
How does this tool detect scam text messages? Enter the sender’s number or name and the suspected fake text message you got. Artificial intelligence (AI) checks if it’s a safe or a harmful scam text message. Tell the AI if you are happy with the result or not.
- The tool is ready to be used, but we are improving the technology behind it, thanks to your valuable input. We are also working hard to support mor...
- Scam messages often claim to come from the authorities or popular brands. This is done to gain your trust.The messages tend to surprise or shock yo...
- On Android, you can report spam text messages from the Messages app, by touching and holding the conversation you want to report. Tap Block, then R...
- Criminals behind scam text messages are almost without exception after money.For that they need your personal details, which they use for identity...
- Scam SMS messages almost always include a link that directs you to a bad website. There you are asked to enter your personal details, credit card d...
- Yes, this free text message scam checker is safe to use. It’s brought to you by F‑Secure, a Finnish cyber security company with 35 years of experie...
- Smishing comes from SMS phishing. Essentially it means scam text messages that criminals use to direct you to phishing pages. Learn more about smis...
- AI (artificial intelligence) is extremely efficient in finding patterns and anomalies from massive amounts of data. That makes AI an essential tool...
- You can check all kinds of suspected fake text messages, including SMS, iMessage, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and so on.
- Inspect the Email Header Info to Verify Whether the Sender’s Address is Legitimate. The first sign of a phishing email is that attackers pose as legitimate companies or people.
- Watch Out For Uncommon Uses of the Email Bcc Field. In some emails, you will find your email address listed in the Bcc field instead of the recipient lines.
- Check Whether Embedded Links Redirect to Unexpected Websites. Another characteristic of a fake email is unexpected redirect links. The embedded links given in the email must take you to the same web page as written in the link.
- Pay Attention: Don’t Ignore Unusual Spelling and Grammatical Errors. If an email contains many grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors, it’s a red flag.
Jul 15, 2022 · Here is everything you need to know to identify fake text messages and avoid falling for scams, fraudulent messages, and other unwanted texting spam. It's pretty likely that you exchange...
People also ask
How does this tool detect fake text messages?
Are fake text messages a scam?
How do I know if a text message is a scam?
Are scam messages a real thing?
How to tell if an email is fake?
How do you know if an email is a scam?
Feb 24, 2024 · How to Tell if an Email is Fake: Verification Techniques. Once you’ve spotted potential red flags, verifying the authenticity of the email is your next step in how to tell if an email is fake. Implementing these verification techniques can greatly reduce your risk of falling victim to a scam:
