10 Common Internet Scams and How To Avoid Them

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. The best way to protect yourself from online scams is to learn about them. Here are ten of the most common scams going around today. 

MacMost is brought to you thanks to a great group of more than 2000 supporters. Go to MacMost.com/Patreon. There you could read more about it. Join us and get exclusive content and course discounts. 

So this first scam is fairly common especially if you use Venmo. But it can happen on other payment systems as well. The way it works is you get the money from somebody you don't know. So all of a sudden there's money sent to you. But then they send you a message saying that it was a mistake. They sent it to the wrong person. A lot of times they will include a sob story about how they need the money back as quickly as possible. They've got medical bills, whatever. So they want you to send them the money back. But the thing is when you send the money back that's a legitimate transaction. But the money they sent you, that was done either with a stolen credit card or maybe they faked the entire thing. So eventually you find out you never had that money that they sent you. But you already sent them the same amount of money back. They've  closed their account. They've gone and there is no way for you to get that money back. 

So the way to avoid this is that if you ever get money from somebody you don't know, don't interact with them. Instead send a message to Support for that system, like Venmo, telling them about the unexpected transaction and let the company support handle it. Not you. 

So this next scam happens when you're selling something online. Maybe you're selling on Craig's List or E-bay, Facebook Marketplace, some place like that. You get an offer from somebody to buy it from you for more money than you've listed it for. Sometimes they'll say this extra money is because they want it shipped in a special way or they want to send somebody to pick it up. Something unusual. What they are trying usually to do is to get your away from the payment system that is safe. So, for instance, on E-Bay instead of paying through E-Bay they want to send you the money directly or send you a check or something like that. Then you might ship them that product and then find out their payment was no good and you no longer have the product and no way to get it back. In fact some of the time they may actually pay the regular amount but then when they actually pay you it's more money. Then they claim it was a mistake and they want you to send the money back. Then it is like the payment from a stranger scam and now you might be out the product and some cash. 

The way to avoid this is to simply don't let somebody take you to another payment system. If somebody doesn't want to use, say, E-Bay's payment system, they want to use something else, that's a red flag. Don't do it. Sell it to the next person. 

Remember for online transactions checks are pretty much worthless even if the person hands it to you themselves. Though the bank might actually deposit the money the next day in your account, it could take weeks to find out that the check is fraudulent and then your bank is going to take that money away from you. 

So, in this next scam you're the buyer of the product online. In its simplest form you buy something from somebody and either you just don't get the product or you get an inferior product. Maybe, for instance, a knock-off iPhone instead of an actual iPhone. Maybe a much older MacBook than the one you thought you were getting. There are protections for this in various places where you buy things off-line. But a scammer will try to take you away from that saying that they could sell it to you cheaper or it's easier for them if you pay them in some other way. But, of course, once you leave this system then you have no recourse. You have no way to get your money back, to send the product back, or any of that. Now this happens a lot to Apple users because a very common version of this is somebody gets a MacBook and sells it online. But when you get it you find out, maybe not for weeks, that the machine is actually stolen. By that I mean it actually has device management software installed. So this was a MacBook that was owned by a school or a company and somebody either took it with them when they left their job or left the school or stole it from the school or company and is now reselling it. The thing is that Mac is never going to be yours. It's always going to be controlled by the organization. There's no way to remove this MDM software that is controlling the Mac. This makes it very difficult to buy a used MacBook, especially from another person rather than a reputable company. 

So to avoid this make sure you're not lured away from whatever marketplace you were originally on to another kind of payment system. If you can actually look at what you're buying in person before you pay for it. That's very important if it is a Mac or an iPhone or something like that. Not only should you look at it but also make sure you learn what you should be looking for to make sure the device isn't remotely managed. That it is not stolen and that it actually works. 

So lottery scams are pretty common. You get a message or an email or a phone call claiming that you won some sort of lottery or sweepstakes or other kind of a prize. But you just need to pay $75 or something for some sort of paperwork or something like that. Of course there is no actual prize. You pay the money and if you're lucky they just take that. If you're not lucky they may actually take more from your credit card or steal some identity information. 

The way to avoid this is easy. If you get a message saying that you're won some money ignore it. These are always scams. 

This next scam preys on people who are searching for jobs. The way it works is there will be a job posting, often on a legitimate job website. The job posting is fake and when you apply for it you get a message saying they are very interested or maybe you got the job. But you've got to fill out more detailed application or they have to run a background check. They are going to try to charge you a fee for this. Of course there is no job. It's completely fake. They are just looking to collect the fee from you and then disappear. Or worse, they could be trying to steal all this information from you that you put on that background check form. 

To avoid this be careful if a company that claims to offer you a job is asking you for money. It doesn't work that way. Determine if a company is a real company and then call them and ask them about the job separate from the messages that you've got. Often they will tell you that there is no such job or nobody should be asking you for any money. 

The Tech Support scam is pretty common. You get an email, a text message, or a phone call from somebody claiming to be from a company that you deal with like maybe Apple or it could be Microsoft, it could be your ISP. They say they detected a problem with your computer. It has got malware. It has got a virus or something like that and they want to help you. So they want you to give them access to your computer so they can log into it so that they can poke around. Of course, these people are not from any of these companies. Companies like this don't monitor your computer remotely. They don't call you out of the blue to provide help or anything like that. This is always a scam. What they are trying to do is, of course, get onto your computer and either steal information from you, get money from you somehow, or perhaps install something on your computer to do any of those later on. Now sometimes this takes the form of an ad on a webpage but the ad is designed to look like it's an alert that's not part of the webpage. Other times webpages will send you a notification, it comes up as a notification from that website, but it's not easy to tell that. So you get this notification and you think it is coming from your system. But after you click on it it takes you to the scammer or the scammer's website or displays a phone number. That kind of thing. 

To avoid this just remember  these companies don't remotely monitor your computer. They are not going to call you out of the blue and offer to help you or anything like that. Just ignore all of it. 

So the apartment posting scam is similar to the job posting scam. But in this case you're looking to rent an apartment or perhaps a house and you see a listing. But the listing is fake. They take images from a previous listing or the last time that the house or apartment was put on the market and they post it up just like their are the actual rental company. In particular looking for people who are moving to town so they can't actually view apartments in person. They are doing it all online. But, of course, they've got nothing to do with this apartment and it's probably not even for rent. They are going to tell you that you've got the apartment and they are going to want you to fill out applications so that they can get information from you and then probably pay a fee, maybe even a security deposit, and they are just going to take that money. When you show up at the apartment you're going to find out that it is not even for rent.

The way to avoid this, of course, always insist on touring the apartment in person. If you can't do that because you're out of town then you're going to have to plan either a trip to visit the apartment or you're going to have to look for something like a hotel where you can stay at for a long period of time while you find an apartment. Renting an apartment online, remotely, is just filled with scammers. 

So the online romance scam is has been around for a long time. Probably since the beginning of the internet. It could start certainly in a Dating App. But it could also start anywhere you chat and meet other people. It goes very slowly because the scammer actually has dozens, or maybe even hundreds or people on the hook. So they can take their time over days, weeks, months to befriend you and then let a romance bloom. Once they think you're on the hook they may talk about some sort of financial problems that they are having, healthcare bills, or maybe they just want some money so they can come out and meet you for the first time. Often they will avoid actually for ever asking you for money just telling you about their problems until you offer money. The people that run these are experts in psychology. They know exactly what to say. Often they are working with scripts and techniques that have been developed over decades of scamming people. So they are really good at saying just the right thing. 

The way to avoid this is simply never send money to somebody that you don't know in real life. But, of course, the scammer's are experts at getting you to do that. So another way to avoid this is to make sure that if you are starting an online romance that your friends and family know about it. Listen to what they have to say if they have concerns. 

The Sheriff scam is a way for a scammer to get some really quick money. It can work in just minutes. So you get an email, a text message, or a phone call from somebody claiming to be from the sheriff's office or any other law enforcement agency. They tell you that perhaps you've missed jury duty or you have outstanding parking fines. Something that seems kind of plausible like you may have actually missed the notice in the mail or it didn't get to you. They say you're in big trouble. Maybe that you are even going to be arrested soon. But you can take care of it by paying right now. They offer for some sort of reasonable amount. A hundred, three hundred dollars. Strangely they often want you to pay with gift cards. Which should be a red flag. But at this point the whole thing seems so urgent that you're very distracted and may fall for it. They try to keep you on the phone or keep you chatting online. They will claim, for instance, that if you try to actually call the sheriff's department or go in yourself that you will be arrested on the spot. 

To avoid this just ignore them. The Sheriff's Department or law enforcement agency is not going to call you and ask you for money over the phone like this. It just doesn't happen. It's always a scam. 

Finally, there's the wrong number scam. This very often  starts with a text message from somebody you don't know. The text message is specifically designed to get you to respond to the wrong number. I might be something like I'm at the restaurant waiting for you. Or I'll pick up your kid after school today. Something to make you feel like you really should respond saying, oh you texted the wrong number. Then they will respond saying thanks. Then they will start up a conversation maybe right then, maybe later. They will tell you how nice it is that you actually responded to them. They will start talking to you. It seems perfectly harmless. But the goal for them is to actually keep telling you about how successful they are or how much money they have until you eventually start asking them about it. Then they'll talk about some sort of investment strategy they use or how they invest in cryptocurrency. Something like that. They get you to actually ask them how can I make money too. They'll actually refuse to take money from you, sending you off to an app or a site that they say they use. But when you go to actually use it to invest you'll find that sometimes much much later that it is a scam and they've just actually taken the money from you. 

The way to avoid this is simple. If you get a message from a wrong number don't respond. It is almost always a scam. 

So let me finish with some basic rules. First never assume that you're too smart to be scammed. From time to time even experts get scammed. So you always want to be on guard and over confidence can lead you into trouble. 

Education is your best defense. Continuing to learn about scams, watching videos like this, reading about them, is very important. The more you know about scams and how they work the better your chances of recognizing a scam when  somebody tries it on you. Since education is the best defense the way to help others is to spread this information. Let friends and relatives know about these scams and how they work. Talk to them about it as an interesting topic to discuss. Not a warning. The more that you can teach them about scams, the better their defenses will be. You need to do that before they become the victim of one of these scams. Once somebody is in the middle of being scammed it is very hard for them to see what is going on and to admit that they are being scammed.