You can do many amazing things with the internet, but some malicious actors will use the internet’s great potential for harm. They’ll create scams and find ways to steal identities, passwords, or money. However, just because there are scammers doesn’t mean you should stay off the internet. Instead, you need to recognize the top internet scams you can’t fall for, and then take the necessary steps to protect yourself against them.
False Free Trials
Free trials are an excellent way for businesses and scummy sites to lure you into paying for something you don’t want in the first place. While some free trials from reputable companies are easy to cancel, and you don’t have to pay anything, others put things into the fine print that make it nearly impossible. Some big corporations even create barriers to canceling trials or memberships, like Planet Fitness, where you can’t cancel your membership over the phone or through email.
In most cases, a business that will make canceling your free trial difficult is one with a poor reputation. Always evaluate the site you’re working with to ensure it is legitimate before giving out your financial information. Some places will advertise a free trial, but you cannot cancel it until you pay out a month or a year in cancelation fees. Do your best to watch out for and avoid these scams to keep your money safe.
False Advertising
There are some scams where people will steal your information, while other scams will simply swindle you out of your hard-earned money. Through false advertising and doctored images, people can make you think you’re buying something authentic and valuable when, in reality, it’s just a big scam. People do this a lot of valuable items like baseball cards, but there are ways you can spot a fake vintage baseball card and save your money. Before clicking “buy” on anything you see online, be sure to research what’s fake and what’s real.
Bad sellers could also list an item for sale, get the money in their pocket, and never send it in the first place. There are protections in such instances, but it’s better to avoid the scam altogether and keep your money in your wallet.
Scammy Links
A fake contest with a scammy link is one of the most prominent and worst scams you can fall victim to. Hackers and fake businesses will create these popups and links to entice you to click on them, making them as appealing as possible. Clicking these links opens your system to infiltration, where they can steal just about anything you have, including passwords and important files. A good rule of thumb is that if an offer seems too good to be true, it is, and you shouldn’t click on any link associated with it.
Pay attention, and you can spot these internet scams and avoid falling for them. A suspicious-looking link only needs one click to ruin your life, so learn what to look out for and leave those links unclicked. Still, it’s important to remember that the internet is constantly evolving, and today’s scams look quite different than they did 10 or 20 years ago. The cons of tomorrow will look different, too, so brush up on your internet security knowledge and prepare yourself for these scams; however they appear.