With the growing use of AI, scamsters are flooding consumers with fake offers designed to get their money and personal information. Some fraud merchants pose as online vendors to filch you. I asked John Gilmore, head of research for DeleteMe, a personal data removal service, what he’s seeing now in the latest cybercrimes.
How do you spot these scams? Gilmore says “there are a variety of contextual and specific flags that can help identify spoofed corporate/institutional communications. The typical contextual red-flag is “Is this message, or the action it is asking me to take different from the way I normally engage with this company/group?”
The specific red flags, for example, “are usually spotted in the source-email domain, or embedded links, which differ from that of normal company communications (e.g. Sender email may say ‘Amazon Customer Support <Support234@amazon.security.com>,’ and embedded links.”
Vendor impersonation is a subset of a larger group of swindles called “business impersonation fraud.” The Better Business Bureau provides these tell-tale signs:
- Parties reaching out unsolicited to ask for personal information or payment for something.
- Pressuring you to act immediately.
- Asking you to wire money or send gift cards (untraceable forms of payment).
- Threatening you in some way (for example, penalties or jail time).
- Offering something that is “too good to be true.”
- Check the email address or URL more closely. Scammers use similar website addresses or emails to appear legitimate, but if you look closely, you may find one letter or number that is off.
As they used to say in the war against drugs, if you see these “offers, just say no and don’t click any links.
In addition, you can use the BBB Scam Tracker. If you’re suspicious about the situation, search this tool to see if anyone else has reported a similar situation. The NEW BBB Scam Tracker enables you to search by email, URL, phone number, and more.