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Scammers target a variety of people, though research by Microsoft suggests that millennials (defined by Microsoft as age 24-37) and people part of generation Z (age 18-23) have the highest exposure to tech support scams and the Federal Trade Commission has found that seniors (age 60 and over) are more likely to lose money to tech support scams.
Never give your password on the phone. No legitimate organization calls you and asks for your password. Put your phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry, and then report illegal sales calls.
• Fake email addresses - Malicious actors sometimes send from email addresses made to look like an official email address but in fact is missing a letter(s), misspelled, replaces a letter with a lookalike number (e.g. “O” and “0”), or originates from free email services that would not be used for official communications.
What are 800 and 888 phone number scams? If you get an email providing you a PIN number and an 800 or 888 number to call, this a scam to try and steal valuable personal info. These emails will often ask you to call AOL at the number provided, provide the PIN number and will ask for account details including your password.
When you open the email, you'll also see the Certified Mail banner above the message details. When you get a message that seems to be from AOL, but it doesn't have those 2 indicators, and it isn't alternatively marked as AOL Official Mail, it might be a fake email. Make sure you mark it as spam and don't click on any links in the email.
For scams conducted via written communication, baiters may answer scam emails using throwaway email accounts, pretending to be receptive to scammers' offers. [4]Popular methods of accomplishing the first objective are to ask scammers to fill out lengthy questionnaires; [5] to bait scammers into taking long trips; to encourage the use of poorly made props or inappropriate English-language ...
Quick Take: List of Scam Area Codes. More than 300 area codes exist in the United States alone which is a target-rich environment for phone scammers.
Tech support scam: The scammer poses as a tech support and claims that there is an urgent virus, or a severe technical issue on the victim's computer. The scammer may then use the sense of urgency to obtain remote control of the victim's computer by having the victim download a special software to diagnose the supposed problem. [ 20 ]