As long as there are evil people in this world, there will be scams aimed at stealing the sensitive information of others. I have learned this the hard way and I am much more vigilant as a result.

Today I will discuss two types of common scams which easily trick innocent people: text scams and email scams.

Text scams involve text messages on one’s phone (usually a smartphone, although I can imagine that those with a basic phone might be prey to them as well). The victim receives a text that spoofs a phone number or email address and pretends to be (usually) from a financial institution or government entity (such as the IRS or the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration [MVA]). The text will “inform” the victim of something alarming, such as a large sum of money having been withdrawn from their bank account or that the MVA is penalizing them and they had better pay up or else.

The truth is that a bank will never text a customer—banks usually communicate by way of email or postal mail. Nor do government entities like the MVA or the IRS communicate by text. Scam texts also often have a strange-looking email address or unknown phone number associated with them. The best thing to do if you suspect a text is a scam is to delete it. Do not touch any links or call any phone numbers that the text gives you.

Then there are email scams. In this type of scam, the victim receives an email that looks like a legitimate billing statement, often with a genuine-looking logo of a company like PayPal, Amazon, or McAfee. The statement says that the victim owes a large sum of money for a product or service that they never purchased, and provides a phone number for the victim to call if they did not authorize the sale (and they never did). Often, the “billing statement” contains grammatical mistakes or typos (this is the first thing for which I look when I receive one of these).

One word: DELETE. Calling the phone number on the fake billing statement will connect you to a scammer who will pretend to want to help you, but who will trick you into giving them control of your computer (something you should never do) and steal your personal information and/or your identity.

What kinds of scam bait have you been subjected to? (I have gotten several of both of the above.)