The main types of online scam, how each one is structured, the payment methods that give them away, and how to check whether an offer is real.
11 guides
Americans reported losing about $16 billion to fraud in 2025, the highest figure on record. The categories that account for most of it are surprisingly few, and each has a recognisable structure.
Real agencies write letters, use .gov addresses and do not take payment in gift cards. People reported losing $920 million to government impersonators in 2025 - almost all of it to demands no real agency has ever made.
Being scammed once makes you a target for a second scam built specifically for you. Scammers trade lists of previous victims, then arrive as the lawyer, agency or investigator who can get the money back - for a fee.
Reporting a scam almost never gets your own money back, and the agencies say so plainly. It still matters - and there is a separate first phone call that does affect your money. Here is the order to do things in.
Four of these signs settle it on their own. The other eleven only matter when they stack up. Knowing which is which is what lets you judge a message, a call, a shop or an offer without knowing anything about the particular scam.
A text demanding a few dollars for an unpaid toll, with a threat of late fees attached, is one of the highest-volume scams in circulation. Here is how to tell it's fake in seconds, and what to do if you already tapped the link.
The FBI's 2025 report included artificial intelligence for the first time in the IC3's near-25-year history — 22,364 complaints and roughly $893 million. AI has not invented new scams; it has removed the tells that used to expose the old ones.
A full-screen warning or an unexpected call claiming your computer is infected is designed to make you act before you think. Here is what to do right now, and how the refund overpayment trick works if it goes further.
An unfamiliar shop that looked fine in the ad and fine on the site can still be fake. Here are the checks that take under a minute - the domain, the contact details, independent reviews - plus why the payment method matters more than anything else.
A trading platform that shows a rising balance, permits a small withdrawal, then demands a fee to release the rest is the single most common structure behind investment fraud. Here are the checks to run before you send another payment.
An unexpected text offering flexible, well-paid remote work is one of the fastest-growing scams there is. Here is how to tell if a job offer is genuine before you reply, and what the task-scam app is actually designed to do.