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The Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network collects and analyzes data from over 2,800 sources to identify emerging scam trends, including police, non-profits, and law enforcement. According to their Feb. 2022 study, consumers reported losing nearly $8.8 billion to fraudsters— an increase of more than 30% over the prior year.
How to spot spam emails.
Today, most of our inboxes are filled with spam; however, sometimes, we spend too much time reading before we realize it’s trickery. Luckily, there are a few signs that can warn us.
Beware of odd characters and symbols:
If you get strange subject lines like “ⲫCanvas Prints Promo! 9” or the email sender is named “syaoemd-15468cacsy”, these offbeat texts with odd characters are probably spam.
Use a spam diverter:
Your spam filter will offer several settings, including low and high. The higher the filter selection, the less likely dangerous communications will land in your inbox. Triggers include excessive punctuation in the subject line or key terms often discovered in past spam campaigns.
Check the email details:
Always investigate any wayward emails before you open them. Scrutinize the sender’s email address. Does it fit the email topic? Hover over links to see if the address is legitimate. Never click on them.
Phishing emails and other types of spam are on the rise, sometimes appearing suspicious due to odd characters. This can result from text encoding errors, case-insensitive DNS translating domain names, or non-standard encoding by the sender.
Legitimate senders might use unusual capitalization to catch your eye, and formatting marks may become visible upon receipt. Additionally, Online banking alerts and familiar sounding subjects like "Hi, remember me? It’s Roger from high school" often signal spam or phishing attempts.
What are the statistics?
Nobody wants to lose $650 to a scammer, yet according to the FTC, that's the average amount lost per victim, with some losing thousands. Last year, investment scams generated $3.8 billion in losses, double that of 2021, while impersonator scams, the most reported, saw a 50% increase in incidents.
If you uncover a scam assault, share your discovery with the federal government. The FTC records emerging scams on its website, and they want to hear from you!
How can IDShield help you protect yourself against email scams?
IDShield scans multiple email addresses our members use. Since we monitor around the clock for those addresses, we can spot one where it shouldn’t be. That triggers an alert that thieves may have access to your emails. And rapid detection can reduce or possibly eliminate damages.
IDShield protects sensitive personal information by monitoring critical areas where theft can occur and alerting you to potentially nefarious activity. If your identity is stolen, our onsite Licensed Private Investigators will assist you and work to restore it to its pre-theft status.