We are in the digital age. Now, more often than not, we rely on the digital platforms for almost every need of ours. But with the advent of newer and advanced technologies, these platforms have also become a breeding place for scammers to take advantage of you by looking to steal your identity, money or whatever it is that they can benefit from.

One of the most common online scam is the Nigerian email scam where scammers promised thousands of people large amounts of money for helping them transfer money out of their country. Even after this scammers come up with new ways to lure in clicks and steal information. And its important that you stay up to date in order prevent yourself from falling from these traps.

Here are few examples of online scams and how you can spot them:

1. Lottery & Free Gift Card Scam

If you receive an ad or message saying you have won a lottery or a free gift card that requires you to put your phone number or your bank details to redeem that gift card then chances are high that you viewing a lottery or a free gift card scam. If you ever come across this type of ad or message then just keep in your mind that you can never win a lottery that you never entered in the first place.  Next you should be careful of giving sites your personal information especially your banking details.

2. Gossip Scam

The Gossip Scam is characterized by an ad that has a very click bait-y title. In order to read the entire matter of the ad you are asked to enter personal information or instructed to download ‘Adobe Flash’ which is obviously a virus. In this case, you have to be careful of gossip headlines and look at the source’s URL. And if you are prompted to download the Adobe Flash player then you should download it from the official site of Adobe rather than the page you are directed to.

3. Healthcare Scam

This scam is one of the most popular scams that is going around in recent times. This ad comes across as very genuine. What this scam does is collects your personal information from a false medicare or social security ad in order to claim the healthcare services. In order to find its genuineness you should verify about the service offered with other service providers. Or you can verify it by sending the information to the Office of the Inspector General Hotline.

4. Cat Fishing

This type of scam does not even needs any explanation. When someone creates a fake identity and pretends to be someone else in order to start a relationship or to scam money out of someone. In this case what you can do is start with Googling the profile picture of that person. It is also a red flag when the person wants to move the relationship too fast or is reluctant to meet you in person.

5. ‘Photos of You’ Scam

When you receive a message that says, “Is this you in this photo?” or “Have you seen this photo of yours?” and if you happen to click on the link and are redirected then in that process you are giving access to your personal information. In order to prevent this you can start by putting your profile picture on private so that only your connections can message you. Then do not click on suspicious links.  And when you log into social media always check if the URL is correct.

6. ‘Who Viewed Your Profile’ Scam

Ever received a message or an ad pop-up promising you to give an inner insight of who viewed your social profile then it’s a scam. It will redirect you to a page full of viruses and in return scam away all your information. You should be cautious when you are requested to enter any sensitive information.