What is a scam?

A scam is a fraudulent scheme or deception intended to deceive someone into performing an unwanted action (perform an action, release private information, and so on) or to achieve some financial gains. Scams can take many forms, including email scams, phone scams, phishing scams, pyramid schemes, investing scams, and more.

As a cybersecurity expert, it is of utmost importance to be aware of the most common types of scams, as well as the most common methods and practices aimed at protecting yourself and your clients from them.

Although there are thousands of different types of scams that are growing by the day, most of them are variations or modified versions of the classic and well-known scams.

Note

One common aspect in most scams is spelling and grammatical errors; therefore, we intentionally included some of those errors in the illustrations to reflect that common characteristic.

Now, let’s carefully review the most notorious types of scams.

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