Is That Call, Text or Email Real? Here’s How to Identify Scams
Is That Call, Text or Email Real? Here’s How to Identify Scams
https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/how-to-identify-call-text-email-scams/
Publish Date: 2026-06-19 07:05:00
Source Domain: www.cnet.com
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Rising Scam Costs and Trends: Online scams cost Americans nearly $119 billion annually, with robocalls and text scams reaching a six-year high in 2025. Scams now use AI tools to create highly personalized phishing emails and text messages, and voice clones mimicking familiar voices.
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Common Features of AI Scams: To identify AI scams, look for messages lacking unique information, using formal language without typos, claiming to be from famous or authoritative figures without prior contact, suspicious email addresses or phone numbers, urgent language forcing quick decisions, unexpected attachments, misleading links, and violating company policies.
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Strategies to Identify and Confirm Scams: To spot scams past spam filters, establish identity verification systems for calls, scrutinize claims from authority figures, reach out directly to the person or company for verification, use tools like Malwarebytes reverse phone lookup, and Google domain and link to see if they’ve been associated with scams.
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Minimizing Damage and Enhancing Safety: Stay skeptical and verify requests, use code words for loved ones for verification, never share personal information or sensitive data without thorough verification, and consider purchasing identity theft protection as a proactive measure.
