World Teachers’ Day: Scams That Teachers Need to Avoid

Teachers work really hard to make sure their students understand the subjects that they are learning. That’s why sometimes they could be working so hard and fall for a scam without even realizing it. That’s why at Social Catfish, we want to give our customers the best tips and advice on how to avoid scams as a teacher. From affinity scams, legit-looking phishing ads, and those annoying online shopping scams this guide will walk you through how to tell that it’s a scam and how to avoid each scam on World Teachers’ Day. Keep scrolling to gather these tips that will help you stay safe online.

Types of Scams Teachers Need to Avoid on World Teachers’ Day

Affinity Fraud

Scammers target a group of people that have something in common with each other and tell them about this great investment opportunity. They usually target groups such as teachers, religious organizations, or a particular community.

Then, the teacher sees that all their friends are in this particular group and want to join too, so they invest money in the scam. The teacher shares this investment opportunity on social media and gains attention from all their social media friends. However, a few months later, the teachers all realize that it’s a scam and realize they lost out on thousands of dollars.

Online Shopping Scam

Scammers send phishing emails to their victims’ advertising school supplies at great deals. Teachers think they are getting good deals on the latest school supplies, and click the links that are being advertised. These links install malware on victims’ devices without them knowing which steals their personal and financial information.

Then, victims scroll on the fake online store thinking that it’s a legit website. They find products that are at too-good-to-be-true prices and add these items to their cart. Then on the checkout page, it asks for their personal and financial information in order for them to purchase their product. Teachers enter their information, then find out later they lost thousands of dollars and scammers have access to their bank accounts.

Phone Scams

Scammers call their victims and claim that the teacher they are calling is in trouble. The scammer pretends to be a police officer and claims that the teacher is in trouble with the law. They claim that the teacher broke the law by not filing taxes and claims that they owe thousands of dollars.

They claim that their victims need to make this payment by paying with gift cards, wire transfers, or cryptocurrency in order to be let off the hook. However, when victims make these payments scammers demand more money until the victim is left bankrupt. Since the victim paid with either a gift card, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency it’s nearly impossible for them to get their money back.

How to Avoid Online Scams on World Teachers’ Day

• Don’t give anyone on the Internet or over the phone your personal and financial information.
• Only shop at websites that are well-known and make sure you check the URL before purchasing anything.
• Do your research before shopping at websites that are not as well-known.
• Do your research before investing your money in investment opportunities.
• Check the licenses of the head of the investment opportunity to make sure they are a legit investor.
• Avoid no-risk investment opportunities, since all investment opportunities have a risk to them.
• Avoid calls that seem unfamiliar to you.
• Report any scam that you’ve been a part of to the FTC.

Social Catfish is Here to Help You!

At Social Catfish, we want to help you verify a scammer’s identity on World Teachers’ Day. We can help you reverse search any name, email address, phone number, social media username, address, or image to see who has access to your personal information. If you would like to solve the mystery of where your information went and have some of the scammer’s information, make sure to use our search bar today!