Multiple Faces Detected
October 10th, 2023
People use Yahoo Mail on a daily basis to keep up with their friends, with business communications, or to view the latest advertisements to their favorite stores. However, scammers lie and come up with tricks to slide into their victims’ inboxes and steal their information. Victims fall for these scams on a daily basis, not realizing that the email they are opening is from a scammer. They think that the email is from a loved one, a favorite online store, or technical support trying to offer them advice. This is why it is so important to know the signs of Yahoo Mail scams and how to avoid them.
The Top 5 Yahoo Mail Scams to Watch Out For
Account Recovery Scam
Scammers claim that there is something wrong with your account that you need to fix in order to continue using it. They claim that you need to click a link in your inbox in order to verify that it is you using the account. Once you click on the link, it takes you to a log-in page that looks just like the log-in page of Yahoo Mail. Then once you enter your log-in information, the scammer then steals your financial and personal information. With this information, they are able to drain your bank account.
Online Shopping Scam
Scammers send out a phishing email that links off to a fake website pretending to be an online store. Scammers advertise that this online store contains the best deals on the Internet and convinces you to go check it out. Once you click on the link, you are met with irresistible deals on all your favorite products. Once you go to the checkout page, it instructs you to fill out your sensitive personal and financial information in order to receive your products. However, scammers will never send out the products you’ve ordered. Instead, they will steal thousands of dollars from you and commit identity theft with your information.
Technical Support Scam
Scammers pretend to be technical support and email their victims, claiming that there are viruses on your device. They claim that you need to call a certain phone number in order to remove the viruses from your computer. You call this phone number out of fear, thinking that your device is in trouble and needs to be fixed. The scammer on the phone pretends to be tech support and tells you to download a program to your computer so that they can access it. Once you download the program to your computer, scammers then gain remote access to your device and steal all your information stored on your device. If they can’t find your information, they usually ask you and state that it’s to pay for the tech support done on your computer. Once they have this information, they can steal your money and commit identity theft.
Lottery Scam
Scammers congratulate you via Yahoo Mail claiming that you won an exclusive prize! They claim that the prize is so easy to claim once you go onto a website to verify your identity. Thinking that you’re extremely lucky that you won a contest without entering for any sweepstake, you click the fake link thinking that you are claiming a prize. Once you enter the fake website, it instructs you to fill out your personal and financial information in order to supposedly claim your prize. It claims that you need to pay a small shipping fee in order to receive your winnings. However, once you fill out your information, you end up not receiving anything and losing out on your life savings.
Extortion Scam
Scammers blackmail their victims and claim that they have embarrassing videos and photos of them. There are also instances where they claim to have recorded you using your webcam watching porn and have video and photo evidence of you. They threaten to send all these embarrassing photos and videos to your loved ones if you don’t give them a certain amount of money. Scared, you give them the requested money so that they would hopefully leave you alone. However, they keep bugging you for more of your money and information until you go bankrupt and have nothing left to give them.
How to Avoid Yahoo Mail Scams
- Don’t send your personal and financial information to anyone that you don’t know over email.
- If an email states it’s from your loved one, contact them using their known phone number to make sure.
- Don’t purchase from an unfamiliar online store without doing your research first.
- Make sure the URL of your favorite online store looks legit before shopping on it.
- If you get blackmailed, block the sender and contact local authorities immediately. Don’t reply to the email.
- Don’t believe in any sweepstakes you’ve never entered.
- Don’t put your information on a website that you’ve never heard of.
- Don’t get technical support through an advertisement or over a phone call. Take your device to an in-person computer repair shop for assistance.
- Don’t log in to your Yahoo Mail account through a link in a random email. Go to the actual website to log in instead.
- Report any scam that you’ve been a part of to the FTC or IC3.
Social Catfish is Here to Help You with Yahoo Mail Scams!
At Social Catfish, we want to help you verify the identities of those who might seem suspicious to you. If you have their name, email address, phone number, social media username, or image, you can reverse search and see who the suspected person was that you’ve been in contact with after reading about Yahoo Mail scams.
