Is This a Scam? 12 Warning Signs (With Examples)

What is a scam?

A scam is a deliberate deception designed to make you hand over money, personal information or access to an account. Unlike a bad purchase, the other side never intended to deliver what it promised. Scams arrive by phone, text, email, social media, dating apps, marketplaces, job boards and fake websites.

The numbers keep rising. In 2025, Americans filed 3 million fraud reports with the FTC and reported $15.9 billion in losses (FTC, March 2026). The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report counts 1,008,597 complaints and $20.877 billion in losses, with people over 60 reporting $7.7 billion. In the UK, UK Finance reports £1.28 billion stolen through payment fraud in 2025.

The FTC sums up the pattern in four signs (How to avoid a scam): scammers pretend to be from an organisation you know, say there is a problem or a prize, pressure you to act immediately, and tell you to pay in a specific way. The 12 signs below break those down so you can spot them in a real message.

How can you tell if it is a scam? The 12 warning signs

Signs in how they contact you (1–3)

1. Unexpected contact. Your bank, the tax office or a delivery company rarely contacts you first with a link or a request for payment. An unsolicited message is not proof of a scam, but it means the burden of proof is on the sender.

2. Impersonation. Imposter scams were the most reported category in 2025, with more than 1 million FTC reports and over $3.5 billion lost. The FBI counts 32,424 government impersonation complaints in 2025, up from 17,367 in 2024. Caller ID and sender names prove nothing: the FTC warns that scammers can make any name or number show up on your screen. Voices can be cloned too; see AI voice clone scams.

3. A change of channel. Moving you from a marketplace to bank transfer, or from a job site to WhatsApp, removes the platform’s protections. UK Finance describes purchase scams exactly this way: while many platforms offer secure payment, the criminal persuades the buyer to pay by bank transfer instead.

Signs in what they say (4–7)

4. A problem or a prize. Your account is locked, a parcel is held, a fine is unpaid, you won a sweepstakes, your computer is infected. The FBI recorded $2.13 billion lost to tech and customer support scams in 2025, which all start with an invented problem.

5. Urgency. A deadline in minutes is designed to stop you from checking. Real organisations give you time and accept a call back on their official number.

6. Secrecy. Being told not to tell your bank, your family or a colleague protects the scammer, not you. It is common in investment, romance and “safe account” scams.

7. Unrealistic returns or pay. Investment scams caused the largest losses reported to the FTC in 2025 ($7.9 billion), and $8.6 billion in the FBI’s report. Guaranteed returns, “no risk” trading and daily percentages are not how regulated investments work. The same logic applies to jobs: high pay for liking videos or rating products is the hook of task scams.

Signs in how they want to be paid (8–10)

8. Gift cards, wire transfers, crypto and payment apps. The FTC lists these as the methods scammers insist on, because the money is fast and hard to recover. No tax office or utility asks to be paid in gift card codes. In the FBI’s 2025 data, complaints involving cryptocurrency reported more than $11 billion in losses.

9. Money sent to you, then asked back. In a fake check scam, a stranger sends a check for more than you are owed and asks you to send the difference. The FTC explains that fake checks can take weeks to uncover, and that seeing the funds in your account does not mean the check is good. When it bounces, you repay the bank.

10. Pay to get paid. A deposit to “unlock” earnings, a fee to release a prize, a starter kit to get a job. The FTC’s rule of thumb from its job scam data is short: never pay anyone to get paid.

Signs in what they ask you to do (11–12)

11. Access to your device. Installing a remote-access tool “to fix a virus” or “to help with the refund” hands over your screen and your bank sessions. Scanning a QR code from an unknown source can lead to a phishing site: the FBI warned in July 2025 about unsolicited packages carrying QR codes, a variation of the brushing scam.

12. Codes and passwords. A one-time code sent by your bank is meant for you alone. Anyone who asks you to read it out, even someone calling “from the fraud team”, is trying to log into your account or approve a payment.

Examples: what these signs look like in real scams

• The task job. A WhatsApp message offers remote work rating products. Small payouts arrive, then you must deposit crypto to unlock bigger tasks. Signs 1, 3, 7, 8 and 10. FTC reports of task scams went from zero in 2020 to about 20,000 in the first half of 2024 alone.
• The marketplace bargain. A phone at half price; the seller asks for a bank transfer to “avoid fees”. Signs 3, 7 and 8. Purchase scams were 71% of all authorised push payment scam cases in the UK in 2025, 175,809 cases, per UK Finance.
• The recovery offer. After losing money, you are contacted by a “law firm” or “crypto recovery service” that works with the FBI. Signs 1, 2 and 10. The IC3 says it does not work with law firms or crypto services to recover money and will never contact you directly for money.
• The bank call. “Your account is compromised, move your savings to a safe account and don’t tell the branch why.” Signs 2, 4, 5, 6 and 12.

Is it a scam? A two-minute check before you reply or pay

1. 01Count the signs. Two or more from the list above: treat it as a scam until proven otherwise.
2. 02Do not use the contact details in the message. Open the official app, type the website address yourself, or call the number on your card or statement.
3. 03If a website or a company is involved, check who runs it: domain age, legal notice, registry, Safe Browsing. Our guide on how to check if a website is legit has the 10 checks, and the legit checks hub groups them by situation.
4. 04If a person is involved, reverse-search their photos; a stolen or AI-generated face is common in romance and recruitment scams (see fake dating profiles).
5. 05If you are still unsure, talk to someone you trust before acting. Scammers count on you deciding alone.

What to do if it is a scam

If you have not paid, block the sender, report the message and delete it. If you paid or shared details, call your bank or card issuer first: the sooner they know, the better the chance of stopping or recalling the payment. Change any password you shared and turn on two-step verification. Then report it through the official channel of your country, listed in how to report a scam.

Where AnyFact can help: the Business Check looks at the business behind a website, the AI voice detector scores a recorded call for signs of cloning and checks the transcript for urgency, secrecy and money requests, and the AI image detector checks a profile photo. Each result is an indication, not proof.

Frequently asked questions