How can you identify Fraud, Scam and Phishing easily even if you are not tech savvy?

Fraud, Scam and Phishing have one in common i.e. their capability to trick people to give their personal information such as passwords, bank account details, credit card numbers and others sensitive information.

How could we avoid them most especially those who are not tech savvy? Cyber crimes target are those weak and could easily be bent by their persuasive techniques. They are always lurking and looking for somebody to be a victim. Most of these cyber crimes are already near us or already proliferating on our gadgets and devices. It may be in a form of email, text messages, icons on our laptops and computers and are already part of our browsers.

The best example of this was my friend who, recently received a text message informing her that she won a million dollars on a raffle draw. She was very excited to claim the prize and she was asked to contact a certain person and a certain phone number. However, I asked her if she had joined a raffle and she said she didn't. So, that means that this was a fake or a fraud.

I myself received an email that my credit card has been compromised and I need to fill out the details that were given to me to verify my bank details. But one thing came to my mind, if the message really came from my bank they would call me personally or they would email me with my details. This is a kind of phishing pretending to be someone from the bank and they wanted you to verify details because they will hack your bank details.

There are thousands of forms that can persuade us by giving details immediately. Just a few days ago, while working on an article I received an alert message on my computer that I've been hacked and I need to call a certain number that was displayed on my monitor. Alerted by this message and dismayed that I might lose my computer, I immediately called the phone number and somebody answered it. It was like an agent from a call center because I heard noises at the background. This agent was asking my permission to remotely access into my computer in order for him to scan it. However, there was a catch and that, I need to pay $250 otherwise my computer would be shut down and can no longer be used. But to my surprise, the agent was asking me the password of my email too with no further explanations. I was alarmed by his statement and I immediately dropped the call. I turned off my computer and after 3hrs I turned it on and nothing happened.

These fraud activities might be your experience, my experience and others experience. But how can we really decide what is true or what is not? If this ever happens to you it's easy for us to identify it even if you are not tech savvy. The examples above give us a better understanding that most of those scenarios need a common sense. This is what we have all and this is a powerful weapon to combat these fraudulent activities that surround us. I hope it will help us discern and decide to act immediately when these things happen to us.