5 Common Email Scams And How To Avoid Them

The annual cost of email scams isn’t measured in thousands or even millions. It’s measured in billions.

Most email scams don’t involve an overly clever hacker. They happen when someone clicks a phishing link, reuses a weak password, or carelessly shares private information. 

Email is our primary communication tool for work, school, and social activities. Whether setting up accounts, sharing flight details, or subscribing to favorite brands, email is everywhere.

The good news is, most cybersecurity attacks—especially email scams—are preventable with the proper cybersecurity hygiene. Let’s discuss the most common email scams and how to avoid them.

Beware these 5 common email scams

1. Phishing email attacks

We can all laugh at the obvious scams when they hit our inbox: When a “foreign prince” promises to leave you their inheritance, you know better than to open the email. It’s a scam almost as old as email itself. 

But this is just a clumsy example of a much more dangerous scam: phishing. 

This is when someone pretending to be a trusted friend, colleague, or brand—or sometimes even that benevolent prince—emails you a link. Clicking it often downloads harmful malware that can steal your information or damage your device. 

Phishing emails often play on urgency or fear, like claiming your account has been compromised or a payment is overdue. Look out for generic greetings, spelling errors, and unexpected attachments. Staying alert and cautious can help you avoid falling victim.

How to avoid phishing email attacks:

1. Verify the Sender: If an email claims to be from someone you know but feels off, check the sender’s email address. Scammers often use addresses that look similar to legitimate ones but have subtle differences.
2. Hover Over Links: Before clicking on any link, hover your mouse over it to see the URL. If it looks suspicious or doesn’t match the claimed destination, don’t click.
3. Use Security Tools: Many email services offer built-in phishing detection or allow you to report suspicious emails. Keep these tools activated and updated.

2. Invoice and payment scams

A common subset of phishing scams, invoice and payment scams target individuals and businesses with fake payment requests. Scammers send emails posing as trusted vendors or service providers, urging immediate payment to avoid penalties. These scams often use platforms like PayPal, Cash App, or Venmo to collect funds.

What makes these scams particularly dangerous is their use of authentic-looking invoices and branding to appear legitimate. They may reference real transactions or mimic details from companies you’ve worked with before, making it harder to spot the fraud. 

Invoice and payment scams are particularly common during big purchases like real estate or business purchases. So, beware next time you’re engaging in a large transaction. 

How to avoid invoice scams:

1. Double-Check Invoices: Contact the vendor or your mortgage lender directly to confirm the invoice’s validity.
2. Use Secure Payment Methods: Avoid paying via wire transfer or gift cards unless you’re confident of the recipient.
3. Monitor Your Accounts: Regularly review your financial statements to spot unauthorized transactions.

3. Account theft

Account theft scams focus on obtaining your email credentials—your email address and password—to gain unauthorized access to your accounts. Once scammers access your email, they can use it to reset passwords, access financial accounts, or impersonate you to scam others.

Unlike phishing, these scams often rely on brute force attacks, credential leaks, or malware that captures your login information. For instance, if you’ve reused a password across multiple sites and one of those sites is breached, scammers can use that information to access your email and other accounts.

How to avoid account theft scams:

1. Use Strong, Unique Passwords: Avoid reusing passwords and choose ones that are complex and hard to guess. 
2. Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): This adds an extra layer of security, requiring a second form of verification (e.g., a text message or authentication app) when logging in.
3. Monitor for Credential Leaks: Regularly check if your email or passwords have been exposed in data breaches using services like Have I Been Pwned.

4. Spoofing scam

Spoofing is a deceptive tactic where scammers forge the sender’s email address to make it appear that the email is coming from a trusted source, such as a colleague, a company you do business with, or even yourself. Unlike phishing, which often tries to trick you into clicking a harmful link or providing sensitive information, spoofing’s primary goal is to manipulate you into believing the sender is legitimate.

For instance, you might receive an email that looks like it’s from your bank, asking you to call a phone number or reply with account details. The email never came from the bank—it was sent from a scammer using a forged sender address. Spoofing can also impersonate coworkers or clients, leading to misdirected payments or leaks of confidential information.

How to avoid email spoofing scams:

1. Inspect Email Headers: Advanced users can check email headers to verify the actual source of the email. This can reveal discrepancies between the claimed and actual sender.
2. Be Wary of Requests for Urgency: Spoofing emails often create a false sense of urgency. Take the time to verify requests, especially for money transfers or sensitive data.
3. Don’t Trust the Display Name Alone: Just because the email appears to be from a familiar name doesn’t mean it’s legitimate. Always confirm by other means, such as calling the sender.

5. Baseless threats and support scams

As we’ve mentioned a few times, scammers often use fear to pressure victims into handing over money or sensitive information. That’s also true in fake tech support warnings and baseless hacker threats. This scam combines many of the email scams we’ve already discussed.

• In tech support scams, you receive an email claiming to be from Microsoft, Apple, or another major company, warning that your computer is infected or compromised. The email urges you to call a number or download a “fix,” which is actually malware. If you call, the scammers may demand payment for unnecessary repairs or even request remote access to your device, putting your data at risk.
• Then there’s the fake hacker threat scam, which works like a phony ransomware attack. You get an email claiming that a hacker has breached your device, stolen your private data, or recorded you through your webcam. The email demands payment—often in cryptocurrency—to prevent your data from being leaked. In reality, the hacker has no such information; they’re simply trying to scare you into paying.

How to avoid baseless threats and support scams:

1. Watch for Generic Threats: Scammers use vague language, like “We have access to your device,” without proof. If they don’t provide specific details, it’s likely fake.
2. Verify Claims Independently: If you’re concerned about a real issue, visit the official website of your software provider and contact support directly.
3. Never Give Remote Access: No legitimate company will request remote access unless you initiated the request.
4. Don’t Pay Ransoms: Fake hacker threats are designed to scare you into paying. If in doubt, scan your system with legitimate antivirus software to check for real vulnerabilities.

Think big picture: Stay in control 

The real danger of email scams lies in how scammers manipulate trust and familiarity to steal your information. The less personal data you expose, the harder it is for them to succeed.

Decrease the size of your digital footprint by limiting what’s publicly available about you. Use strong, unique passwords, enable two-factor authentication, and practice good cyber hygiene. Better yet, when dealing with email scams, avoid unnecessary risk by using proactive tools.

With IPVanish Secure Browser, for instance, you can safely inspect questionable links by right-clicking to open them in a virtual environment, preventing harmful scripts from reaching your device. Or with the VPN app’s built-in Link Checker, you can scan URLs for potential threats before opening them.

Small habits like these make a big difference in keeping your personal information safe in the long run.