Does anyone actually fall for spam

Not so long ago, you were considered a savvy internet user if you ignored unsolicited emails from princes in faraway lands.

From phishing schemes disguised to lure you into a fraudulent website with innocent-looking bait to malware hidden in Wi-Fi hotspots, here are seven internet scams that even the smartest people fall for. How it works: This phishing scheme involves receiving a fraudulent email that looks like it came from your actual social network.

It may say you have new, urgent notifications or that someone is erroneously trying to access your account and you need to sign in to verify information. Click on the link in the email and you are directed to a fake website. If you sign in on that page, scammers can then hack into your real account and steal your identity, sending out spam messages to your family and friends and using personal information to blackmail you. Do not click on links that are emailed to you.

And set up two-step verification on all of your accounts so that if someone tries to sign into your account from a non-trusted computer, you get a notification texted to you. They often include an attachment or a link to a fraudulent file-sharing website and ask you to download a file from there.

If you download the files, they spread destructive malware on your computer, locking down all of the legitimate files on your device and holding it for ransom. How to avoid it: If you receive an unexpected attachment or link to a file-sharing website from a contact, do not open it. Instead, reach out to that contact directly—preferably via another channel than how you received it, in case they have been hacked—and ask what the file is and if he or she intended to send it.

How it works: A scammer duplicates a social network profile belonging to a friend and then adds you. They can also then send out malicious links that you would be tempted to click and requests for money.

If this type of email does land in your inbox, though, don't send money or give out your personal information to strangers, no matter how sad the story or enticing the reward. If you do fall for scams like these, McAndrew adds, don't feel too bad: Remember that lots of other people have made the same mistake. While the Nigerian prince-style schemes can cost a lot if you fall for them, investment fraud and romance scams are the most expensive for victims.

Sweetheart scams are similar to foreign money exchange schemes, but they generally start within online dating websites as opposed to by email. Fraudsters create fake dating profiles and pose as users looking for love. They spend time talking and getting to know their victims. Once there's a level of trust built up, they ask for money and play on victims' emotions.

Many times, these scams target the elderly. The most popular type of scam Americans report is phishing, which occurs when cyber criminals send fake emails to you that either attempt to retrieve personal information or infect your device with malware.

This type of fraud includes schemes that charge you for help getting new insurance, Medicare fraud and fake medical discount programs. Moving scams, where people put down a deposit and the movers never show up, were also on the rise in My colleagues and I set out to answer this question.

Some of our findings are in line with other research , but others challenge common assumptions about fraud. Sweepstakes, lottery and other mass-market scams have become surprisingly common in recent years.

In the past, scams like these were perpetrated by relatively small local players and often done face-to-face, perhaps at an investment seminar for a bogus real estate opportunity. No other crime affects so many people from almost all ages, backgrounds and geographical locations — and it's become a lot easier thanks to technology Credit: Alamy. Scams still happen the old-fashioned way, but today many more are being coordinated by transnational teams, including by groups in Jamaica, Costa Rica, Canada and Nigeria.

In recent years, fraud has grown into a pervasive global criminal activity as technology has lowered its cost while simultaneously making it easier than ever to reach millions of consumers instantly.

It is also much harder to catch and prosecute these criminals. Or they make time-sensitive claims to increase motivation. The study was designed to replicate real scenarios — although participants knew they were part of an experiment — and examine factors that we suspected increased risk , such as comfort with math and numbers, loneliness and less income.

In our first experiment, we asked participants to indicate their willingness to contact the activation number on the letter. They were then asked to rate the benefits and risks of responding to the letter on a point scale and fill out a survey intended to identify their level of numeracy, social isolation, demographics and financial status.

The consumers who indicated they would have responded to this solicitation tended to have fewer years of education and be younger. These participants also tended to rate the risks of contact as low and the benefits as high. In a second experiment involving individuals, we used the letters from the first one but added an activation fee to half of them.

Similar to the first experiment, individuals who rated the solicitation as having high benefits were more likely to signal intention to contact.