Three delivery messages, and which one is real
Fraudulent parcel texts no longer look fraudulent. Three structural tests separate them from a genuine notification, and one fifteen-second habit defeats all of them.
Tag
#Online safety
SIM swap: how a phone number stops being yours
Nothing is hacked. The number is moved by the company that owns it, on a request that looked legitimate — and your phone losing signal is the only warning you get.
The filter scam that asks you to log in first
The filter is the packaging; the login is the product. Why a real effect never needs your social password on another website, and what to do in what order if you gave it.
The subscription trap behind a free trial
Sign-up optimised to four taps, cancellation left deliberately tiring, every abandoned step measured. Where you actually cancel, and the order that works.
A deepfake call is no longer easy to spot
Faces and voices are synthesised live from material already public. The visual tells are disappearing — the behavioural ones are not, and neither is calling back on a number you already had.
The charity scam that follows every disaster
Fraudulent appeals attach themselves to real crises, so the news being true proves nothing. Four checks that take four minutes, and one that is conclusive on its own.
The install link that skips the store entirely
It removes review, developer identity and the ability to have a bad app disabled later — and the fraudulent version depends on you not knowing what was removed.
Selling something second-hand without being scammed
When you are the seller, the fraud is on the payment rather than the item — and every technique reduces to one rule about when the money is actually yours.
The support chat that opened by itself
Because you arrived rather than being contacted, every instinct about unsolicited approaches is disabled — and searching for a helpline is how most people get there.
Screen sharing is remote access with better manners
The request sounds smaller than what it grants — and one familiar-looking prompt turns being watched into being operated.