Welcome to Scam World
The New York Times
To own a computer or smartphone — indeed, to engage with the digital world to any degree — is to be a mark. You can try to block, encrypt and unsubscribe your way out of it, but you may not succeed.
You open your eyes and grope for your phone. You check your inbox and discover dozens of spam emails that made it past the filter.
Tapping over to Instagram, you find a request for a supposed brand collaboration in your DMs. Your WhatsApp notifications, meanwhile, consist solely of strangers asking you to invest in a cryptocurrency exchange.
A recruiting manager has contacted you through LinkedIn to say they are “impressed with your unique background and journey” and want to discuss “exciting job opportunities” at several Fortune 500 companies.
While scrolling social media on your lunch break, you see Tom Hanks promoting a dental plan and Taylor Swift peddling a cookware giveaway. (Or at least that’s what seems to be going on.)
On the way home from work, you receive a text alert from FedEx, with a tracking number and a link to update your delivery preferences — except you don’t remember any pending shipments to your home.
Should you click the link? Pick up that call? Pursue that job opportunity? Is the person who texted you “hey” just now from a number you don’t recognize someone you actually know?
