How to tell if a login alert is real or a scam

Online scams thrive on the urgency and fear of their victims. If you've ever been a victim of a scam, you’d know that bad actors often try to rush you into taking action by creating a sense of fear. A scammer may call you impersonating a government agency and claim your Social Security number has been linked to drug trafficking. 

A phishing email might ask you to update your tax details or claim you’ve won a lottery or a free product, all to get you to click a malicious link.

A more effective tactic scammers use is sending fake login alerts. These are warnings that someone has logged into your account, prompting you to take immediate action. This method works well because legitimate services like Google, Apple, Netflix and Facebook also send these types of notifications when someon...