Smart About Money: The only guaranteed way to avoid being scammed

The only guaranteed way to avoid being scammed is to arrange it so that you are never approached by a scammer.

Unfortunately, that’s impossible. Scammers work all day, every day to come up with new ways to catch people off guard so they can scam them.

Nick Maffeo

It’s best to accept that there’s no way to stop scammers from trying. If that changes someday, great. In the meantime, there are two things you need to do:

* Be skeptical and suspicious, and disengage quickly if you suspect you’re speaking, texting, emailing or communicating in any way with a scammer.

* Come up with a plan to minimize scammers’ chances of getting in touch with you (or people you care about) in the first place.

The fact is that scammers are targeting everyone. They’re relentless, merciless, and focused on only one thing — connecting with victims and stealing their money.

Occasionally, someone will assure me that they’d never fall for a scam. I tend to believe them if they seem alert to the threats and mentally prepared to recognize that they will be approached by scammers in all kinds of different ways — texts, emails, phone calls, computer pop-ups and more. They recognize the danger and understand that their work is to deflect as many scams as possible.

If you can do that, it makes a world of difference. But it requires constant vigilance, including:

* Never picking up a call when you don’t recognize the number. Never. Period.

* Taking advantage of every security setting that keeps those calls or messages from getting through to you.

* Never being “curious” or wanting to “get to the bottom” of some odd message or stranger’s claim.

* Immediately disengaging if a scammer does get through because scammers are very experienced at working their scam scripts and manipulating a conversation. Contacts with scammers very often go the scammer’s way.

Sometimes I ask the folks who are prepared to avoid or recognize scammers if they are as confident that their kids or parents or siblings are equally as prepared to avoid scammers or disengage immediately.

A few can say, “Yes!” Other times they realize that there could be a significant hole in their defenses. One man asked what he could do to protect a parent’s bank account. His parent had mild cognitive impairment and could not be convinced to not answer phone calls and talk to strangers.

Cognitive impairment leading to people getting scammed is huge. At least this gentleman was aware of the danger and was trying to safeguard his parent against it. Too often, though, a family suspects there’s a problem but they don’t act until tens of thousands of dollars are lost to scammers. Or much more!

Young people are at special risk because they have had fewer warnings and less life experience. They usually have less money, but scammers are happy to get that too. Some teenage scam victims take their own lives — a personal and family tragedy. The scammers just move on.

People are often warned about what they should never do. Lying to your bank about an unusual-for-you withdrawal is one, and converting that money to Bitcoin is another.

Deciding what you (and your loved ones) can do to avoid or limit contact with scammers altogether will be well worth your time and effort. If I can help you or answer any questions, email submissions@thecantoncitizen.com.

Nick Maffeo is the President & CEO of Canton Co-operative Bank in Canton.

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Posted by Nick Maffeo on Oct 31 2025. Filed under Business, Opinion, Smart About Money. Both comments and pings are currently closed.