Scam & Fraud Glossary

Plain-English definitions of the 40 scam, fraud and online-safety terms that come up across CheckAScam — from phishing and pig butchering to chargeback and WHOIS. Jump to a letter, or browse the lot.

A

Account takeover

A criminal seizing control of your email, banking or shopping account and acting as you.

Advance-fee fraud

A promised windfall that never arrives, released only after you pay an upfront fee.

C

Catfishing

Building an online relationship behind a fake or stolen identity to exploit the victim.

Chargeback

A card-scheme protection letting your bank reverse a payment for undelivered or misdescribed goods.

Counterfeit goods

Fakes sold as genuine branded products, often unsafe as well as a rip-off.

Credential stuffing

Automated attacks that try leaked passwords across many sites, exploiting password reuse.

D

Data breach

An incident exposing stored personal data, which is then reused to fuel further fraud.

Deepfake

AI-generated video, image or audio faking someone saying or doing what they never did.

Domain age

How long a site's address has existed — a useful, if imperfect, signal of trust.

Domain spoofing

Making a web or email domain resemble a trusted one to slip past your judgement.

Dropshipping scam

A hidden reseller marks up or misrepresents goods shipped straight from a cheap third party.

E

Escrow scam

A fake or impersonated escrow service used to intercept a payment between strangers.

F

Fake reviews

Fabricated or paid-for testimonials that manufacture a reputation a seller never earned.

Formjacking

Malicious code on a real checkout page that copies your card details as you type.

I

Identity theft

Misuse of your personal details to impersonate you, open credit or commit fraud in your name.

M

Malvertising

Malicious online adverts that deliver scams or malware, even on reputable sites.

Money mule

Someone who moves criminal funds through their own bank account — an offence, even unwittingly.

O

Overpayment scam

A buyer 'accidentally' overpays, then reclaims the difference before the original payment bounces.

P

Phishing

Fraudulent messages that impersonate a trusted brand to steal your passwords, card details or money.

Pig butchering

A long grooming scam that blends romance with a fake investment platform before taking everything.

Ponzi scheme

An investment fraud paying old investors with new investors' money until it collapses.

Pyramid scheme

A scheme that pays from recruitment rather than real sales, so most participants must lose.

Q

Quishing

A phishing link hidden inside a QR code, so you cannot see where it leads.

R

Ransomware

Malicious software that locks your files and demands payment to release them.

Recovery scam

A second con targeting scam victims with false promises to recover their lost money for a fee.

Refund scam

A fake refund used to trick you into paying the scammer or sharing account access.

Romance scam

A manufactured relationship used to extract money through invented emergencies.

S

Skimming

Stealing card details at a cash machine or card reader, often with a hidden device.

Smishing

Phishing carried by text message or messaging apps, pushing you to tap a malicious link.

Social engineering

Manipulating people, not machines — the common engine beneath almost every scam.

Spoofing

Faking the sender of a call, email or web address to impersonate someone you trust.

SSL certificate

The padlock that encrypts a connection — proof of privacy, not of the site owner's honesty.

T

Tech-support scam

A fake warning that your device is infected, charging you to 'fix' a problem that isn't there.

Triangulation fraud

A scammer sits between you and a real shop, pocketing your money and card details.

Trust score

A single rating summarising a website's risk from many underlying signals.

Typosquatting

Look-alike web addresses that exploit small typing and reading mistakes to catch you out.

V

Vishing

Voice phishing: a phone call or voicemail that pressures you into paying or sharing codes.

Voice cloning

AI that copies a specific voice from a short sample to make audio scams convincing.

W

WHOIS

The public record showing when a domain was registered and by which registrar.

Wire fraud

Being deceived into a bank transfer — fast to send and very hard to reverse.

Been targeted by one of these?

Knowing the name is half the battle. If a scam has reached you, our country-by-country directory shows exactly who to tell.

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