Fraudsters Want Your Money. Make Their Lives Difficult by Avoiding These Mistakes

Raina He is a contributor to CNET Money. She previously worked as an editor at CNET with a focus on credit cards, loans and banking. Before CNET, Raina worked as a staff editor for NextAdvisor. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. in Media and Journalism. Raina is currently traveling the world and sharing her favorite money tips as she goes. You can follow her at https://www.instagram.com/rainainwanderland/.

There are a many ways fraudsters can steal your money. Their scams can lead to victims sending cash under false pretenses, lines of credit being opened in your name or unauthorized bank transactions. 

US consumers lost a whopping $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, according to the Federal Trade Commission. 

Anyone, regardless of age or other demographics, can be a target of fraud. It's ...