Everyone’s been spending more time online, and that includes scammers. Assistant Attorneys General Ben Paholke and Marinna Julian are with the Consumer Protection Division. It’s their job to protect people from false, deceptive, or misleading trade practices.

“The scammer always tries to evoke a strong emotional response in the victim,” Paholke said.

For instance, intense emotions such as ‘love’ are used as a tool in what’s called romance scams. It’s when a scammer convinces a victim they’re in love and persuades the victim to send them money.

“The scammer just wants to make you feel loved and tricks you into feeling that way,” Julian said. “I had one woman come in and she’s a retired GovGuam teacher and she ended up giving the scanner her entire savings, and she had to go back to work again.”

Scammers will also often use fear in order to control their victims.

“They’ll also claim to be government agencies like they’ll threaten to be the IRS and say if you don’t pay us then we’re going to sue you you know we’re going to put you in jail,” Paholke said.

There’s also tech support scams. It's when a pop-up alerts you that your computer has a virus. But, if you call the number provided, scammers will install software on your computer that allows them to have total control.

“No tech support company is going to ask for remote access to your computer,” Paholke said. “So, if you’re talking with someone online, and they want remote access to your computer, they want to see what’s on your screen, that’s a red flag.”

Another type of scam that tends to come up after any kind of disaster is charity fraud. It’s when a scammer claims to be donating money or goods to a certain place or person. Their biggest advice to avoid getting conned is to do your own research, and most importantly don’t ever send anything to anyone you’ve never met in person.

Don’t send them cryptocurrency, don’t send them gift cards, don’t send them dirty pictures even if they sent you some first because they’ll try to blackmail you with that,” Paholke said.

They also highly encourage everyone to educate our manamko' as they tend to fall victim to scammers the most.

“An ounce of preventions is better than a pound of medicine,” Paholke said.

To report a scam, contact the ag’s consumer protection division at 671-475-2720 or if you’d like to learn how to build your own systems and protect yourself from cyber attacks and ransom ware, go to stopransomware.gov.