Last time, we shared real life scam stories. In the interem, an acquaintance was conned out of $38,000 as part of a marriage scam. Fortunately, once he discovered his mistake, he acted quickly and was able to recover all but $2000. He was lucky.
This month, I’ll offer basic suggestions to protect yourself.
Red Flags
- Unsolicited contact (call, text, email, or social media) demanding action right now.
- Unwarranted sense of urgency: Your bank won’t collapse. Super amazing investment deals can wait. The Nigerian prince is dead or he isn't. The IRS doesn’t keep local police on speed-dial. They also don’t phone you at home.
- Pressure to pay with untraceable methods: wire transfers, gift cards, payment apps, or that dark mystery of cryptocurrency.
- Requests for personal or financial information.
- Requests for you to help catch a bank swindler.
- Offers that sound too good to be true.
- Stories that tug hard at your emotions.
- Poor grammar in ‘official’ messages.
- Discouragement toward verifying their story with a trusted source.
- URL links that may or may not look slightly off. For example,
- YoürBank.com instead of YourBank.com or
- YourBankHelp.com instead of YourBank.com.
- Be aware that emails and web pages may display a web site name with a clickable link that hides a sinister URL within the HTML. In other words, text on the web page may display YourBank.com, while the hidden web address might be www.NastyScams.com.
Practical Protection
- Pause and verify. If someone claims to be calling from your bank or the government, hang up and call back using the number on your bank statement or official web site, never one scammers provide.
- Think before you click. Hover over links to check the real address. Better yet, type in your bank’s address. Don’t trust conveniently provided URLs.
- Block and filter. Use your phone’s built-in tools to enable spam-text filtering and silence unknown callers.
- Register with the national Do Not Call list. It’s imperfect, but it helps.
- Secure your accounts. Use strong, unique passwords and monitor statements weekly.
- Better yet, use lengthy passphrases. For example: ‘Judges12:5-6SayNowShibboleth’ is much, much stronger than Shibboleth42k (or Sibboleth).
- Do not provide real answers to so-called security questions. I may be the only consultant who argues against security questions, but I’m convinced it’s critical. Never ever select your favorite color question. Lie to protect yourself. Make up a nonsense alternative:
- Favorite pet name? “Forget it, buddy.”
- Your first car? “Forget it, buddy.”
- Who’s buried in Grant’s tomb? “Forget it, buddy.”
- Most experts recommend using multi-factor authentication everywhere possible. I confess reluctance, having witnessed users losing access because of a forgotten passphrase. Nevertheless, pros urge using 2FA until something better comes along. You decide.
- Never urgently send money to ‘help’ a ‘family member’ without independent confirmation. Call them on a known number first. For example:
- You receive a call from a Mexican jail claiming your grandchild is locked up but needs bail money. That can seem funny when your young relative is safely sitting on the sofa beside you, but it’s not funny in the middle of night when the caller sounds and acts exactly like your young relative and you have no idea where they are.
- Consider creating a family ‘safe word’ for emergencies.
- Do not download attachments from unknown sources.
- Be very cautious before downloading programs outside your app store.
- Help protect your family, especially trusting older relatives who are frequent targets.
- Don’t be concerned you'll hurt suspect callers’ feelings. They’ll survive. Scammers have screamed and cursed me. I survived.
- Know that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issues monthly advisories and alerts.
What to Do If You Suspect a Scam
- Act fast, but don’t be stampeded into recklessness before you can verify a caller’s story.
- Contact your bank or credit-card issuer immediately to freeze or reverse transactions.
- Report incidents at ReportFraud.ftc.gov . The FTC uses reports to track patterns and pursue criminals.
- If you shared personal data, place a fraud alert with credit bureaus and monitor your credit report.
- For tech-support or investment scams, additional help is available through the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (www.IC3.gov).
Scammers count on fear, greed, kindness, and time crunches to cloud judgment. They operate by script, intent of fooling a profitable percentage of ‘suckers’. Don’t be a sucker. Slowing down, asking questions, and trusting instincts breaks their playbook. Every report you file helps shut down operations and protects others. Stay vigilant, talk openly about scams with friends and family, and remember: legitimate organizations will never rush you into sending money or sharing sensitive information.
For more resources, visit consumer.ftc.gov or consumer.gov. Awareness is the best defense. Spread the word and stay safe.
Sound advice, Leigh. What about blackmailers? I’ve received several demands for Money from blackmailers claiming they’ve taken over my computer and have proof of the shameful things I’ve done (never specified) which they’ll reveal for all the world to see.
ReplyDeleteThey all seem to use the same template. I find them, and the occasional extortionists, amusing, though I understand the real harm they can do to the gullible.
Edward Lodi
You're right, Edward. I used to see notices that pornography had been found, but they won't report it to the FBI if the target pays a fee. Of course they're depending on the fact a majority of people have at least a sexy image or two they might find embarassing, and if not…then they could conveniently plant some.
DeleteGood advice!
ReplyDeleteHi Janice! Thank you.
DeleteEdward, a friend of mine had that happen - she had someone email that they had total control over her computer AND had photos and video of her doing extremely x-rated things with a neighbor, and would release it on the internet unless she paid up a lot of money. She shared the email with me and we had one hell of a laugh - she's in her 80s.
ReplyDeleteSoooo…elder porn?
DeleteThat's oddly specific. What a strange world we live in.
Leigh, what's you're reasoning about security questions? My answers are real but never obvious, I don't use the info on them elsewhere (eg on Facebook), and I've only ever been asked for them when I've initiated a call to my bank or other institution.
ReplyDeleteOops, your, not you're! Quelle horreur!
DeleteHi Liz! I'm glad you asked. For hackers, security questions represent a guessing game and too often not a challenging one. Almost all of us would be shocked at the amount of our information can be found online. including your airline seat preference and meals. Facebook is notorious for mining, a treasure chest of work, school, relationships, and pets… topics that also appear as security questions.
DeleteIn a case I exposed a few years ago, a young woman was falling for a handsome Irishman with a gift of blarney living in NYC. Over the course of a couple of months, they shared where they'd gone to school (leading to mascot and hometown), where they worked (present location and position within the company), hobbies pets. Then he started sending her money! Checks simply showed up in her bank account. Her family brought it to my attention and I realized the windfall was a bank theft wrapped in fraud. The con artist (who was Nigerian, not Irish, and not living in NYC) never needed her password… he had her security details.
Worst of all are questions about favorite color, usually prompted by a handy, dropdown list. Out of 8 or 9 selections, bad guys can likely eliminate black, white, and probably brown.
It doesn't matter if your answers are accurate or not…They're simply hashed into storage and trotted out to match with your answers when you've lost a password or other problem. Clerks and computers don't care what your answer is as long as it matches when read back. Be safe. Lie. Lie to protect the world from crackers and hackers.
So helpful. Thank you, Leigh.
ReplyDelete