I mentioned a few days ago that I had watched some anti-scammer videos – scambaiters. They are fascinating. I am interested in these things right now, because I have started to receive scam emails. They are so lame, but unwary people fall for them. Also, someone close to me got scammed with a gift card refund ploy.
Today, I saw a video which said that in g**g** searches, the SPONSORED links at the top of the search can be FAKE links pretending to take you to big companies that scammers uses for their nefarious schemes. Anyone can buy a sponsored link. That’s what they do. I have always avoided those, let’s say instinctively. Instead, I always scroll down to where the sponsored links end. THEN I go to the sites and go through log in procedures. I always have two-factor authentication on. I use super strong passwords like – and this is an example which is not a password to anything I have: Fs]WX<“{E<eZM_]$Y&K{.
There are even scams which target people who are selling goods online. They contact to buy, and then send a FAKE paypal email saying they’ve sent the money and then get from you the FedEx tracking for your item. The fact is, you were never paid, and they got your stuff… which they resell: pure profit.
Friends, if you have elderly family members and friends, TALK TO THEM. Advise them about strong passwords.
For businesses, btw, FEDERATED has a strong password vault. Contact them with questions.
Seriously. I makes me SICK what I have seen online. It made me furious when someone close to me was scammed, which inflicted terrible shame and guilt. Thankfully, it was a fairly small scam. Now that scammers are using the ploy of getting people to withdraw large amounts of cash and going to a cyber currency ATM and send it to their wallet… this is getting serious. Also, now there are scammers who are imitating scambaiters!
You have to be CAREFUL. Be alert – gosh, I’m sorry to say this – if any person you talk to from “support” etc. has a strong non-American accent of any kind, a glancing swipe at correct English, and who seemed tunneled in on a script, telling you repeatedly to do certain things and saying not to pay attention to incoming calls.
Those safety points scratch the surface.
Looking out for you as I know you would look out for me.
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In Canada we get many calls asking about duct cleaning. Do you have copper pipes? Can we see your place to see if you qualify? I have heard of a few people falling for another one that is common up here. People get a call from, “the Canada Revenue Agency” saying you owe money and off to jail if you don’t pay straight away at some random street corner or in front of a Walmart to the “agent”. Unfortunately they scare and scam the elderly and new Canadians who have some language barriers. I’d like to meet up with one of these scammers, I think that would be fun.
I love it when Bob Johnson from the Social Security Administration with a very bad Mumbai accent calls to tell me my social security card is no good and I must pay him $3000 of apple iTunes cards or go to jail. I have a script of pre written responses, most of which would make my old Senior Chief in NROTC blush.
They really hit the Senior Citizens. When my Dad passed some years ago, I found all kinds of things on his credit card, that I know he wouldn’t buy and the products were nowhere to be found. My wife and I still receive scam offers on email and text messages. We always say, If these people would put their efforts to the Faith, they could be saints.
What steams my carrots is that these big tech companies like FB and G**g** know full well about these scammers and they allow it and indeed promote it. I remember back in 2010 when I was still on FB and I got a computer virus (funny how I have to explain what type… computer) and it destroyed my computer and I was out of business for 7 days. I had to send my lap top to the manufacturer to get it fixed. They told me what it was and that FB knew it was on their system. Now that is nasty.
Well said about strong passwords. My elderly brother-in-law nearly lost a substantial balance in a brokerage account to this sort of thing. He had been using his dog’s name for all of his passwords, even his bank account. That’s been corrected now.
I would urge everyone to use passwords like the one in your example, but more importantly to use two-factor authentication whenever possible. 2FA is better than the strongest of passwords and should be used for any site that involves money changing hands.
My mother’s friend was scammed into going to the bank to withdraw $10,000 her granddaughter supposedly needed. Fortunately, the woman called her daughter to let her know she was going out to the bank & why. The daughter was a cop. She called the bank & met her mom at the bank before she could send the money. My mom’s friend thought she was helping her granddaughter.
Thanks for the info on the fake sponsored links. I didn’t know that though I rarely click on them. I’ll be passing that info along.
Password management software is a good alternative. The one I use auto-generates passwords for you. It also has an auto-fill feature so you don’t have to manually enter the password.
Father,
You need to start keeping bees
Sometime earlier this year, there was an older lady who was found withdrawing a very large sum of cash from a convenience store ATM machine. Fortunately, the customer service clerk behind the counter sensed something was “weird” and called the police. Turned out this older lady was following instructions from either an online scam or a phone scam. After a few weeks, the scammer was found and the older lady got at least some of her money back. (FYI – this happened in the Fort Worth area and was well documented by news agencies in the DFW area – it’s a good story about police interaction and observant bystanders).
About a year or two ago, my mother (80-ish) got a phone call from someone pretending to be from the phone company. My mother thought something was off and kept asking good questions. She did run a credit card over the phone, and the credit card company immediately knew something was up, declined the charge, and the impersonator hung up. Several older people I know aren’t tech savvy (my dad didn’t really like using the internet when he was alive) and prefer paper, phone reminders for appointments, etc. Several companies are trying to get away from the “1-on-1” and it’s sad that people don’t talk to each other at the grocery store anymore. Thanks for the reminder about scammers.