Safeguard Series – Part II
This is the second in a series of articles* intended to raise awareness on how you can protect yourself from cybercrime. Unfortunately, we’ve had several clients experience these issues over the past few years. If you think your personally identifiable information has been compromised, please let us know immediately.
Prevent Common Cybercrime Scams
Fake Emails
- Be careful where you click. Don’t click on links or attachments in emails from an unknown sender, a suspicious sender, or in emails that don’t make sense.
- Remember that a friend’s email account can become compromised and that attackers can ‘spoof’ someone’s email address to appear to be from anyone.
- Don’t react emotionally to an email. The hackers count on this to overcome logic and common sense to try to convince us to make bad decisions.
Tech Support Scams
Tech support scammers lure you with a pop-up window that appears on your computer screen that looks like an error message from your operating system or antivirus software. The message warns of a security issue on your computer and provides a phone number to get help. They want you to pay for tech support you don’t need or to fix a problem that doesn’t exist. They often want payment by gift card because it can be hard to reverse. They may ask for remote access to your computer. If someone calls you with this schtick, hang up and if you get a pop-up as described, don’t call the number in the pop-up.
Email Extortion Scams
According to the FTC, this scam has increased recently. In this scenario, the scammers lie and say they have access to your computer, webcam or have installed clever software to hack your files. They threaten to release personal information about you and your online habits if you don’t pay them. But they may really know one of your old-or recent-passwords and they include it in the message to prove it. Most likely, this was obtained through a third part breach. When you see that, you know it’s time to update your password on the account. If you get a message like this, don’t engage with them and report the incident to the FTC at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/
Ransomware
What it is: Ransomware is a form of malware that restricts access to data by encrypting files or locking computers.
How it begins: Victims will open an email addressed to them and may click on an attachment that appears legitimate, like a notification of a missed package delivery. This may cause ransomware code to be installed on their computer.
What happens next: The malware encrypts files on a victim’s computer. They see computer messages advising them of the attack and demand a ransom payment in exchange for a decryption key to unlock a computer or recover the files.
To stay safe: Don’t download attachments from an unknown source. Back up your files. But because ransomware can attack backups, using a cloud backup that can restore to previous versions that are not encrypted is a good option.
Real Estate Wire Transfer Fraud
It begins when a criminal hijacks the email account of lawyers, real estate agents, title companies or lenders to get the details of real estate transactions about to close. Then, posing as a party to the transaction, the criminal will email a buyer with instructions on where to wire money for the closing. The buyer, who believes they have received legitimate instructions, will wire the money to the criminal. A wire transfer is almost impossible to reverse once completed. This crime is an epidemic and growing. Not buying a home? Warn family and friends who are. You might save them thousands of dollars in losses. There is too much money at stake for you to make a mistake.
Here are some tips to stay safe from this crime
- Know that wiring instructions rarely change and be very suspicious of last-minute wiring changes.
- During a real estate transaction, know the phone numbers of all the parties and know their voice. Get the wiring information in person or over a verified phone number.
- Finally, if your gut is telling you something is wrong, investigate. You are probably right!
*Source: Retired FBI Special Agent Jeff Lanza jefflanza@thelanzagroup.com; www.thelanzagroup.com
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