Keeping afloat in a sea of tricks. Don’t get soaked by scams.
By Lisa Player / Illustration by Getty Images
It’s a scary tech world out there, and we all need to be vigilant against scams. Phones, computers and tablets are all gateways to grifters who are trying to steal identities, mine for information and make off with victims’ hard-earned money. Here’s a quick guide to the most recent tricks and how to avoid them.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s called phishing, spoofing, pharming or some other term, the end goal is to trick you into sharing your personal information or to steal your money. It may feel like an ocean of danger out there, but being smart, doing a little research and not falling prey to “urgent” messages can all keep you afloat.
Scam: Your friend or family member has an emergency and asks you to send them a gift card or wire them money.
With this type of scam, the sense of urgency can compel a victim to act before investigating: “Oh no! My nephew is in trouble! I need to help!” How do the scammers get the information to trick you? It’s fairly easy. Through social media, hijacking contact lists or quick internet searches (now with the use of automated artificial intelligence), they can see who is important to you and use that to scare you into sending money. They might ask you to wire it to an account or to purchase gift cards and send them the codes to use. In any case, if someone contacts you via text, email, phone or online message and asks for money, STOP and investigate. Call your family member or friend directly and see if they need help. If it seems suspicious, it likely is! In the most advanced artificial intelligence scenarios, scammers have used voice-duplication technology to call victims in the voice of someone they love, saying they have been kidnapped and asking for ransom money.
Scam: You get a pop-up on your computer or other device that says you have a virus, your computer is crashing, your bank account has been compromised or other scary scenarios.
Again, there’s usually a sense of urgency that causes victims to act quickly and irrationally before investigating. The first thing to do is calmly close (“x-out”) the pop-up, log off all your programs and restart your device. If you have a security software program, run it as soon as you restart your device. Clear your browser’s cache and history. If the pop-up comes back, note what you were doing when you saw it. Is there a certain website that prompts the pop-up? Don’t go there again! If it’s an account that requires a password, now would be a good time to change that password. If it mentions your bank or credit card information, use another device and contact your account holder directly and let them know what’s happening. Know that most of the time, these pop-ups are not legitimate. Whatever you do, NEVER click any links from a pop-up. Don’t give out your account number, password, Social Security number, birthdate or other secure personal information via chat, text message or phone call with someone pretending to “help” you. And don’t allow someone to “remote into” your device to try to “fix” a problem. If all else fails, shut everything down immediately and take your device directly to a professional who can help diagnose the problem.
Scam: You get an alert that says your account was just charged $538 to renew your subscription, and you can “click here” if there’s an error.
Again, it’s probably fake. Check your bank/credit card account. Likely, this was an attempt to get you to click into a site designed to steal your money or information.
Scam: You list an item for sale online, and you get a message from someone out of state who wants to buy your car, furniture, etc. for full price, including extra for shipping. They ask you take your item off the site and promise to overnight a check to you. You get the check the next day.
This seems legit, right? They did everything they said they would do, and now you have a nice, fat check in hand. STOP. Don’t deposit that check! This is a common scam where the victim deposits the check, and then the sender asks the victim to pay for shipping or other costs. The victim pays those costs and then the check bounces. Now they have lost money along with bounced-check bank fees. There are a variety of ways for you to confirm a check’s validity before depositing. And to be safe, don’t take a check at all! Local buyers with cash in hand are usually a safer financial bet. (But of course, exercise caution when meeting buyers in person as well.)
Scam: You Google an airline to book tickets for your next vacation and click the first link that comes up in the search.
Be careful! According to the AARP website, fake booking sites, redirection to independent booking agents and fraudulent customer service numbers are all ways people are being duped when trying to book airline tickets. How can you be sure you’re booking with a real airline or talking to a real customer service agent? Double- and triple-check phone numbers and websites before booking. If they ask for your credit card information, account number or other information AGAIN when you know it’s already stored in your account, that’s a red flag. (Check out this author’s own bad experience in the sidebar.)
So how can you protect yourself? There are several precautions you can take to help minimize the risk of getting scammed.
Check email addresses. When you get an email that seems legitimate from a major company like Netflix, Amazon, Delta, etc., carefully hover or click on the sender’s name and look at the full email address. If it’s actually being sent from birdsandbees777662@gmail.com, it’s probably not a real notification! You can then BLOCK SENDER in your email program.
Contact friends and relatives directly and separately from any texts, calls or emails that seem suspicious. Maybe they aren’t really in jail in Transylvania, and don’t need an urgent wire of cash.
Don’t answer calls, emails or texts you don’t recognize. Just by interacting, you’re letting a potential scammer know you’re a real person who might make a good mark.
Use a good virus protection program and scan your devices regularly. $50 a year now is better than losing thousands of dollars later to scams.
Use a good “secure search” program along with your web browser to alert you when you’re trying to go to a suspicious website.
Change passwords regularly; use unique, unrecognizable and different passwords for every site/account; and use a good, encrypted password manager app to store them in.
Make all online purchases with a credit card company that will back you up and block charges if you do get scammed. If you suspect you’ve accidentally given your credit card information to a potential scammer, immediately call your card company and ask them to freeze that number and issue you a new one.
Learn more about scams and safety and report fraud to the FBI.gov website.
If you keep your cool, investigate before clicking or sharing and follow cybersafety tips, you can avoid most problems before they become nightmares. Don’t get swamped by the scammers! Stay safe out there, Bellas.
My own scam story...
I’m not only the Bella editor, I’m also a middle school teacher who teaches cybersecurity, so you’d think I’d be the last person to get scammed. And you’d be wrong.
Recently, my daughter was in labor out of state with my first grandchild, and I was desperate to get on a flight that night to be with her. I saw there was a flight out of Pensacola in two hours, so I threw my suitcase in the car and bolted for the airport.
I tried to book my ticket using my app en route, but it was too close to flight time to book online. So, I clicked on the advantage help number FROM THE APP and got in touch with a customer service representative who said she would help me book my last-minute ticket. She confirmed my frequent-flyer number and name and asked for my credit card number. I told her it was on file with my account, but she said since it was so close to departure time, she had to ask for it over the phone.
“Whatever,” I thought, “I’m on a legitimate call with my airline because I clicked the number in my app.” I immediately got a notification that I had a ticket, so all was good. Or so I thought. Three days later, while reveling in the joy of a new grandbaby, I got a credit card alert for a $2,500 charge for insurance in Australia. Of course, I checked my app to see if that was an actual charge posted to my account (it was), and then I noticed the extra $109 charge next to my plane ticket from “Global eFare.”
After investigating, I discovered my call had been swiped by a scam company, a fairly new tactic. Somehow, while my phone dialed the correct number from my app, the scammer redirected my call to a fake customer service site, which actually did book my ticket for me, but then charged me the extra fee while also sharing my stolen credit card information.
Thankfully, I caught this in time, my credit card company backed me up and blocked those charges, and I learned another valuable cybersecurity lesson to share.
— Lisa Player
