Internet Safety Tips
The Internet can be a scary place full of hackers and scammers who are, just trying to steal your money. We have compiled a list of some of the scams that are out there. We also provide some practical tips on how to avoid falling victim to these scams.
Scenario:
You receive an email or a telephone call claiming you are owed a refund of some software from Geek Squad, McAfee, Norton, etc. etc.
How The Scam Works.
Just like other scams, the goal is to get full access to your computer, then your bank account. What the scammer does next, is have you type in the amount of the refund. Then they will manipulate the banking web page to make it appear, you made a mistake and entered a much higher amount. They will then say you need to go to the store and by certain gift cards and give them the numbers off of these cards so, they can be paid back the difference. The scammer will make it appear that if you do not do this, they will lose their job or, make up some other sob story to get you to comply.
What’s happening in reality, they did not transfer any funds to you. They are getting you to buy all of these cards so they can have the number to redeem the amounts on those cards thus, taking your money.
How To Avoid This Scam.
If the scammer contacted you by telephone, hang up. A business will not call you asking to connect to your computer
Scenario:
You receive an email from what looks like it’s from a friend or family. The subject line and message has several variations to it.
- A friend or family member is in another country and needs money to get back home with a link you need to click on or;
- A friend or family member wants you to look at the attached file for x reasons.
How This Scam Works.
If it’s a clickable link, you will be directed to a malicious website and malware will be downloaded and installed on your computer. Your computer will now become part of a larger network of hacker-controlled computers, could be used to send out spam or keylogging software, could be installed to capture your keyboard keystrokes in hopes of recording your banking credentials to empty out your bank account.
How To Avoid This Scam.
Be very skeptical of either scenarios. Inspect the email address in the, “From:” section by placing your mouse pointer over the address. Look to see if the address is correct, has correct spelling and to truly know if it is a legit email, call your friend or family member and ask, “Did you really send this email?”
Above all else, DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK IN THE MESSAGE BODY AND DO NOT OPEN THE EMAIL ATTACHMENT!.
Scenario:
You receive an email stating, you have a past due invoice for a product or service you didn’t order. The email appears to have been sent by DHL, Amazon, Microsoft, McAfee or a host of other businesses. This email usually has a PDF document attached for you to view the past due invoice.
Is This A Real Invoice?
It’s all fake!
How The Scam Works.
If the sender can convince you to open the attachment, you will unknowingly, install a malicious program in your computer. This program, could simply run in the background, spying on you. It could capture all of the keystrokes you make on the keyboard, to capture your banking information and credentials or, it could be a malicious program that hides and waits for a specific trigger like a date or time, to deliver its payload. Which, would allow your computer to send out spam or, be used with other controlled computers to take down a network like, Amazon. Another thing this malicious program can do, encrypt all of your files and hold them for ransom unless, you pay with bitcoins to get your files back.
How To Avoid This Scam.
If you know for sure you have not placed and order or done any recent business with that company, delete the email right away. Under no circumstances, DO NOT OPEN THE EMAIL ATTACHMENT!
To find out if the email is from a legitimate company, place your mouse pointer on the senders email address in the “From:” section. Look at the part of the email address past the @ symbol. If it doesn’t end with the correct address like, @walmart.com, @amazon.com etc. etc. you will know then, it’s fake.
Scenario:
You receive an email from an unknown person. The message states, “I have been watching your online surfing habits and found you have been looking at things that could be shameful if your family/friends found out. You have x number of hours to pay me or else, I make this information public.”
Am I Actually Being Watched?
If you’re actually going to questionable sites, there may be a slight possibility of it being real. But in all reality, it’s going to be 99.9%, fake.
How The Scam Works.
The scammer, sends out a massive amount of these emails hoping to get as many of the recipients, to pay up. The scammer preys on those who would have a knee-jerk reaction to the possibility of their surfing habits, being leaked to family and friends even if, you don’t look at porn.
How To Avoid This Scam.
One way to tell for sure that this is a scam…. Re-read the email message again. It says you’ve been watched and recorded watching porn and enjoying it but, there is no mention of date, time or website of when, you were supposedly watched and recorded? This alone, should be a dead giveaway that it’s fake. The best practice for this situation, just delete the email.
Scenario:
You get a phone out of the blue from someone claiming to be from Microsoft or, they are a Windows Technician, they have discovered a virus on your computer and need to connect to it to remove the virus.
Is Your Computer Really Infected?
The short answer, No.
How The Scam Works.
These scammers catch you off guard and sound very convincing to the fact that, you have a virus on your computer. Once they convince you to install a remote access software such as, AnyDesk. They will have the ability to have full access to your computer. They will instruct you to login to your bank account while they are connected which, they are able to see your banking login information.
The scammers will offer to remove this, “virus” for a fee and/or will promise to give you lifetime tech support. When in reality, they want access your bank account and withdraw any amount they want at any time or, they may install a backdoor virus that will allow them to use your computer along with other computers under their control, to act like a giant network and target a company to attack their computer servers.
How To Avoid This Scam.
Never let a stranger have access to your computer! Especially, one over the phone. There are too many things the scammer can do to block you from logging into your computer. Best practice is to simply hang up the phone. Be aware, they will continue to call you hoping, to wear you down.
If you do happen to let them have access and change your mind… The best way to stop their access, unplug your router from electricity. Then, seek out a reputable computer repair shop and have them remove the scammers software and scan for other malicious software the scammer, may have installed in the background.
Scenario:
You receive a call or voicemail reporting, “There is a warrant out for your social security number and agents are on the way to arrest you.” The only way you can stop this, call the 800# and speak with a special agent and pay what you owe to prevent your arrest.
Are Agents On The Way?
No! It’s All Fake! The I.R.S. will never call you on the phone or send an email. They only correspond through snail mail.
How The Scam Works.
The scammer will do their best to scare you into believing you will be arrested if you don’t pay the, “fine”. The scammers will instruct you to go to the store, purchase certain types of gift cards and give them the numbers of of the card as payment. Once they have your money, they move on to another victim.
How To Avoid This Scam.
Hang up on the caller. If it’s a voicemail message, delete the message.
As mentioned above, The I.R.S. will not call you or send you an email to warn you about an arrest, nor will they ask you to buy gift cards to pay your fine.
Scenario:
You get a call that goes like this, “Hi, I’m Sam from PCH, you have won $2 million dollars” or, they may say, “Have you been getting the PCH letters?”
Are You Really A Winner?
Not even close!
How The Scam Works.
If you take the bait, they will give you routing numbers and pins numbers to send a processing fee to but, you have to be sitting at your computer. They will then, convince you to run a command on your computer that will download and install remote access software. Once that happens, the have full access to your computer. Then, you will be instructed to log into your bank account to, “transfer”, the processing fees to their, “secure servers”, while they are watching and capturing your banking information.
How To Avoid This Scam.
Usually the caller ID is the first indication that the call, is fake. You may see a number from another country like, Kingston, Jamaica or, it could be a local phone number in your area code. If you do not recognize the number, let it go to voicemail or answering machine. If you do answer the call, simply hang up and whatever you do, do not let them have access to your computer or bank account.
Scenario:
You receive a call from someone claiming to be your grandson or grand daughter stating, they’ve caused a wreck and are in jail and need you to bail them out.
How This Scam Works.
After the initial call with the “fake” grandchild, another scammer will call posing as their attorney requesting payment for legal fees. The fake attorney will instruct the victim to keep it secret out of fear of further prosecution of their grandchild. Then, the scammer will instruct the victim to send money by wire transfer, cash, packed into magazines, books, etc. etc. and send through the postal service. The scammer may have the victim give the money to an witting/unwitting courier.
How To Avoid This Scam.
If you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that, this isn’t your grandchild, hang up the phone. If you are unsure, make an excuse for them to call you back in 10 minutes or so. This will give you time to call your grandchild directly, contact their parents and see if this is a legitimate call. Chances are, the scammer won’t be calling you back. If they do, you can tell them to go pound sand.
Whatever you do, DO NOT SEND ANY MONEY OR GIVE MONEY TO ANY STRANGER!
Scenario:
You’ll suddenly see a big warning message on your monitor screen, reporting to be from Microsoft saying your computer is infected and you need to call an 800#. Sometimes, there will also be a voice telling you, “Do not turn off the computer and to call the number on the screen.” Your screen will be locked and you cannot stop the message.
Are You Really Infected?
Fortunately, this is a fake message and your computer is not infected with a virus. You have what is called a, “Browser Hijacker”. A browser hijacker is a cleverly written piece of computer code, that looks for programming flaws in Microsoft Edge, FireFox, Chrome and Opera web browsers and, pops this message up on your screen.
How The Scam Works.
The idea behind this scam, is to convince you that your computer is infected and you need, to call the number. If you do call the number, a scammer will be on the other end, waiting to read a carefully prepared script. They will sound very convincing and will try every attempt to gain access to your computer. The scammer usually will have you run some command that will download and install a remote access program that, gives them full access to your computer.
The scammer will then proceed to open a program called, “Event Viewer”. They will show you lists of items that are normally occurring messages inside of Microsoft Windows claiming, many people are connected to your computer or, your computer is severely infected with a virus. But, for $399.00, they will remove these, “viruses” plus, give you lifetime tech support. The scammer will then instruct you to log into your bank account to transfer the amount to them. Now the scammer, has your banking login information and can drain your bank account at will.
How To Avoid This Scam.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to prevent the possibility of being hit with a browser hijacker but, there are some things you can do to stop it, when it happens.
- DO NOT CALL THE 800# ON THE SCREEN!
- Find the power button on your computer tower or laptop, press and hold the power button for a full 10 seconds. Doing this will completely shut the computer down. If you don’t hold for the full 10 seconds, you are only putting the computer to sleep and the hijacker, is still there.’
- After the computer shuts down, wait at least 2 minutes before pressing the power button to turn the computer back on and you can go back to surfing the Internet.
Scenarios:
You’re surfing Facebook and an ad for xzy widget shows up in your timeline.
You receive a friend’s request from someone already on your friend’s list.
You receive a friend’s request from young hot babe.
You get a pop-up message in Facebook Messenger from a stranger asking you to check out the link in the message.
You see a post with a link to check out some “shocking news” event.
How These Scams Work.
If the message is asking you to click on a link or an ad, the possibility of being directed to a malicious website to have malware installed on your computer or, give a hacker/scammer full access to your computer is high.
In the case of strange friend requests on Facebook. The scammer attempts to impersonate a friend or family to gain access to your friend’s list so, they can run a scam on them and you. The same goes for the hot babe as well. The scammer is impersonating a beautiful woman in attempts, to scam you and those already on your friend’s list.
How To Avoid This Scam.
You really have to be careful when clicking on ads on any social media site. If a deal looks to good to be true, open a new window and type in the website address of the company and see if you see the same deal there. Chances are, it’s fake.
For friend’s request. If the request is from a friend or family member, call or email them to see if they had in fact, sent you a new request. If the request is from the, “hot babe”, you can click on their name and gain a wealth of information such as:
How long has their profile been active on that platform?
How many friends on their friend’s list and is the majority on the list, guys with little to no women on it?
Do they post regularly?
How many from your friend’s list are on theirs?
This is a 100% fake profile. The scammer is impersonating the person in the picture and is preying on guys to scam them through a catfishing scheme. It’s best to delete or ignore requests from strangers on the internet.