I just saw some really bad advice on Reddit. Someone suggested that when you take a call from a scammer, you should put some effort into complaining, to waste their time and convince them to not call anymore. Please do not do this. Do not harass a phone scammer. The chance of you convincing a … Read more
Many people get annual emails that announce upcoming antivirus auto-renewal charges. So the Norton Auto-Renewal Scam tends to works well, because it lines up with people’s expectations: There is nothing true about this message, yet it still grabs people and compels them reach for the phone. The urge to undo that $500+ charge almost blocks … Read more
Shentel Email users, beware the latest email scam coming to your inboxes!: This message is not from Shentel! If you look closely, you’ll see it came from an odd address ending in “buckeye-express.com”. DO NOT CLICK the Update button, as it will take you to a deceptive website. I’ll show that website here, without putting … Read more
Here’s the latest scam to come to my doorstep: “My CallerID read Comcast, and when I answered, the caller apologized for not securing my Xfinity router properly. They said they’d just fixed it and that I was owed a credit. I allowed him to remote-control my PC, and he helped me get $300 sent to … Read more
Yet another way that the scammers are coming at us is through “work-from-home” opportunities. They will call/email/text/post with promises of lucrative work, but end up taking advantage of hopeful people. Here are some details to help you identify work-from-home scams: How to Respond If you encounter a Work-at-Home scam, don’t communicate with the sender. Block … Read more
A common scammer tactic is to create an impostor account on Facebook. They snag a copy of your profile picture, use your name and pretend to be you as they sign up on the Facebook site. Their FB profile will look a whole lot like yours, and then they will attempt to fool people with … Read more
It is common for a scammer to delete things after they compromise someone’s email account. After recovering a stolen email account, you may notice that your Inbox is empty, or your address book has nothing in it. Checking the Trash folder, you’ll probably find nothing there, as well. They’ve covered their tracks, adding more insult … Read more
If your email gets hijacked, you’ll figure it out quickly enough. People will start calling you to ask why you sent those out-of-character messages… Scammers steal their way into email accounts every day. If your email gets stolen, the first and best thing to do is: Reset your email password. But that may not be … Read more
I get this question all the time. Someone surveys themselves and sees nothing “worth hacking”. Because they just send a few innocuous emails a week, they do a little Facebooking with family, they play some solitaire. What could be worth a hacker’s time with their modest computer usage? What makes them (or you) worth hacking … Read more
Gift card scams are extremely common and successful. If a stranger asks you to pay using a Gift Card, I want your next thought to be SCAM! Program yourself to mistrust anyone asking you to go buy a gift card. Treat gift cards just like cash. Only use them as gifts, with people you know, … Read more