These Scams Are Heading Your Way

This year’s top scams are bigger and better than ever. Phishing scams hit new heights during the pandemic and show no signs of slowing down. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received over 2.1 million complaints from scam victims last year. The most common reports were about imposter scams, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The FTC finds that last year, the financial cost of these fraudulent scams was more than $3.3 billion. READ FULL STORY

Email Identity Crisis! Top Brands For Email Phishing And How To Tell The Difference

Some say impersonation is the greatest form of flattery, but it this case, it’s all about email phishing. Cybercriminals use some companies more than others because they’re well-known globally and have better odds for success. According to APWG’s Phishing Activity Trends Report, the U.S. saw over one million email phishing attacks in the first quarter of this year alone, the highest total on record so far. A look at who these companies are and how to avoid email phishing in their name benefits us all. READ FULL STORY

Accounts Drained By Zelle Smishing Scam

From time to time, scammers come up with a new tactic using new technology, new events, or whatever they can to continue tricking us into giving up our personal or confidential information. Over the past few years and with the increasing use of texting and SMS messaging, a newer one in the bag of tricks has been coined as “smishing.” Because it’s text, it often catches people off guard and causes them to react quickly, which is exactly what you shouldn’t do. READ FULL STORY

By Hook And By Crook. Top Scams Targeting Seniors, And How To Help Protect Against Them

It’s a sad reality that our older citizens, those most unfamiliar with online scams, can be easily victimized. The FBI’s IC3 2021 Elder Fraud Report puts a spotlight on some of the most common scams used against those aged 60 and above, and some of the disturbing statistics that result. Know that scammers can victimize the same individual with a number of crimes at the same time. They can lose their money, access to an online account and for some, their identity. READ FULL STORY

Are You Getting Smished? How To Tell And How To Avoid It

It doesn’t take much to be a smishing victim when just a text message does the trick. A member of the email phishing and voice (vishing) family of criminal scams, replying to a smishing text can be all that’s needed to begin a successful scam. Knowing how smishing works and the tell-tale signs of these scams can help keep you from being the next smishing victim. Using pressure, fear, curiosity, trust, winning a contest, and other tactics increase their chances of reeling you in. But what do you do when a text has only one word? READ FULL STORY