Cyber Crime is growing exponentially and once the money is gone in an electronic instant, there is little authorities can do to recover your money. Therefore, what can one do to protect your assets - that question was the topic of discussion at Rotary provided by Kraig Barger (State Bank), Jeanette Porter (United Way and Community Foundation), and Alex Winninger (law enforcement). Because recover is rare and difficult, one must concentrate on preventing Cyber Crime before it happens. Suggestions are:
- Be aware of signs of fraud
- The request is urgent and the person asking for your money gives you little time to think
- If you are hesitant the person asking for your money may resort to threats (you will go to jail)
- If you are required to give out secrets to the person asking for your money beware
- The person asking for your money has a “too good to be true” offer
- Watch out for the following “pop-up” alerts on your computer or phone
- Text messages that tell you about your device being full of bad stuff and they can fix it really cheap
- The use of spoofed callers that when combined with AI sound like a relative
- The use of robo calls that are surfing for items that you often use in password protections. Some spammers will take years to build a data base on you - do not fill out such requests on the Web such as what town do you live in
- Very regularly access your financial information and see what has been entered into your record
- Verify entries on credit card charges and bank statements
- Participate in multi-factor verification methods
- Do not use public ATM machines - especially hotels to check on your accounts (these are most open to public access and scams)
- Begin to limit your use of checks - Scammers can wash ink from checks and redirect the payment
- Use unique passwords (most used password last year was - Administrator)
- No Nos to especially avoid
- A site or request for the use of prepaid cards (most often a scammer)
- On-line Romances - enough said as scammers string you along and then begin asking for money for critical issues
- Set up some type of identification with your siblings - Scammers like to use AI to mimic a grandchild's voice and ask grandparents to help them out of jail. need some type of identification code to set-up with your siblings to use.
- Cash-transfer request - Never send cash
- You have won the lottery, but to get your car you need to pay shipping to you- right?
- Tech Support particularly on computers. Your computer is full of viruses and for a small fee it can be fixed, but in the process the scammer loads on your device a program to access your financial records. Best to have paid for a high quality virus protection program for both your computers and phones.
- Cryptocurrency - Never deal on-line in cryptocurrency when requested as payment.
This session could last hours with real examples given for many of the scams listed above. Thank you, Jeanette, Kraig, and Alex.