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Be careful when granting remote access to your computer. Be sure you know who is on the other end. Be sure you know who you are talking to before letting someone access your computer.
Scams
Scams
There are many variations of scams, but they all seem to have similar attributes.
Any time you are told to keep it a secret or to not tell anyone, it is usually a red flag. Always reach out to a friend, family member or other trusted source to verify or just run it by them to get a second opinion.
If dealing with a message from someone you know, always initiate a new message to a known email address or phone number before sending any money or other information.
Out of the ordinary situations involving you having to send money, including gift card information, are almost always fraudulent.
Look at the Social Engineering Red Flags section on the Home page for more on what to look for.
No legitimate business or government agency is going to ask you to pay them in gift cards. No matter what they say, it is a scam.
These usually involve you having to obtain a gift card and provide the number and code on the back. Scammers are able to convert these to cash.
Anytime you are told or coerced to buy a gift card, it is a scam.
A common version of this is that you receive a call from someone claiming to be from Amazon letting you know that you ordered an iPhone (or other popular and expensive items) and ask if you want to cancel the order. Variations include invoices for items or services that you did not purchase. They get you to log into your bank and make it look like they refunded you too much money -- and they usually make it seem like it is your fault. Now they want "their" money back and will take it in the form of, you guessed it, Gift Cards.
The scammer will tell you to go to your nearest Wal-Mart, Target or Best Buy (or a combination of these, depending on how much they "overpaid" your "refund."
Scammers can get a lot of personal information from Facebook and other social media. This can include relationships. Scammers will target grandparents and call claiming to be the grandchild, or someone in contact with the grandchild, and say that there was an accident or that someone is in jail and needs bail money. This is always accompanied with, "Don't tell my parents!"
Being told to keep is a secret/not to tell anyone is a warning sign that something is up. You should always ask someone you trust about a situation involving money or something you do not understand.
Police and lawyers do not accept gift cards.
Most tech support scams involve the scammers tricking you into calling them by putting a (usually) harmless, but scary looking, pop up on a compromised website that makes you think there is a virus on your computer. When you call the fake number, it is routed to a call center and the "operator" will try to sell you worthless software to fix the problem that you do not really have.
When confronted, these scammers say that you called them, so it is your responsibility because you willingly gave them the money.
Unfortunately, scammers often are able to promote their fraudulent pages in the Google searches, so make sure you have the right phone number for who you are trying to call.
Also known as Imposter Scams, these are all variants of posing as someone you trust (or come to trust, in the case of the Romance Scam) and asking for money.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Social Security Administration (SSA) will not call you to demand money.
Medicare will not call you to verify your information because there is a problem with your account.
Sheriff's offices and police departments will not call you to tell you that there is a warrant for your arrest.
Your "boss" or other authority figure in your organization contacting you and asking for a wire transfer for "an important purchase/deal," your cell phone number, a gift card or other out-of-the ordinary request.
Package delivery services, like USPS, UPS and FedEx texting or emailing you about a package for you, but they need to clarify some information. Unless you signed up for the service, these are fake.
Phone numbers and email addresses can be spoofed to make it seem like the call is coming from any legitimate number, so be careful.
This is usually a too-good-to-be-true job involving an amount of money just a bit higher than should be believable. The catch is usually that you have to provide your bank information or pay for some kind of job training kit. This is all designed to get your bank or credit card information.
Variations involve them sending you a check with the instructions to keep some of the money and send them back the rest, usually in gift cards. The check is fake, but it takes a few days to clear, by which time you have already sent out the money or cards. Not to mention any penelaties from the bank for depositing a bad check.
Though email or text, these scams usually involve a claim to have compromised your password. The "sextortion" variant of this claims to have revealing photos or images of you taken from your own computer. These claims are almost always false and the password they have is likely one you used on a site that was compromised. That is why you should use a different password for all your accounts and use a password manager.
Warning: Do not send revealing photos of yourself to anyone. Once it is out on the Internet, it is there forever, and you cannot control what an ex will do with your intimate photos.
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