Non-Stop Cybercriminals are Everywhere!
And they are trying to steal your money and identity
One day you are working on your computer and all of a sudden, a popup appears out of thin air. Now where did this come from you ask yourself? There is a good chance that you clicked on a link created to try to trick you into calling a number or opening a website to fix a non-existing problem. Close the offending window and scan your computer with your anti-virus program right away. And try to remember what you might have done to cause this to happen. Learning from a misstep is the best preventative going forward as well as reading about protecting yourself and family from these legions of evil doers and their nasty ways.
Scoundrels are everywhere in the virtual world we call the Internet. I do not know what happens to someone who thinks that stealing other people’s money is an acceptable career choice, but these bad actors bombard us with their attempts to deceive and take our hard-earned money. Cybercrime takes a hefty toll on hardworking people every day so we must try to protect ourselves by staying vigilant.
Customer support scams can start from a phishing email, an email appearing to be from a legitimate company, but, if you click the provided link or call the provided phone number, you are taken to a fraudulent site or call center. On the web, it takes you to a “spoofed” web page that is made to look like a legitimate company website. It is very easy to copy an image of a website and put it on a new, malevolent website that looks very similar to the real thing.
Remember, if you get a popup window while you are surfing the World Wide Web that states something about your computer being broken, it is a scam seeking to get your personal info (SSN, Driver’s License, Etc.), financial info (bank account number, credit card, Etc.), or your money directly. These customer support scams try to trick us into solving non-existent problems with our computers for a fee. They then steal our money, do not provide any needed services, and continue on to find their next victim. It is their chosen abomination of a career, they have no remorse, and feel that they are entitled to continue in their grand theft cyberwarfare.
Protect yourself and your family
If you get a call from a person claiming to be from a company to tell you that something is broken with your computer system or other technology, beware, especially if you did not initiate contact with the company. It is probably a scam trying to trick you into a trustful exchange of money for nothing – a non-problem. Don’t answer but if you do, hang up. Don’t click on links from suspicious emails that get through your spam filter. Knock these cybercriminals out of your virtual house with sound judgement.
And be very diligent with emails from unknown sources and from seemingly legitimate sites but with something not quite right. Delete, block numbers, do not answer unknow numbers if you can, do not open emails unless you know who the sender is, and stop and think before reacting to these attempts to deceive. By reminding ourselves that there are wolves at the door trying to part us from our hard-earned dough will go a long way in prevention. I want to close by saying to also help our elderly relatives by offering to help with out-of-the-blue virtual offers, to read then before they act, and thereby helping to thwart our loved ones from being cheated.
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