Scammers are constantly finding new ways to steal your money, from texting and email scams to scare tactics on the phone. A common scam people may encounter, usually by email, are phishing attacks. So called “internet pirates” are trying to steal your information through attachment downloads and pop-up windows you may receive through an email.
Brian Borcherding, the Information Systems Officer at First Bank Hampton, tells Radio on the Go News scams like phishing attacks are becoming more common in the area.
*Borcherding #1
“There are tons of email scams in which a perpetrator tries to lure you into clicking a link, opening an attachment, or calling a phone number that would be in that email. And then from there, basically they’re trying to steal money from you one way or another, whether they hack into your computer, whether they try to get you to tell them your username and password, or they try to get account information from you just from a phone conversation. They’re just trying several different ways basically steal money from you.”
Borcherding says emails may come from a common web mail provider, like Gmail, but once you open an unknown attachment or link, you may be installing a virus on your device.
*Borcherding #2
“You want to avoid clicking an attachment or clicking a link. Now, if you’re expecting an email from someone, a friend sending you a link or an attachment, that’s a different deal. But if you very unexpectedly from someone you don’t know, especially, you get a phone number in an email or a link or an attachment, proceed with caution. It’s best just not even to click the link at all. Use some kind of out of band method to call a number. If there’s a phone number in that email, don’t use that number. Maybe if you really wanna know the company that’s being spoofed, actually go out to the internet and try and look up that company.”
Another scam that is becoming more common are card skimmers, a card reader that can be disguised to look like a part of an ATM or even a gas pump.
*Borcherding #3
“The skimmers are all over the place. Some perpetrator actually stuck it to the machine, making it look like it’s part of the machine, which is the really tricky part. But when that happens, they’re collecting your information and they’re trying to use that information to use your debit card or credit card at another location. Skimmers have been around for a while. They’re really tricky to find. Just be very careful when you walk up to an ATM. Make sure that there isn’t any extra loose pieces, actual plastic pieces that are stuck to the part where you actually stick your credit card or your debit card into.”
Borcherding says by the end of 2024, scamming will be a $10 trillion industry worldwide.
