AI-Powered Scams
The proliferation of scams and frauds leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to deceive unsuspecting individuals and organizations is, as expected, on the rise. As an MSP, it is crucial to continually remind your clients about the importance of staying aware and diligent, even when encountering seemingly legitimate information or requests.
Understanding AI-Powered Scams
It is important to make sure your clients know what exactly they might be dealing with. AI-powered scams leverage sophisticated algorithms and machine
Don’t Be Fooled by Scammers
Scammers don’t need a reason to take advantage of your trust. And they certainly don’t mind if you look or feel foolish. This April Fools, don’t be fooled by any of their attempts.
Here are some tips to help you avoid falling victim to online impersonators:
Verify websites before providing personal information
When entering personal information online, make sure you’re on a secure website. Check for the “https” in the URL and the lock icon in the address bar, which indicates that the website
Social Security Scams
Social Security Scams
While many of us are taking time at the end of the year to enjoy our friends and family’s company and goodwill, cybercriminals are using it as an opportunity to scam people. One such opportunity comes with the end-of-year renewal of programs and policies. And Social Security scams are one of the most reported to the government. They target individuals who receive benefits because this demographic can be more vulnerable when it comes to falling for scams.
Last Minute Scams
Quick! Get to the store for that forgotten gift…order online and pay for overnight shipping…whatever it takes to get the gift in hand for the holiday ahead! We know the holidays are coming, but inevitably we are scrambling to get some things done at the last minute. And where there’s an opportunity, there’s a scam.
As we scramble, scammers are on the prowl to find us. We’re in a rush, preoccupied with a dozen things on our minds and our guard is down. The perfect target to take advantage of. We’ve discussed the holiday scams that are prevalent, but this increases as the date of gatherings and celebrations draw near.
Holiday Scams
End of year wrap-up has many of us in a hurry. We rush to get our businesses buttoned up, our shopping done, and our tasks completed so that we can enjoy the time off.
Along with our tendency to rush, is the feeling of merriment and goodwill, and we may assume everyone else is operating from the same place or intent. That may be nice, but don’t be fooled by cybercriminals waiting to take advantage of your own good intentions.
Let’s discuss a few of the more common scams that can be prevalent during the holiday season.
Social Media Reminders
Sloppy social media habits can lead to a compromise that extends beyond an individual’s personal account. Many people don’t realize that their login credentials tie them together with an invisible thread in the dark web. A hacked social account could lead to access to business credentials or more.
Hackers 101
Being in IT, you’re familiar with the various ways that hackers work to gain trust. That trust innocently leads to providing information that an individual deems irrelevant, but is not. It could be the one missing answer to a question that provides access to a password. Let’s take a quick look at the different ways that data can be unsuspectingly compromised.
Scam Alert: Interview & Job Scams
Scam Alert: Interview & Job Scams
There are some topics that might seem irrelevant or not important when it comes to alerting your clients with regard to their online safety and cybersecurity. One of those might be about the process of looking at other jobs for a career change or simply to supplement their current income. It’s likely that your client’s employees are not going to be forthcoming that they are, or might be, looking for a new or additional job in the future. But as their IT liaison, you’d be remiss to not mention current scams with them. And we are hearing a lot about interview scams.
Tax Scams: What to Look Out for This Season
Many of us dread this time of year for the obvious reason …tax time can be well, very taxing. Add to the challenge of it all, that many of us are working from home, and find ourselves in a whole new and unfamiliar scenario of what we can claim as a tax write-off. We’re all looking for ways to maximize our return and minimize what we owe to the government.
And in this new business landscape, we do our own research, and we seek answers online. Often, we put little effort into validating the sites we use, because the amount of information is overwhelming and sometimes confusing. Additionally, we’ve had a lot of communication this year from the government on different aid packages and relief options.
Black Friday Scams
Don’t Be Scammed By a Turkey
It’s Thanksgiving week and that also means that the holiday season has officially started for most of us. And just the holiday season of our youth, as in summer vacation from school, this is the time of year when we as adults tend to put our feet up and let our guard down.
Ring a Ding Ding
Your phone rings once. The number looks familiar, same area code, same exchange as your local area, so you pick it up. Hello? No one responds on the other end of the line. You repeat “hello?” and it feels like a bad connection or that they can’t hear you on the other end, so you hang up. Apparently, you missed the call or hung up by mistake because it only rang once. Just to be safe, you will return the call to make sure it wasn’t important.