Vishing, Phishing and Smishing are ways that scammers get a foot hold into your lives and most want to get access to your financial accounts. The three popular ways of fishing for your information are by voice (vishing), email (phishing), and sending text messages (smishing) to your phone. The voice method is the easiest to deal with hanging up the phone, but unsolicited emails and texts may cause a problem if they are clicked. Hackers are very smart and are now using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help them with making their schemes believable and with dangerous payloads embedded into the messages. The best defense against any type of fraud is to understand that unsolicited correspondence may be from someone with bad intentions and with electronic communications it is best to maintain updated security measures.
- Modern telephone systems have the capabilities to filter and block Vishing phone calls, contact your telephone provider for details.
- Many great Antivirus/malware protection applications have features built in to protect your devices from harmful applications infecting your system. The best thing is to research what software is best for your device and verify that it is not a fake or ineffective solution.
- Operating system updates are necessary! They may be inconvenient to run, which can be corrected through scheduling them to install during off hours as early morning.
For more information or to take proactive steps, please check, https://www.cisa.gov/resources-tools/resources/free-cybersecurity-services-and-tools and https://www.ic3.gov
Most of the time common sense will help you realize that a person is trying to swindle you, but there are those unfortunate people that are easily fooled by a disability or health problems. There are both government and other organizations that can help you protect those that are being financially abused. The best defense against any type of fraud or security risk is to educate yourself on what tools and services are available to help. Please check https://www.usa.gov/where-report-scams
Social Security, Medicare, banks, and legitimate businesses do not ask for your account numbers. They will typically ask for only the last four numbers and have you verified against what they have on their computer screen. Most identify you by our phone number on record and your file is available once you prove who you are.
Finally, a few other tips to mention:
- Enable Multifactor Authentication with a quality that cannot be stolen like a biometric, as facial recognition.
- Use a complex password with numbers, special characters, and over eleven characters. The best option is to use an encrypted password vault with a computer-generated password.