{"id":1317463,"date":"2019-12-30T20:52:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-31T03:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/purcell-column-dont-take-cyber-scammers-bait-in-2020\/"},"modified":"2019-12-30T20:52:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-31T03:52:00","slug":"purcell-column-dont-take-cyber-scammers-bait-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/purcell-column-dont-take-cyber-scammers-bait-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Purcell column: Don\u2019t take cyber scammers\u2019 bait in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

One of 2019\u2019s biggest stories will be bigger in 2020: Cyber scams are on the rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs people increasingly conduct business and live their lives online, more and more criminals are leveraging the internet to steal,\u201d reports Forbes\u2019 Stu Sjouwerman.<\/p>\n

The dirty rotten scammers continue to evolve, too, targeting businesses, government organizations and individuals alike with increasingly sophisticated schemes.<\/p>\n

One is ransomware \u2014 malicious software that blocks access to computers until money is paid.<\/p>\n

Scammers also send phony \u201cphishing\u201d emails \u2014 often spoofing emails from big retailers \u2014 with fraudulent links or attachments that, when clicked, give scammers unfettered access to computer users\u2019 data.<\/p>\n

Google \u201cransomware attack\u201d and you\u2019ll see a sizable list of big companies and entire cities that have been completely shut down by scammers.<\/p>\n

They also spoof text messages. Apparently from reputable companies, such as banks, these messages trick individuals into revealing passwords or credit card numbers.<\/p>\n

Scammers continue to succeed with the good old telephone, too. I received a call this year from a man claiming he was from the Social Security Administration, who told me my account was blocked and he would help me reactivate it.<\/p>\n

Aware that Social Security never makes phone calls (unless you\u2019re having a legitimate conversation with it), I knew what the scammer was after: my full name, birthdate, address and Social Security number.<\/p>\n

I asked him how he could sleep at night, knowing he was hurting innocent people. He cussed at me and hung up.<\/p>\n

The greatest worry about scammers is that elderly people are especially at risk. They\u2019re more trusting of callers from government agencies and more likely to fall for one especially mendacious tax scam.<\/p>\n

Using phishing techniques, scammers access data on a taxpayer\u2019s computer, then use that stolen information to file a fraudulent tax return in the taxpayer\u2019s name and have the refund \u2014 often larger than is actually owed \u2014 deposited into the taxpayer\u2019s actual bank account.<\/p>\n

According to Intuit, the scammers then \u201ccontact their victims, telling them the money was mistakenly deposited into their accounts and asking them to return it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many victims, fearful of the IRS, readily comply.<\/p>\n

According to Pew Research, Americans view cybercrime as their greatest security concern. But what are government agencies doing to combat it?<\/p>\n

Not enough.<\/p>\n

Americans are often victimized by scammers operating from elsewhere in the world. How can the bad guys be tracked down and forced to make amends?<\/p>\n

Nation-states are often behind sophisticated attacks on organizations. Russian-financed scammers are actively targeting our utilities, election systems and other systems.<\/p>\n

Creating new laws and agencies to combat cybercrime is a daunting challenge. Cybersecurity bills passed by the U.S. House move slowly through the Senate. Even if the Senate passes them and the president signs them, regulators could take months to draft and implement actual policies. Scammers aren\u2019t bogged down by such bureaucratic processes.<\/p>\n

What it comes down to is that every individual must learn to detect and avoid cyber scams. The Department of Homeland Security has helpful info at https:\/\/www.dhs.gov\/stopthinkconnect-cyber-tips<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Always verify that an email, text or link is legitimate before you click. Always be suspicious \u2014 because that\u2019s the only way that cyber scams won\u2019t be an even bigger story in the new year.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2019 Tom Purcell. Tom Purcell, author of \u201cMisadventures of a 1970\u2019s Childhood,\u201d a humorous memoir available at amazon.com, is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist and is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons Inc. For info on using this column in your publication or website, contact Sales@cagle.com<\/a> or call (805) 969-2829. Send comments to Tom at Tom@TomPurcell.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of 2019\u2019s biggest stories will be bigger in 2020: Cyber scams are on the rise. \u201cAs people increasingly conduct business and live their lives online, more and more criminals are leveraging the internet to steal,\u201d reports Forbes\u2019 Stu Sjouwerman. The dirty rotten scammers continue to evolve, too, targeting businesses, government organizations and individuals alike […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1317463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 07:07:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1317463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1317463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1317463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1317463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}