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Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Don’t Get Caught in a Fake Lottery Scam

Lottery Scam graphic with brightly-colored lottery cards. Continuing our education this Cybersecurity Month, there’s a new scam to look out for! While everyone dreams of winning the lottery, scammers are patiently waiting in the wings to turn that dream into a nightmare. A fake lottery scam involves one or more scammers pretending to be a legitimate lottery company in order to con their unsuspecting victims out of their information and hard-earned money.

Here’s all you need to know about fake lottery scams and how to spot them.

How the Scams Play Out

In a fake lottery scam, a scammer will reach out to a potential target via phone, email, or through social media platforms to inform them that they’ve won a large amount of cash or major prizes like a new car or other expensive goods. Alternatively, they may offer to let the target play a “free round” of lotto, which will miraculously result in an instant win.

To convince the target of their authenticity, the scammer may claim to represent a major lotto company, like Mega Millions, or another recognizable name. In some cases, they’ll pretend to represent a government agency, like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), or an invented, but real-sounding, program like the “National Sweepstakes Organization”.

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Tuesday, August 16, 2022

How to Spot a Survey Scam

Laptop with scam surveySurvey scams are almost as old as the internet. They’re so prevalent that you can hardly spend an hour online without running into an ad for a “super quick” survey promising a reward for just a few minutes of your time. What actually happens, though, is that the scammer walks away with a free survey, or worse, your information and/or your money. While an alert consumer can spot a survey scam easily, fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated at making them look legitimate.

Don’t get caught up in a survey scam! Here are eight ways to spot a fake survey and what steps to take if you’ve been tricked:

1. You’re asked to pay to participate in a survey

Authentic survey companies need you – you don’t need them. There’s absolutely no reason to pay to take a survey of any kind. If you’re targeted by an ad asking you to take a survey and to pay for the privilege of doing so, don’t respond.

2. You’re asked to share sensitive information before you can take the survey

They’d really appreciate it if you could take this quick survey for them. They just need some information from you first, like your Social Security number, date of birth and maybe even your checking account number. If a survey company asks for anything more than basic information from you, sign out as quickly as you can.

 

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Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Beware of Job Scams

man upset at laptopIt’s an amazing employment opportunity – or is it? Scammers often hijack the job market and ensnare hopeful job seekers into their schemes. If you’re job-hunting, it’s a good idea to review the way these scams play out and how you can avoid them. To help you out, we’ve put together a short primer on what you need to know to stay safe from job scams.

How the scams play out

There are several variations of job scams. Here are the most common ones:

  • Bogus job listing. There’s a Help Wanted ad for a dream job, and the job-seeker applies with great optimism. They’ll share their information and even pay a small fee to submit their resume, or to cover alleged job supplies. Sadly for them, the job doesn’t actually exist and they’ll never hear from the “employer” again.

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Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Don't Get Caught in a QR Code Scam

Scammers never take a break from dreaming up new ways to con people out of their money. Recently, they’ve even been hijacking QR codes to pull scams on innocent victims. Here’s all you need to know about QR code scams and how to avoid them. 

What’s a QR code? 

Before we can explore the details of these scams, let’s understand what a QR code is and how one works. A QR code, which is an acronym for “Quick Response code,” is a square barcode that can be scanned using a smartphone and leads directly to a website or app. Businesses use QR codes for any number of reasons, from posting online menus, to scanning coupons, to processing payments, and more.

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Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Beware of Debt Relief Scams

Scam

High debt can be a beast, taking huge bites out of a household budget and destroying any chance of financial wellness. To make matters worse, being in high debt can mean being stuck in a desperate cycle that never ends, as payback is often accompanied by high interest rates that make it hard to get ahead. Unfortunately, scammers know this well, so they target victims with debt relief scams to get at their money.

Here’s what you need to know about debt relief scams and how to avoid them. 

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Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Scam Alert: Phone Call Scams Could Cost You

 

Robocalls have got to be one the most annoying inventions of the 21st century. Unfortunately, those phone calls can do a lot more than disrupt your dinner to send you running to the phone just to hear about an offer for an extended warranty on your car. Using sophisticated spoofing methods and dogged persistence, they can swindle unsuspecting targets out of hundreds, or even thousands of dollars, using nothing but a phone. In fact, according to data from Trucaller, Americans lost close to $30 billion to phone scams in 2020.

Technology has made it far too easy and cheap for scammers to place a huge number of robocalls in seconds. New robocall platforms can make up to 5,000 simultaneous calls a second for as little as a dollar. Even if only 10 of these phone calls have their desired effect on the targets, the scammers have pulled in a solid profit. 

Here’s what you need to know about phone scams and how to avoid them. 

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