Beware!

          I guess there have always been scams and those who would try to profit by being deceitful.   You can probably even trace such actions back to the times of Cain and Abel  or Jacob and Esau, just to name a few.  But I think modern technology is providing an explosion of new ways to fool folks and steal from them.

In recent weeks we have had numerous such attempts made on us.  One of the biggest is phishing, the attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money) by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.  We have had numerous e-mails telling us that we need to update our accounts at places like banks or credit card companies or ebay or paypal or aol.  They ask us to click on a link to do this and that link would take us to a site where such information would be requested in the name of this company. Sometimes they even come from companies which we don't deal with at all, so those are dead giveaways. But I wonder how many users actually fall for these schemes.

          As I was writing this, I actually received an e-mail from my financial advisor warning of a new phishing scheme involving a company that he uses for our investments.  His warning showed a very professional e-mail that informed me that my account was about to be closed unless I immediately used a link to update my account information.  If you weren't aware of this scheme you could potentially lose all of your investments.

         Another one which has been very common recently on our computers has been e-mails from a delivery service telling us that they couldn't make the delivery to our house.  To get the order we need to click on a link to make new delivery arrangements.  In almost every case we weren't even waiting for a delivery, so it was very easy to spot those attempts.

         Many of the scams come by phone. Some electric suppliers are the worst offenders.  One starts by asking you if you saw the notice in your last bill that there is a way to guarantee your rate won't change for three years.  Well most people don't realize that such notices were not sent out.  The caller claims that they are just following up to enable you to get this suggested service. They show you the bait and then try to trap you by asking you to get your recent electric bill while they switch you to another rep who really is a salesman.  He starts by asking you for your account information from your bill.  Now at that point I refused to go any farther until he answered some questions for me.  It turns out that he was trying, as I anticipated, to switch me to another provider who was actually charging more than I currently pay.  If I had given him the information he probably would have changed me without even needing my consent. And some folks would probably never even know that they were changed. Buyer beware - they are clever and deceitful.

          I have a new line that I use when the caller asks for the person who pays the electric bill.  I tell them I am Amish and we don't use electricity.  One salesman actually apologized and said she didn't realize that before she hung up.  I guess that response wasn't on her script.  At least I had my laugh for the day.

          But the worst scam was a call we received from a "windows" rep about a virus which had infected our computer.  He was offering me a free service to show me what this would do to my computer and then remove it for me.  He wanted me to go to my computer and log in.  I knew what was coming next.  If I had followed his instructions he would have gained access to my computer remotely so that he could steal all my information and passwords.  Knowing this was coming, I mentioned to him that I did not use windows and asked how my computer could then be infected.  He tried to convince me that I was hit by trying to share with me my mailing address.  That was interesting because of his language difference, he couldn't even read my address correctly.  But friends, that is frightening because if I hadn't known better and wasn't computer literate, I might have been scared and he would have been able to get access.  I am sure that he has successfully done this with many worried computer owners.

          Some common sense principles - never give your account and personal information to anyone in response to a call or e-mail request.  Don't use your credit or bank information on the internet when purchasing something unless the url address starts with https, not just http.  That "s" must be there to make it secure. Don't download attachments, especially forwards, unless you are 100% sure they are virus free.  And change your passwords frequently. Use common sense and protect your information because there are very clever and resourceful folks out there trying to steal from you.