By Craig Erwin, Ph.D.
Photo By Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com
BE CAREFUL WHOM YOU TRUST
A couple of years ago a financial institution sent me a letter via FedEx that notified me that someone had hacked my account. I feared that the letter might be from a fraudster. I called the financial institution to find if they had sent it. After some time and effort, I found that my account had indeed been hacked.
Charles Schwab & Co. has issued warnings about impostor scams, in which someone impersonates an individual or organization that you trust and tries to get you to transfer money to them.
According to Schwab, in an impostor scam, fraudsters often:
1) Claim to work in security or technical support for an organization you have an account with.
2) Try to gain remote access to your computer or convince you to download software.
3) Send you a dangerous email or text message, which may include a link or attachment and may ask you to approve/deny a transaction, set up new credentials, or take some other action with your account.
According to Schwab, avoiding scams requires you to be vigilant and to do the following:
1) Whenever you are contacted, be wary and ensure the party contacting you is legitimate, especially if you did not initiate the contact.
2) Do not trust caller ID. Text messages, phone calls and emails can appear to come from a trusted institution when they are actually from a fraudster.
3) Use caution and conduct thorough research if you receive an urgent request to send money.
4) Check the URL of the website or link sent to you by email to ensure it is a legitimate address (e.g., www.acme.com versus www.acme.co).
BE CAREFUL OUT THERE.
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