Organized crime used to be easier to spot: Hoodlums in the 1930s would kidnap someone and hold them ransom until you paid.
But these days, the hoodlums hide behind computers and their crimes are identity theft and other internet crimes where the crooks hold your computer or files “ransom.”
Jeff Lanza, a retired FBI special agent with 20 years’ experience, recently spoke at a client lunch for UBS Financial Services Inc. clients at an event in Fairlawn.
His presentation was full of helpful information to protect yourself from identity theft and cyber crimes and I’d like to share some highlights.
No one is immune to these cybercrime attempts and knowledge is power. Everyone — regardless of your age — can fall victim to these crimes. While senior citizens could be more apt to fall for one of these schemes, there are plenty of seniors who can spot these frauds and want to warn others. A study I wrote about in the fall also revealed that millennials were more apt to fall for these scams than any other age group because they may be more impulsive in their buying decisions and less experienced to weed out these scams.
The bottom line to fighting any scam is to maintain logic and common sense, said Lanza.
That sounds easy enough, but scammers “try to take advantage of us with an emotional appeal,” said Lanza. “Then logic and common sense go out the window.”
Think about it: Common scams such as the grandparent scam (a caller pretends to be a grandchild in peril), the IRS scam (the caller elicits fear by saying authorities are coming to arrest you) and the Microsoft scam (a caller says something is wrong with your computer, so all they need to do is get access to it) all are designed to weaken your resolve with panic.
Remember to never provide any type of personal or financial information to anyone who has called or emailed you out of the blue. If someone claims to be from your bank or a company you work with, hang up, find a number that you have independently and call to confirm.
Along with this column, I have provided a few tips from Lanza that are helpful. Also, you can view a few columns I have written in the past highlighting top scams and how to avoid them. You can find them under “Betty’s Best Tips” at www.ohio.com/betty.
Here are other helpful tips that Lanza provided during his presentation:
• Protect your Social Security number: You should never carry your Social Security card in your wallet, said Lanza. It’s the key to your identity and could be used for identity theft, in which a crook opens credit in your name without your knowledge or approval. Lanza acknowledged that existing Medicare cards do use the Social Security number for identification and that seniors do need to carry the card for service. There is a new law that Medicare cards will not display the number, but the government said that will not start to be implemented systemwide until at least April 2018 or April 2019. In the meantime, do your best to protect the card and number and when possible, refuse to share your number. Lanza said your doctor does not need your Social Security number, but also acknowledged that a doctor’s office may give you a hard time if you don’t share it.
• Freeze your credit: One way to thwart crooks from stealing your identity is to freeze your credit all together. Lanza recommends the credit freeze, but did warn folks of the small disadvantage. With a credit freeze, you cannot take advantage of “instant” credit at a store, often offered with a special extra discount, unless you proactively “lift” the freeze beforehand. My husband and I have credit freezes on our credit reports. They have provided a sense of security when I hear about what seems to be the “data breach of the month.” In Ohio, it does cost $5 per credit file to freeze your credit, so it costs $15 for all three agencies or $30 for a married couple. If you are a victim of ID theft, you can get a freeze for free. To “lift” the freeze, it costs $5 as well, but you can also tailor it. When we bought a car this summer, I found out which credit reporting agency would be used for the credit check and temporarily lifted just that report.
For a longer column I have written about credit freezes, you can go to the “Betty’s Best Tips.”
Here is contact information I have gathered to place a credit freeze (remember to do it for spouses as well):
Equifax: 800-685-1111, Equifax Security Freeze, P.O. Box 105788, Atlanta, GA 30348-5788 or http://www.equifax.com/CreditReportAssistance
Experian: 888-397-3742, Experian Security Freeze, P.O. Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013 or www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
TransUnion: 888-909-8872, TransUnion, P.O. Box 2000, Chester, PA 19016 or www.transunion.com/securityfreeze
• Protect your mail and checks: Criminals can “wash” the ink off a check and write in a new amount. A news story recently recounted a local adult baby-sitter who is accused of doing this. Lanza says do not use ballpoint ink, as that can be washed off. He recommends black or blue gel pens. He also warns against putting your flag up on your mailbox if you are mailing checks. “Even in nice neighborhoods, crooks drive through the neighborhood and take mail. Take your bills to the post office.” Or better yet, Lanza said utilize mobile banking and online bill paying, which are safe.
• Protect yourself from bad websites or links in emails: Be wary of unsolicited emails that appear to be from your bank or a company you do business with and especially an unsolicited email claiming you’ve won something. Don’t click on anything if the message seems weird. If you think it may be legitimate, go independently to a website you know and check. You can also check what website the link would be sending you to without clicking by hovering your mouse over the website link. Often a tell-tale sign that it’s a scam is the last two letters of the address, which may indicate the country where the website is hosted. If you are checking email on your smartphone, you can press and hold down on the link instead of clicking and it will preview the website without taking you to it, said Lanza.
Here are more of his tips:
Protecting yourself from ID theft
1. Protect your personal information
• Don’t carry your Social Security card.
• Don’t provide your Social Security number to anyone unless there is a legitimate need for it.
• Be aware that most Medicare cards use the Social Security number as the Medicare number. Take steps to protect your card.
2. Protect your documents
• Shred your sensitive trash with a cross-cut or micro-cut shredder.
• Don’t leave outgoing mail with personal information in your mailbox for pickup.
3. Be vigilant against tricks
• Never provide personal information to anyone in response to an unsolicited request.
• Never reply to unsolicited emails from unknown senders or open their attachments.
4. Protect your communications
• Keep your computer and security software updated.
• Don’t conduct sensitive transactions on a computer that is not under your control.
• Protect your Wi-Fi with a strong password and WPA2 encryption.
5. Protect your digital world.
• Use strong passwords with at least eight characters including upper and lower case, numbers and symbols.
• Use different passwords for your various accounts.
• If you store passwords in a file on your computer, encrypt the file when you save it and assign a strong password to protect that file. This sounds obvious, but don’t name the file “passwords.”
• Consider using password management programs or apps.
Specific actions to avoid
1. Don’t click on a message that seems weird. If it seems unusual for a friend to post a link, that friend’s site may have been hijacked.
2. Don’t enter your password through a link. Just because a page on the internet looks like Facebook, it doesn’t mean that it is. It is best to go to the Facebook login page through your browser.
3. Don’t use the same password on Facebook that you use in other places on the web. If you do this, phishers or hackers who gain access to one of your accounts may be able to access your other accounts as well, including your bank.
4. Don’t click on links or open attachments in suspicious emails. Fake emails can be convincing, and hackers can spoof the “From” address so that the email looks like it’s from a social site. If the email looks weird, don’t trust it. Delete it.
5. Don’t send money anywhere unless you have verified the story of someone who says they are your friend or relative.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty