Google Calling?

By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

As much as the insurance business is about helping policyholders recover from calamity, as an insurance agent I feel it is my duty to help my clients keep out of harm’s way.  Whether it’s pointing out hazards on the road or potential perils in the home, I go out of my way to make sure I give people a head’s up about anything I feel can do them harm.  That’s why I decided to dedicate this week’s blog to helping all my readers out there keep out of the cross-hairs of scammers. 

While con men and women have been around for as long as civilization has existed, there is a new breed of scammer that uses the phone and the internet to do their dirty deeds.  Whether they call you on the phone to tell you a loved one needs you to wire money via Western Union or whether they claim to be with the IRS, you never know what guise these wolves in sheep’s clothing are going to take.  So, I thought I’d teach you a few of their favorite tricks today.

1.      Uncle Sam Wants You – If you get a call from a supposed government official, don’t believe it.  Whether the caller claims to be with the IRS, Social Security, or a law enforcement agency, the only law person that’s breaking the law is them.  Unless you’re already being audited by the IRS, any official communication with you will be done by snail mail (not email or phone). Especially troubling is anyone who calls you to ask you for your social security number or a credit card number.  The way that con artists try to get you to play ball is by using scare tactics that threatens to undermine your freedom.  Believe me when I tell you if the police or the FBI had something on you, they’d dispatch an officer or agent to your door.

Image courtesy Pixabay

2.      Google Calling – Every few days I get a call from someone purportedly at Google or Facebook telling me my page or my profile is incomplete.  If this ever happens to you, do not click 1 to continue or you will be handed off to a boiler room operation where the operators will try to get you to fork over either your password or your credit card number.  In the first place, neither Google nor Facebook has an outbound sales force.  You heard me right.  That doesn’t mean that there aren’t scads of con artists who don’t name drop either of these online behemoths to ply their trade.

3.      Bait and Switch – Online scammers are even more nefarious, since they can easily create a clone website that looks exactly like the real deal.  In the past I have seen sites that looked identical to Fedex, UPS, Ebay, and even my bank that turned out to be phony.  I once nearly bit on an email that purportedly came from GoDaddy.  Fortunately, instead of clicking on the link, I had the wherewithal to call GoDaddy where I was promptly informed the email was a fake.  One of the telltale giveaways that you aren’t dealing with a legitimate site is to carefully check the spelling of the url.   When it doubt check it out by calling the vendor.  One click is all it takes to infect your device with malware or ransomware.

Image courtesy Picpedia

4.      Pay up or else – Speaking of ransomware, you may start your device one morning only to see a warning that tells you to pay a ransom or have your hard drive wiped clean.  If you see this message, shut your machine down immediately and call an IT professional.  Do not click on any links or keep your machine on any longer than you have to or you risk making the attack far worse. 

5.      Who you gonna call?  – If someone sticks a gun in your face and demands you give them your money you can go to the police to report the robbery.  Who knows, if the cops get there quickly enough, they may even nab the perpetrator.  When it comes to online crimes, there is no sheriff in Dodge City.  You heard me right.  Due to the international nature of hacking, there is no federal law enforcement agency that’s ready, willing and able to nab the bad guys if you get hacked.  A few years ago, a police station in Georgia had its server infected with malware.  When the cops called the FBI to report the incident, guess what the feds told them to do?  Pay up.

6.      You’ve Won! – Here’s an oldie but a goodie.  A spokesperson calls to tell you you’ve won a prize.  It could be cash, a trip or some other high-value item.  All you need to do to claim your prize is give them your credit card number to cover “handling costs.”  If you fall for the ploy, the only thing you’ll be handling is a huge credit card bill next month after the scammers are through using your card to live large.

Image courtesy flickr

7.      Need a loan? – Another way scammers can get you to cough up information they can turn into cold, hard cash is by enticing you to apply for a fraudulent loan.  Whether the offer is online or in your mailbox, don’t be fooled into thinking the company listed is going to loan you any money.  What they’re more likely to do is use the information you provide them to take out loans in your name or even rifle your accounts. 

8.      A sucker born every minute – If you sell merchandise online, beware of individuals who try to pay you with a phony check that looks real until you try to cash it.  (Always insist they pay via PayPal.) Also, never, ever give anyone you don’t know remote access to your computer.  It isn’t uncommon for sophisticated hackers to salt the Internet with freeware that is loaded with bugs.  When you call the toll-free customer service number, they’ll offer to help you fix the problem if you click on a link they email you.  Do this and you’re handing them the keys to the vault.

9.      Check this out – Sometime in the near future you may receive an email from someone you know telling you to “Check this out!”  Click on the link provided and your device will immediately be infected with malware or worse.  Even if the email address looks legitimate, call the friend to ask if they sent you any link.  If not, tell them their email has been hacked and all their friends are receiving infected emails.  A business associate I know told me he received a phone call from a friend asking him to tell him more about the charity he was promoting on his Facebook page.  When my friend asked, “What charity?” he was sent a link to a page that looked identical to his but was a clone.  He emailed Facebook and 15-minutes later the page was taken down.  Had his friend not called him, who knows how much damage the cyber-scammer would have done.

Catherine Powell is the owner of A Plus All Florida, Insurance in Orange Park, Florida.  To find out more about saving money on your auto insurance, check out her website at http://aplusallfloridainsuranceinc.com/