True or False: The time for IRS-related swindles and scams is behind us — until next tax season. If you’re still reading this, you probably guessed “false.” And yep, it’s sad but true: Those pesky swindlers are still at it. Normally, when summer arrives with its parade of warm days and fewer demands on our attention, there is a quiet month or so when very little happens in the way of IRS-related activities (quarterly payments […]
The NSA leak about Russian efforts to hack the 2016 presidential election and the testimony of former FBI director James Comey last week revealed something that could become an extinction-level problem for the Trump administration. First, in his public testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, James Comey stated what we already knew to be true. Russia tried to influence American politics, specifically the outcome of a presidential race. That he was not forthcoming with the […]
Weddings require many important decisions and the wrong call can mean the difference between an unforgettable wonderful day and a day that makes you angry every time you think about it. The often unreasonably high expectations of families and friends and at least one spouse-to-be only makes matters more fraught. With such a high level of stress, it’s only a matter of luck that mistakes don’t get made. Scam artists are counting on that. There […]
Summer’s here and the time is right for getting hacked or worse, having the contents of your computer held hostage by ransomware. For a couple of carefree and extreme data-consuming months, kids everywhere will be doing whatever they want online even if you’ve tried to control them. In other words, be very afraid. Only you know if it is time to have “the talk” with your child about online security. But before you sheepishly clear […]
A recent Experian study found that most people still have a lot to learn about the risk of identity theft. The majority of those surveyed felt like they were safe from identity theft, but not for the right reasons. The most popular misconception was that scammers, phishers and identity thieves only target the rich and possibly famous. In reality, identity thieves target low-hanging fruit. To an identity thief, we’re all Kim Kardashian. More than half […]
As the weather gets warmer, mosquitos and ticks re-enter our lives, and along with them comes their larger cousin, the scam artist. There are ways to prepare for those seasonal meal stealers. The same goes for scams, as foreknowledge is the best repellent. Ticks and mosquitos aren’t harmless — they are well-known vectors for serious illnesses. Scam artists are also vectors for a plague that affects millions of people each year: identity theft. But sometimes […]
First Amendment concerns and consumer privacy law has people talking about a case recently settled in Massachusetts. It revolved around the practice of serving advertisements with geo-fencing technology. At issue: was it legal for anti-abortion groups to use this new marketing technique to directly communicate with young women on their way to get abortions? According to the settlement in Massachusetts, the answer, at least for the time being, is no. The ads in question used […]
While the writing has been on the wall for a long time, last Friday it was in the news wires when a new strain of ransomware called WannaCrypt raged like an out-of-control wildfire across Europe and Asia, ultimately impacting computers in 150 countries. For many affected by this hack, a few hundred dollars in ransom money is a pittance when compared to the cost of hiring someone to attempt the recovery of your files after […]
Did you know that with the exception of Christmas, people spend more money on Mother’s Day than any other holiday? The forecast for 2017 is $23.6 billion, and if you think scammers aren’t on the job, there’s a new marshmallow bridge spanning Loon Lake I’d to sell you a piece of. In order, the most-gifted recipients of Mother’s Day sentimental swag are mothers and stepmothers, then wives, daughters, sisters or stepsisters, grandmothers, godmothers, and, for […]
Don’t expect the financial services industry to ever willingly disclose how much it loses to cyber thieves on an annual basis. But make no mistake determined, well-funded hacking rings continue to breach banking systems on a regular basis. And they continue to inflict material losses–likely at a scale the general public would find shocking. Breach attempts against financial services firms occurs 24/7/365, says Brian Soldato, senior product management director at NSS Labs, an Austin, Tex.-based […]
