Mytrendingstories brings tricks about protecting yourself from online scamright now? People in New Zealand are losing millions of dollars to scammers each year – and this is just the figures reported to Netsafe so the actual figure is likely much higher. There are often similar characteristics to most scams so we’ve put our advice together to help you. Scammers are using COVID-19 as the lure to engage people. While the scams are different in nature, they all have a common theme in that they are trying to obtain personal information and financial details. Netsafe is encouraging people to stop and think carefully before entering your details online, or giving them to someone. It’s particularly important you protect information that can be used to access your accounts, build a fake online presence or impersonate you.
Latest news with MyTrendingStories online publishing: Stay Vigilant. You’ll want to keep a close eye out on your credit and financial account statements so you can alert your financial institution as soon as possible if anything appears amiss. If you’ve spent time job searching online lately, it might seem like there are as many scams as legitimate job openings on the job boards. The Better Business Bureau reports that job scams are on the rise and are the No. 1 riskiest scam in terms of prevalence, likelihood of losing money, and monetary loss. Each year, about 14 million people are exposed to job scams. Victims lose more than $2 billion per year, not counting the value of their time or the emotional impact of being defrauded. To safeguard yourself, it pays to learn as much as possible about employment scams. See even more details on mytrendingstories scams.
mytrendingstories.com anti-scam guides: The first time, he was going to send the email to his web person in case a photo had been innocently misused. But first he had the idea to Google “professional photographer email scam.” Millions of Google results confirmed that it was, in fact, a scam. Reassured and relieved, he deleted the scam email and didn’t even bother to reach out to his web person. When a very similar email arrived a few months later and then again the other day, he knew what it was and just hit “delete.” Recently a couple in Hingham lost $17,000 to a scammer claiming to be the chief of police. They believed the call was genuine because the police department’s main business number showed on their caller ID. They became overcome with fear so quickly that they followed the scammer’s orders to the letter. The Hingham police were so sorry about what happened to this couple. They strongly urged people to not rely on caller ID “since it can be altered to display any name or telephone number.” That is 100 percent true.
Mytrendingstories.com discuss how to escape scams: Consider travel insurance. Duquesnel said sites like Vrbo allow you to buy insurance. If you get to the rental and find out you were scammed, Vrbo will work to find some place comparable as quickly as possible if you have the insurance. If you’ve been searching online for vacations and all of a sudden get a text on your phone about a great deal, ignore that. Duquesnel said that’s called “smishing.” Scammers somehow get your number and try to woo you in order to get your credit card information. Don’t fall for it. Check out the BBB’s website for reviews and complaints and use their scam tracker to report any problems. Sound the alarm if a retailer asks you for a wire transfer, a money order or a gift card as payment for your order. In this case, it’s likely that your money will fall directly into the pocket of a scammer and you won’t receive anything for the money you paid. If you want to protect yourself, always pay with a credit card or other secure forms of payment, according to the Better Business Bureau. Discover extra details at https://mytrendingstories.com/.
Fake calls from someone pretending to be from the Financial Ombudsman Service asking for personal financial details. The ombudsman will never call you out of the blue to ask for information – it’ll only be in touch if you’ve got a case with it already. You can find out more about financial scams on the Financial Conduct Authority’s website or for scams in general, see the Metropolitan Police’s Little Book of Big Scams, or the Citizens Advice website. Web security has come to the fore in recent years with major hacks resulting in millions of users’ account details and sensitive info being put at risk. Fortunately there’s a quick, free and easy way to check if your details have been compromised. The website HaveIBeenPwned? (‘pwned’ is geek-speak for being made a fool of – it’s pronounced ‘poned’) allows anyone to check if their accounts have been compromised in a number of known data breaches in recent times. Go to HaveIBeenPwned? and enter your email address. Enter the address you use at any sites you’re concerned may have been hacked – for example, the one you usually log in to LinkedIn with. It’ll tell you if your account’s been compromised. You’ll be shown a list of breaches you were ‘pwned’ in, with some background info on the hack, plus what data was compromised – eg, email address, password, date of birth, etc.