Scams

I trust you’re all doing well and enjoying the glorious spring time weather. I really feel like Spring (and all the flowers) are about to burst upon us! 

Tech Tip #3

The topic of this wee newsletter is about scams. Just by way of reminder: a scam is someone trying to hoodwink you. You might have also heard the term hacking. Hacking and scams are not the same thing. Hacking is an activity carried out by a nefarious actor (or computer) who tries to breach your security to gain access to your data. Hacking happens to you. It’s sort of passive. 

A scam on the other hand requires you to do something. It requires you to give information, log in to your account, authorise something, pay someone.  

Scams nowadays are very sophisticated, and chances are you know someone who has been scammed. I certainly have been. The emails look legit, the request is reasonable…until all of a sudden it’s not.

What can you do about it?

The last tool in the tool belt to protect yourself against a scam is your default position. Your default thinking, if anyone approaches you either in person or virtually needs to be: "this is a scam". And you need to verify it. 

So if you receive any correspondence – physical mail, email, phone call, text message – whatever the medium, your first thought should be: "this is a scam".

And the second thought should be: "I need to contact [X] organisation to check if this is the case". A legitimate organisation will be ok with you doing this.

The Australian Government website Scam Watch is a great place to go to educate yourself more about scamming and how to spot it, and what to do if you have been scammed. 

Anything else?

I’ll be at the Canberra Seniors’ Expo tomorrow (Wednesday 24 September, 10am-3pm at the Old Bus Depot Markets in Kingston). If you’re going to be there, do swing by and say hi, I’d love to see you!  

Cheers

Ruth