Sensitive content Clicca per aprire/chiudere

Sensitive content Clicca per aprire/chiudere

Sensitive content Clicca per aprire/chiudere

How we talk about scams needs to change.

I work for my local power company. I'd seen generic notices to the public about being wary about scammer, but nothing so direct about using the threat of a power shut off to extort $$. Always thought it was people trying to gain access to homes for robberies. Which also happens.

So when I got a call I almost fell for it. We are selling my aunt's property, and realtors have to pick unknown calls. Passed the call to me.

They were soooo skilled at manipulation. I looked passed the first few minor mistakes. It took insider knowledge to raise my guard. Even then I wasn't sure it was a scam until after I hung up and called the legit line. I owed $75, not $900.

Had I known they used power shut off as a lure, I'd have been more wary. They probably used the listing.

Be wary of scams isn't enough. You need to know the basic MO, which can be really creative. Once they have you it is really hard to get their claws off.

I think we should treat people who get scammed and come out and talk about it like heroes.

Agree.

From a couple of days ago, a hidden number, I answer only with hello then wait. This is paypal , did not use my name about money booked from your account, 500 Euros, press 1 to connect to accounts department.

I just kept quiet and waited to see if a human would try and talk me in to revealing some information.

Had I answered with my name that number could be sold as confirmed.

I was **inches** away from being scammed by someone pretending to be animal control and saying they had my dog who had run away and needed a deposit for surgery, claiming she’d been hit by a car.

I absolutely would have given them my cc number. I was so scared and sad and relieved — just such a rush of emotions. But they asked for Zelle and it was just…off.

Like with you, part of what made it clear it was a scam was when they got mad that I tried to hang up and call them. I was like “dog people are not this mean.” Cause wow they were so, so mean.

But truly they would have had me.

I agree emphatically.

Thinking about the org context: It's impossible to build a culture of better security while also reinforcing a culture if personal fear and shame for being scammed. It's not your fault someone lied to you. Compensating controls are the responsibility of the organization; the staff responsibility is to follow procedures, and the procedure should invoke the compensating control. That is a completely different concept than "don't get scammed or it's your bad."

Scams especially phishing attacks rely on ignorance as much as a lapse in attention.

And I have had friend’s email get hacked and be used to spread the attack.

Somebody I’ve worked with just got snared by phishing a few days ago,. And that account was linked to his major sources of income online.

It’s crazy not to make use of two factor authentication the very least for the family jewels so to speak

Absolutely 👏

Embarassment and fear of derision from others helps scammers, scammers count on it.

I've spent a good bit of time studying why people fall for scams and why they don't listen to advice.

Some people are genuinely lazy and don't want to be bothered, but luckily they're in the minority. Most people, I think, just need better information.

Large companies, unfortunately, are actively working to make phishing easier by moving away from having real humans and by behaving more and more like phishers, which makes even good information less helpful to people.

Big businesses want people to be OK with getting phone calls from automated systems where we can't talk with humans and the "bot", if we can even interact with it, is dumber than a log. They expect us to authenticate ourselves to them when they call us. They make it either impossible or extremely time consuming to even talk to a human.

So when you tell people to never believe caller ID, to not believe any calls, to call a company back if you think they're actually trying to call you, it's understandable that they don't want to spend (sometimes literally) hours doing that.

The same goes with email. I tell people to not click links in email if they can help it. If they have reason to think the email might be legitimate (that is, they're expecting the email), I tell them to copy and paste the link in to a browser window and look at the URL. But what are people supposed to do when a link says "Walmart" (because email clients these days are basically web browsers), yet the URL actually starts with "walmartbpr.srvys.io"? Are people supposed to know how to deal with this?

This happens with banks, medical institutions, stores...

So how do we educate people to be careful when it's the opposite of what businesses are doing? Why should it be incumbent on users and not corporations to be more careful?

Your point is CRITICAL. As an infosec pro I have worked with scam victims and similar and the shame is such a huge factor in negative outcomes.

It’s why there’s a very conscious, if partially successful, effort to relabel “pig butchering” as “romance baiting” (the original term comes from China).

Also, Dad has dementia and has gotten scammed a few times (ie fake tech support). He knows I won’t judge him if he comes to me.