PREFACE
With the explosion in technology we have enormous capabilities today and enormous risks. There are countless people trying to steal your money, data, identify, and cause you harm. The attacks are usually from:
- Telephone
- Normal maijl
- Internet
- Delivery based scams
A. TELEPHONE
Very often you receive calls from massive call centers in Pakistan and India. The list of scams is endless. They will pretend to be from Amazon, credit card companies, IRS, Microsoft, etc. Almost always they will alter their caller ID and telephone number. If you see a name of a nearby city in your caller ID almost always it is a scammer. Almost always the telephone number is not a working number. It is recommended that:
a. If you don’t recognize the caller name, ignore it.
b. If they say they are from Amazon, Microsoft, etc. assume it is a scammer because today most reputable companies do not call customers because they of privacy laws and company rules for Personal Information exchange.
c. If your phone or phone company has a block service, block any scammer the first time you encounter them.
d. Go to the National Do Not Call registry at https://www.donotcall.gov/ and get added to their list of people who do not want to be called.
e. If you do answer the phone have a prepared script to let the scammer know that you do not conduct any business over the phone with anyone who is not on your list of authorized vendors or what ever language you like to blow them away.
Also note that Congress passed new laws in 2019 which require all telecommunications companies send a secured certificate with each call alerting the telecommunications company of the call recipient alerting the if the caller has altered the caller -ID or caller telephone numbers. This will allow the telecommunications company of the recipient to filter all calls like this. For more information on this please Google “STIR/SHAKEN”.
I just bought a new answering machine that supports up to 2 mobile phones in addition to the base and satellite stations. This has a building scam database of 14,000 numbers it can block. And I have another 2,000 locations that I can populate by pressing the “BLOCK” key during or after a scam call to block them forever. For more information click here.
B. NORMAL MAIL
If they send you a fake check or the email looks too official throw it directly in the garbage or recycling.
C. EMAIL
Do not open any mail or attachments from unknown senders. Also check the actual address that they are not masquerading from some bogus gmail etc email account pretending to be from a legitimate company and do not believe the fancy web screen logos and layout. Today anyone can make a mockup of any company’s website. Check the URL address, that it has an HTTPS:, etc. If they tell you any wild story and require you to log in to any social media or business account, DO NOT DO SO. They may be using keystroke loggers to steal your USERNAME and PASSWORD information. Be safe and not sorry. Many times they try to use security vulnerabilities to infect your computer with malware, ransomware, etc. There are tools available today for remote support agents with your permission to get into your computer to see your screen, operate your mouse and keyboard and do some serious damage. Only allow some in if you initiate the conversation for a legitimate problem you are experiencing and you know for sure that this is a legitimate company you deal with. If you are tech saavy I would encourage you to install VMWARE client and build some Virtual Machines and only play games with scammer from within a fully protect Virtual Machine that they can not break out of.
Finally I strongly encourage everyone to have a good solid backup strategy for your computer systems and data. My preferred solution is TruImage from Acronis. The will allow you to make a perfect copy of your systems, registry, all software with licenses, and data. Should any happen you will be able to perfectly restore your system, data, etc. Note that you will have to also have an external hard drive with a USB connection. I know this for PC’s. If you have a Mac or android, please find the appropriate solution.
D., INTERNET
See backup strategies above. Check you Internet Service Provider’s protection tools and you may also check out commercially available software to protect including anti-Virus, VPN;s etc.,
E. DELIVERY BASED SCAMS
Not long ago I wanted to buy an expensive item and during the course of my research I very high prices almost identical everywhere I looked. So I expanded my search from the normal companies I buy from and found a company offering for far less. I ordered it and then had some questions. I tried to email and call the company but to no avail. So I figured out that they must be scammers and called the credit card company to cancel the order. After this the company used a 3rd party service to challenge my cancellation with a long formal letter, all the order details including my IP address, and for a good measure added a FEDEX tracking number. Going to the FEDEX site the tracking number showed that the package was delivered. It listed my City and State but not my name, address, or zip code. This now makes me look bad and the credit card company will always side with the vendor if a company like FEDEX, or UPS says they delivered it. So the first thing to check is the proof of delivery photo that most (not USPS) provide but not always. If the driver hands the package directly to the recipient there may not be a photo. In any case I dug deeper and saw that the dimension of the package and weight were no where even close to the size and weight of what I ordered. I then called FEDEX and tried to get the recipient name and address but was told that they do not disclose personal information. Eventually I escalated the matter to a manager and asked the question differently. Is the package associated with tracking number 12345 listed as my name at my address. The manager answer no it is not to you at you address. I then asked if I can get a formal FEDEX letter stating that the specific package in question was not to my name and address. And he said “Of course”. I got the letter, forwarded it to my credit card company, and got the full refund.,
TAKING THIS TO THE NEXT LEVEL
I learned my lessons from this and decided to set up a PROOF OF DELIVERY STATION right next to my front door. I put a table there for the packages and signs as shown below. Now every package I receive will have the same background context and it will be obvious if the proof of deliver photo does not have the PROOF OF DELIVER sign.
