August 5, 2025 • 22 mins
It is time to talk about “phishing” because a friend recently fell for a phishing scheme. The email, which appeared to come from his cable company, claimed that the method of payment was rejected. And while we are at it, let’s talk about “smishing”, a social engineering attack using fake text messages to trick people into sending money to cybercriminals, sharing sensitive information, or downloading malware.
Let’s Talk About Scams is broadcast live Tuesdays at 8AM PT on K4HD Radio - Hollywood Talk Radio (www.k4hd.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Let’s Talk About Scams TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Let’s Talk About Scams Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this podcast is intended for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for individual professional / legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled from vetted sources and references; however, R.O.S.E. Resources / Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim to a scam.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/let-s-talk-about-scams--6483699/support.
Let’s Talk About Scams is broadcast live Tuesdays at 8AM PT on K4HD Radio - Hollywood Talk Radio (www.k4hd.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Let’s Talk About Scams TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Let’s Talk About Scams Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this podcast is intended for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for individual professional / legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled from vetted sources and references; however, R.O.S.E. Resources / Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim to a scam.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/let-s-talk-about-scams--6483699/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This program is designed to provide general information with regards
to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal, counseling,
professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services
(00:23):
of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas.
The information contained in this podcast is intended for informational
purposes only and is not a substitute for individual professional
legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled from vetted
sources and references. However, Rose Resources outreach to safeguard the
(00:45):
elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim to
a scam. Let's talk about scams. It's the must listen
show for anyone who wants to protect themselves and their
loved ones from scams. Every twoesdayday at eight am Pacific
time on K four HD Radio, Joyce Petrowski, founder of Rose,
(01:06):
and her guests will provide valuable insights and practical tips
on how to recognize and protect yourself from scams.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
And now here is your host, Joyce Petrowski.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Good Morning, everybody, welcome to let's talk about scams. I
am Brian Watson. I am a community outreach specialist for Rose.
I have been filling in for Joyce and I've really
enjoyed it. Joyce will be back in two weeks, that's
the plan. So she's given me the microphone and letting
(01:40):
me tell some fraud prevention tips with everybody out there.
So thanks for tuning in today. Today's message is phishing
and smishing continue to be a problem, so we're kind
of getting back to the basics here today. Fishing and
smishing are the two scams that we see on a
(02:02):
daily basis. If you have a computer, and you have email,
and you have a cell phone, you are being bombarded
daily by phishing and smashing. So we're going to talk
about both of them today, both the two scams, and
I'm gonna show some examples as well. Because we've talked
about a lot of really complex stuff, things like cryptocurrency
(02:26):
and pig butchering and account takeovers and malware and all
these like big words, but today we're going to get
back to the basics. Fishing and smishing have been around
for a long time. So remember phishing is via email
and think of it as a phony email. The phishing
(02:49):
emails try to trick you into thinking you are dealing
with a company that you know, like a large company,
a store, or a service, or a government agency. So
I want to tell you a story about a scam
that recently happened to a friend of mine. He received
an email purporting to be from Exfinity, and it sounded
(03:14):
very legitimate. It looked legitimate. It had the Exfinity logo,
and it said your your payment was rejected. And you
know a lot of people use a credit card or
a bank account to make that automatic payment every month,
which is what we recommend. We're not fans around here
of writing checks unless you absolutely have to. And it
(03:36):
said click on this button to update your payment information.
So one, if we could pull that first slide number
one up, please This is an example of the actual well, actually,
this is the actual email. See how the Exfinity logo
looks good and it says action required update your payment information.
(03:58):
Your payment was rejected and if you want to keep service,
update payment information. Seems pretty legitimate, right, No, no, no,
this is a phishing email. That purple button right in
the middle is something you never want to click on.
And my friend clicked on that button and it asked
(04:20):
him to start putting in credit card information, which he did,
and when I found out about it, I said, you
need a new credit card because your credit card just
got compromised. This is a classic phishing email. I received
the same one a couple days later. One of the
things you can do I'm not going to do right here,
(04:41):
but if you see what I've done with my mouse,
I don't know if it's showing, but if I were
to hover my mouse over that button, not click on it,
but hover only, it'll show the actual website it's going to.
It's not Exfinity. So this is a classic phishing email.
So why does this scam work? Well, it works because
(05:03):
most people, responsible, responsible adults, pay their bills in a
timely manner and quickly. So my friend pays his bills
every month on time, trust me. And you know he
was busy doing stuff. He saw this. He wanted to
just take care of his obligations. He clicked on it,
(05:24):
so you could see how anybody could fall for this.
So I'm showing you this not to embarrass my friend,
but to it's a lesson for all this So what happens.
So if you click on a link like this, my
friend was asked to fill in credit card information, but
they could also ask for things like your social Security number,
(05:47):
your date of birth, passwords, user names, other financial information.
And these sophisticated criminals could also install malware, which is
malicious software or spyware on your computer without knowledge, and
they could use that to commit identity theft. They could
use that to get all of your passwords, all your
(06:07):
bank account information. So it's very you've got to be
very careful. And here's the other thing. I'm holding up
my phone here. If you get an email like this
from Infinity or Amazon or something similar, don't use this.
This is far too small. The screen is too small.
(06:27):
You can't see what's going on. Only do this stuff
from your home computer where you have a big screen.
So we've basically come to the point where you have
to assume every email you receive is a scam. I
don't like living in a world like that, but that's
the world we live in. I mean, I can get
(06:48):
on the computer right now and have something delivered this
afternoon or tomorrow at the latest, anything I want, pretty much.
But the downside is the criminals can use that information
as well. All right, So here's some common sense tips
on phishing. Re exist the urge to act quickly. See
this email in front of us. It says it's got
(07:10):
ale exclamation point, and they're threatening to shut you off
within twenty four hours. You never have to rush. Read
the email carefully, look for typos, look for incorrect grammar.
Scammers want to use urgency. That's how they get you
to make a bad decision. My friend made a quick,
(07:31):
rash decision and cause an inconvenience. Go for a break,
Take a break, go for a walk. Look at the
email the next day, ask someone else, and I'll mention again.
Just don't use your cell phone. The screen's too small.
Look carefully at the email address, and that's why you
need to use a big computer, because you can't. Usually
(07:53):
you can't do this on your cell phone. Look at
the email where it came from. And I'm going to
show you an example next. So one can we go
to slide too. This is an Exfinity email that I
also received. It was similar and I only highlighted or
only copied a small portion of it. It says from Exfinity.
(08:19):
But look at the email I copied customer service at
wosanitation dot com. That's not coming from Exfinity. That is
a complete scam. And then look at even the title
of this email. The subject line deadline looming your financial
commitment is due. Does that sound like Exfinity would write that. No,
(08:42):
that's probably written by someone living in a foreign country
English second language. And there's some weird font issues there too,
that the eyes are too big. There's some goofy stuff
going on. But classic fishing email. Anytime you have these
phishing emails, don't click on the links. That's what gets
(09:05):
you in trouble. We never click on links. Okay, So
what is what is the safest option? If you're not sure,
just delete it? Okay? You know what's the worst thing
that could happen your email? I mean your cable could
be shut off, But and that's not going to happen
(09:26):
because the whole thing's a scam. So what you want
to do if you're not sure and you want to
sleep at night and you're worried your your cables can
be shut off, contact Exfinity or whatever company directly, and
you never use the number that the scammers provide because
you're going to end up talking to a scammer sitting
in a call center somewhere. You go on the internet
(09:47):
and find Exfinity's legitimate site on your own expinity dot
com or whatever it is, contact customer service and see
if there's an issue with your account. You can also
log into your account using your username and password, and
again never use a link provided by a phishing email,
(10:09):
and you can log in and see what's going on,
you know. And for example, when we always talk about
verified numbers, Let's say you got an email and it
claimed to be from your bank, so I bek it
Wells Fargo. And if I got an email saying there
was something wrong with my account, update my information. Nope,
(10:30):
I delete it. What I do? I flip over my
ATM card here, I call the service customer service number
right on the back. That's a legitimate number we always
call from verified numbers. And then I know, Joyce and
I beat this like a dead horse. But you got
(10:50):
to have a phone a friend. Who is your phone
a friend? Everyone's sitting here right now listening watching our
radio show this morning. Who is your phono friend? Is
it a family member, is it a friend, is it
a neighbor? You know, when you get a phishing email
and you're not sure who would you talk to. Sometimes
(11:12):
phone a friend might be the local police department, you
know what. They would rather help you out and prevent
you from getting scammed than try to track down money
later on. But and you also have someone who's very
tech savvy. Hopefully your phono friend is tech savy, but
sometimes they're like two different people. When I was doing
(11:32):
fraud prevention presentations twenty years ago, phishing was in its infancy,
but a lot of the phishing emails were really, really bad.
They were almost like a joke, you know, it was
almost comical how bad they are. But with artificial intelligence
and with criminals being more organized and sharing information, these
(11:55):
phishing emails look more and more legitimate. The problem of
phishing is only going to get worse before it gets better.
I want to show you another phishing email, number three,
please one. This one purports to be from Norton LifeLock,
and the scammers basically just copied the image from Norton
(12:20):
LifeLock and put it on there. Dear customer, your subscription
is set to renew today and it's going to charge
you over five hundred dollars So this is a classic
fishing email. They want you to panic and say I
didn't order a five year Norton LifeLock renewal. That's ridiculous.
I need to cancel it right away. And the scammers
(12:43):
are so nice they provide a phone number for you. Well,
what happens when you call that phone number, you're calling
a scammer. Okay, what we do is we delete this
email and you contact Norton LifeLock or contact Norton LifeLock
and make sure it's it's to reassure yourself that it
(13:06):
was a phishing email. We never call the number. I
was over at my mom's house helping her with her
email the other day. I went into her email account
and she had about ten emails just like this from
all different companies. These the scammers are sending these things
(13:26):
out in the thousands, if not millions. And then I
have one more phishing email. I want to show you
slide for please one. So this is one a phishing
email that purports to be from Social Security Administration. And
look at this, it's real nice. Your social Security statement
is streamlined and easier to read than ever before. We
(13:49):
encourage you to view your statement once a year. Sounds legitimate.
The government is here to serve you and help you out. Unfortunately,
this is a phishing email. Don't click on that blue
link at the bottom. You're falling right into the trap
of a scammer. What we do is we delete this,
go directly to SSA dot gov and either log in
(14:13):
or talk to someone. This is a complete scam. And
just think about this. The scammers send thousands of these emails,
millions of these emails, and they only need to get
lucky one percent of time or zero point one percent
of the time, and they're going to make money. And
then one other clue here, look where it's from Social
Security statement and the email is no reply at Greek
(14:38):
coproad dot com. That is not Social Security Administration. All right,
So next we are going to be talking about texting.
There is a new text now where criminals claim you
owe money for unpaid road tolls and they're pretending to
be state agencies and they send text message is demanding money,
(15:00):
and they don't ask for a lot of money. It's
usually a small amount of money. So these text messages
are a form of what we call smishing, a social
engineering attack using fake text messages to trick people into
sending money to cyber criminals, trick you into sharing personal
information or downloading malware. So why do we call it smishing?
(15:22):
So a text message is an SMS, a short message service,
that's the technical word for it. So instead of calling SMS,
we call it smishing, and it rhymes with phishing. So
smashing is fake text messages. So next slide one, please,
this is an example of a text, a smishing text
(15:46):
that claims to be from the Arizona Department of Transportation.
Little side note, in Arizona, we don't have any toll roots,
so that's the number one clue. But look at this.
This is a classic smishing email. You have an outstanding toll.
If you don't pay it by the end of March,
(16:06):
you will be penalized subject to legal action. And look,
they even send you a little hyperlink to pay. It
looks very legitimate, doesn't it. But do not click on
that hyperlink. And it's just what we've learned is you
know this this text works because law buying citizens respond
(16:28):
to financial inquiries and they always pay their bills. Like
positive members of society. You know, you get a bill,
you pay it. We're not dead beats, you know, so
resist the urge to pay it quickly. Procrastinators don't get
scammed and stuff like this. The people that get scammed
or the people that just do things quickly because they
want to just get stuff done, resist that urge. If
(16:51):
you receive one for another state, delete the text message,
contact the state directly, or better at just ignore it
because you know this is a scam. And again, like
phishing emails, in texts, texts, you know this mishing text
we never click on links, okay, And you know I
(17:15):
talked about phishing not using the phone. The problem with
text messages is you have to use your phone, So
just don't click on links. Delete, delete, delete. You know,
this scam is believable because a lot of Arizona residents
have another house in another state where they travel. You know,
(17:37):
we're a very mobile population here in Arizona. So I
recently read a news story and on this scam. There's
an estimated sixty thousand domains relating connected associated with these
tole scams. So that means there's sixty thousand domains sending
(18:00):
these things out. So if you haven't received one, you will.
And here's the thing too, it's going to change. Two
months from now, they'll be at something very similar and
trying to trick you into sending information. So the key
is is to be very, very skeptical of any text
message you receive. All right, I have one last slide
(18:23):
today that one's going to bring up. It's our sixth
and final one, and this one is looks real simple
text message, Dad, text me asap. It's urgent. I broke
my phone and there's a phone number to call. This
is basically a variation of the grandparents scam, but in
(18:44):
this case it's just targeting the parents. So let's say,
you know, I have a son who's got a phone,
and let's say he he broke his phone. It crashed,
he dropped it in the water. Bad happened, and he
basically was just borrowing someone's phone to get in touch
with me. You you, you just got to ignore this.
(19:08):
This is a complete scam. Okay. You know, if if
the kid really needed to get a hold of you,
your son or daughter, they would they would call. But
if you see something like this, you just resist the
urge because I know how hard it is. Everyone in
the world wants to protect their family members. Do not
(19:29):
click on this if if you click on that link
there and text back, they're going to start a whole series,
a whole scam that they've used on other people that's worked.
There's all kinds of things they could do well. Won't
get into it today, but so just remember some closing
stuff about text messages. If if you receive an email,
(19:54):
text message, or phone call, you have to ask yourself
could this be a scam? Are they targeting me? Only
respond if you're one hundred percent sure that it's legitimate.
Never hurts to get a second opinion, ask a family
member or friend. Just just get a second opinion, because
remember time is our friend when it comes to scam prevention.
(20:14):
Scammers want us to make a rush decision. You know,
in the toll scam that we talked about, I've seen
versions of it where they threaten people with a large
fee if they don't pay on time, and a lot
of victims will just pay the small amount just to
make the problem go away. But here's the deal. The
(20:34):
problem doesn't go away. Now they have your credit card information,
they can charge you a whole bunch of money. Remember
to please go to Rosadvocacy dot org and sign up
for our free monthly email. There's our email address right there.
Have your friends and family sign up. We want to
(20:57):
get lots of people signed up. It doesn't cost us
any more money to send out more of our monthly
email than it does if we send one or if
we send ten thousand. So please please please sign up
and also go to Facebook. Follow us on Facebook, follow
us on LinkedIn. Next week, August twelfth, will be my
(21:18):
last guest hosting for a while, and I'm bringing in
a special guest. I'm actually bringing in a retired FBI
agent named Martin Helmer. He just joined the advisory committee
for Rose and we're going to have a little chat
about scams, especially with technology, things like cryptocurrency, pig butchering,
(21:39):
romance scams, anything and everything. And I want to get
his perspective of someone who's worked twenty three years in
law enforcement, and we're going to talk about reporting crimes,
reporting losses, why it's important, and things like that. So
see you all next week, next Tuesday morning, and thank
you for let's talk about scams.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Well that's all the knowledge for this episode.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Tune in every Tuesday at eight am Pacific time on
KFOURHD Radio at KFOURHD dot com as.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Joyce explores a variety
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Of knowledge, so you have the power to make scam
protection your healthy habit and until then, feel free to
reach out to Joyce and let's talk about scams.
This program is designed to provide general information with regards
to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal, counseling,
professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services
(00:23):
of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas.
The information contained in this podcast is intended for informational
purposes only and is not a substitute for individual professional
legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled from vetted
sources and references. However, Rose Resources outreach to safeguard the
(00:45):
elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim to
a scam. Let's talk about scams. It's the must listen
show for anyone who wants to protect themselves and their
loved ones from scams. Every twoesdayday at eight am Pacific
time on K four HD Radio, Joyce Petrowski, founder of Rose,
(01:06):
and her guests will provide valuable insights and practical tips
on how to recognize and protect yourself from scams.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
And now here is your host, Joyce Petrowski.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Good Morning, everybody, welcome to let's talk about scams. I
am Brian Watson. I am a community outreach specialist for Rose.
I have been filling in for Joyce and I've really
enjoyed it. Joyce will be back in two weeks, that's
the plan. So she's given me the microphone and letting
(01:40):
me tell some fraud prevention tips with everybody out there.
So thanks for tuning in today. Today's message is phishing
and smishing continue to be a problem, so we're kind
of getting back to the basics here today. Fishing and
smishing are the two scams that we see on a
(02:02):
daily basis. If you have a computer, and you have email,
and you have a cell phone, you are being bombarded
daily by phishing and smashing. So we're going to talk
about both of them today, both the two scams, and
I'm gonna show some examples as well. Because we've talked
about a lot of really complex stuff, things like cryptocurrency
(02:26):
and pig butchering and account takeovers and malware and all
these like big words, but today we're going to get
back to the basics. Fishing and smishing have been around
for a long time. So remember phishing is via email
and think of it as a phony email. The phishing
(02:49):
emails try to trick you into thinking you are dealing
with a company that you know, like a large company,
a store, or a service, or a government agency. So
I want to tell you a story about a scam
that recently happened to a friend of mine. He received
an email purporting to be from Exfinity, and it sounded
(03:14):
very legitimate. It looked legitimate. It had the Exfinity logo,
and it said your your payment was rejected. And you
know a lot of people use a credit card or
a bank account to make that automatic payment every month,
which is what we recommend. We're not fans around here
of writing checks unless you absolutely have to. And it
(03:36):
said click on this button to update your payment information.
So one, if we could pull that first slide number
one up, please This is an example of the actual well, actually,
this is the actual email. See how the Exfinity logo
looks good and it says action required update your payment information.
(03:58):
Your payment was rejected and if you want to keep service,
update payment information. Seems pretty legitimate, right, No, no, no,
this is a phishing email. That purple button right in
the middle is something you never want to click on.
And my friend clicked on that button and it asked
(04:20):
him to start putting in credit card information, which he did,
and when I found out about it, I said, you
need a new credit card because your credit card just
got compromised. This is a classic phishing email. I received
the same one a couple days later. One of the
things you can do I'm not going to do right here,
(04:41):
but if you see what I've done with my mouse,
I don't know if it's showing, but if I were
to hover my mouse over that button, not click on it,
but hover only, it'll show the actual website it's going to.
It's not Exfinity. So this is a classic phishing email.
So why does this scam work? Well, it works because
(05:03):
most people, responsible, responsible adults, pay their bills in a
timely manner and quickly. So my friend pays his bills
every month on time, trust me. And you know he
was busy doing stuff. He saw this. He wanted to
just take care of his obligations. He clicked on it,
(05:24):
so you could see how anybody could fall for this.
So I'm showing you this not to embarrass my friend,
but to it's a lesson for all this So what happens.
So if you click on a link like this, my
friend was asked to fill in credit card information, but
they could also ask for things like your social Security number,
(05:47):
your date of birth, passwords, user names, other financial information.
And these sophisticated criminals could also install malware, which is
malicious software or spyware on your computer without knowledge, and
they could use that to commit identity theft. They could
use that to get all of your passwords, all your
(06:07):
bank account information. So it's very you've got to be
very careful. And here's the other thing. I'm holding up
my phone here. If you get an email like this
from Infinity or Amazon or something similar, don't use this.
This is far too small. The screen is too small.
(06:27):
You can't see what's going on. Only do this stuff
from your home computer where you have a big screen.
So we've basically come to the point where you have
to assume every email you receive is a scam. I
don't like living in a world like that, but that's
the world we live in. I mean, I can get
(06:48):
on the computer right now and have something delivered this
afternoon or tomorrow at the latest, anything I want, pretty much.
But the downside is the criminals can use that information
as well. All right, So here's some common sense tips
on phishing. Re exist the urge to act quickly. See
this email in front of us. It says it's got
(07:10):
ale exclamation point, and they're threatening to shut you off
within twenty four hours. You never have to rush. Read
the email carefully, look for typos, look for incorrect grammar.
Scammers want to use urgency. That's how they get you
to make a bad decision. My friend made a quick,
(07:31):
rash decision and cause an inconvenience. Go for a break,
Take a break, go for a walk. Look at the
email the next day, ask someone else, and I'll mention again.
Just don't use your cell phone. The screen's too small.
Look carefully at the email address, and that's why you
need to use a big computer, because you can't. Usually
(07:53):
you can't do this on your cell phone. Look at
the email where it came from. And I'm going to
show you an example next. So one can we go
to slide too. This is an Exfinity email that I
also received. It was similar and I only highlighted or
only copied a small portion of it. It says from Exfinity.
(08:19):
But look at the email I copied customer service at
wosanitation dot com. That's not coming from Exfinity. That is
a complete scam. And then look at even the title
of this email. The subject line deadline looming your financial
commitment is due. Does that sound like Exfinity would write that. No,
(08:42):
that's probably written by someone living in a foreign country
English second language. And there's some weird font issues there too,
that the eyes are too big. There's some goofy stuff
going on. But classic fishing email. Anytime you have these
phishing emails, don't click on the links. That's what gets
(09:05):
you in trouble. We never click on links. Okay, So
what is what is the safest option? If you're not sure,
just delete it? Okay? You know what's the worst thing
that could happen your email? I mean your cable could
be shut off, But and that's not going to happen
(09:26):
because the whole thing's a scam. So what you want
to do if you're not sure and you want to
sleep at night and you're worried your your cables can
be shut off, contact Exfinity or whatever company directly, and
you never use the number that the scammers provide because
you're going to end up talking to a scammer sitting
in a call center somewhere. You go on the internet
(09:47):
and find Exfinity's legitimate site on your own expinity dot
com or whatever it is, contact customer service and see
if there's an issue with your account. You can also
log into your account using your username and password, and
again never use a link provided by a phishing email,
(10:09):
and you can log in and see what's going on,
you know. And for example, when we always talk about
verified numbers, Let's say you got an email and it
claimed to be from your bank, so I bek it
Wells Fargo. And if I got an email saying there
was something wrong with my account, update my information. Nope,
(10:30):
I delete it. What I do? I flip over my
ATM card here, I call the service customer service number
right on the back. That's a legitimate number we always
call from verified numbers. And then I know, Joyce and
I beat this like a dead horse. But you got
(10:50):
to have a phone a friend. Who is your phone
a friend? Everyone's sitting here right now listening watching our
radio show this morning. Who is your phono friend? Is
it a family member, is it a friend, is it
a neighbor? You know, when you get a phishing email
and you're not sure who would you talk to. Sometimes
(11:12):
phone a friend might be the local police department, you
know what. They would rather help you out and prevent
you from getting scammed than try to track down money
later on. But and you also have someone who's very
tech savvy. Hopefully your phono friend is tech savy, but
sometimes they're like two different people. When I was doing
(11:32):
fraud prevention presentations twenty years ago, phishing was in its infancy,
but a lot of the phishing emails were really, really bad.
They were almost like a joke, you know, it was
almost comical how bad they are. But with artificial intelligence
and with criminals being more organized and sharing information, these
(11:55):
phishing emails look more and more legitimate. The problem of
phishing is only going to get worse before it gets better.
I want to show you another phishing email, number three,
please one. This one purports to be from Norton LifeLock,
and the scammers basically just copied the image from Norton
(12:20):
LifeLock and put it on there. Dear customer, your subscription
is set to renew today and it's going to charge
you over five hundred dollars So this is a classic
fishing email. They want you to panic and say I
didn't order a five year Norton LifeLock renewal. That's ridiculous.
I need to cancel it right away. And the scammers
(12:43):
are so nice they provide a phone number for you. Well,
what happens when you call that phone number, you're calling
a scammer. Okay, what we do is we delete this
email and you contact Norton LifeLock or contact Norton LifeLock
and make sure it's it's to reassure yourself that it
(13:06):
was a phishing email. We never call the number. I
was over at my mom's house helping her with her
email the other day. I went into her email account
and she had about ten emails just like this from
all different companies. These the scammers are sending these things
(13:26):
out in the thousands, if not millions. And then I
have one more phishing email. I want to show you
slide for please one. So this is one a phishing
email that purports to be from Social Security Administration. And
look at this, it's real nice. Your social Security statement
is streamlined and easier to read than ever before. We
(13:49):
encourage you to view your statement once a year. Sounds legitimate.
The government is here to serve you and help you out. Unfortunately,
this is a phishing email. Don't click on that blue
link at the bottom. You're falling right into the trap
of a scammer. What we do is we delete this,
go directly to SSA dot gov and either log in
(14:13):
or talk to someone. This is a complete scam. And
just think about this. The scammers send thousands of these emails,
millions of these emails, and they only need to get
lucky one percent of time or zero point one percent
of the time, and they're going to make money. And
then one other clue here, look where it's from Social
Security statement and the email is no reply at Greek
(14:38):
coproad dot com. That is not Social Security Administration. All right,
So next we are going to be talking about texting.
There is a new text now where criminals claim you
owe money for unpaid road tolls and they're pretending to
be state agencies and they send text message is demanding money,
(15:00):
and they don't ask for a lot of money. It's
usually a small amount of money. So these text messages
are a form of what we call smishing, a social
engineering attack using fake text messages to trick people into
sending money to cyber criminals, trick you into sharing personal
information or downloading malware. So why do we call it smishing?
(15:22):
So a text message is an SMS, a short message service,
that's the technical word for it. So instead of calling SMS,
we call it smishing, and it rhymes with phishing. So
smashing is fake text messages. So next slide one, please,
this is an example of a text, a smishing text
(15:46):
that claims to be from the Arizona Department of Transportation.
Little side note, in Arizona, we don't have any toll roots,
so that's the number one clue. But look at this.
This is a classic smishing email. You have an outstanding toll.
If you don't pay it by the end of March,
(16:06):
you will be penalized subject to legal action. And look,
they even send you a little hyperlink to pay. It
looks very legitimate, doesn't it. But do not click on
that hyperlink. And it's just what we've learned is you
know this this text works because law buying citizens respond
(16:28):
to financial inquiries and they always pay their bills. Like
positive members of society. You know, you get a bill,
you pay it. We're not dead beats, you know, so
resist the urge to pay it quickly. Procrastinators don't get
scammed and stuff like this. The people that get scammed
or the people that just do things quickly because they
want to just get stuff done, resist that urge. If
(16:51):
you receive one for another state, delete the text message,
contact the state directly, or better at just ignore it
because you know this is a scam. And again, like
phishing emails, in texts, texts, you know this mishing text
we never click on links, okay, And you know I
(17:15):
talked about phishing not using the phone. The problem with
text messages is you have to use your phone, So
just don't click on links. Delete, delete, delete. You know,
this scam is believable because a lot of Arizona residents
have another house in another state where they travel. You know,
(17:37):
we're a very mobile population here in Arizona. So I
recently read a news story and on this scam. There's
an estimated sixty thousand domains relating connected associated with these
tole scams. So that means there's sixty thousand domains sending
(18:00):
these things out. So if you haven't received one, you will.
And here's the thing too, it's going to change. Two
months from now, they'll be at something very similar and
trying to trick you into sending information. So the key
is is to be very, very skeptical of any text
message you receive. All right, I have one last slide
(18:23):
today that one's going to bring up. It's our sixth
and final one, and this one is looks real simple
text message, Dad, text me asap. It's urgent. I broke
my phone and there's a phone number to call. This
is basically a variation of the grandparents scam, but in
(18:44):
this case it's just targeting the parents. So let's say,
you know, I have a son who's got a phone,
and let's say he he broke his phone. It crashed,
he dropped it in the water. Bad happened, and he
basically was just borrowing someone's phone to get in touch
with me. You you, you just got to ignore this.
(19:08):
This is a complete scam. Okay. You know, if if
the kid really needed to get a hold of you,
your son or daughter, they would they would call. But
if you see something like this, you just resist the
urge because I know how hard it is. Everyone in
the world wants to protect their family members. Do not
(19:29):
click on this if if you click on that link
there and text back, they're going to start a whole series,
a whole scam that they've used on other people that's worked.
There's all kinds of things they could do well. Won't
get into it today, but so just remember some closing
stuff about text messages. If if you receive an email,
(19:54):
text message, or phone call, you have to ask yourself
could this be a scam? Are they targeting me? Only
respond if you're one hundred percent sure that it's legitimate.
Never hurts to get a second opinion, ask a family
member or friend. Just just get a second opinion, because
remember time is our friend when it comes to scam prevention.
(20:14):
Scammers want us to make a rush decision. You know,
in the toll scam that we talked about, I've seen
versions of it where they threaten people with a large
fee if they don't pay on time, and a lot
of victims will just pay the small amount just to
make the problem go away. But here's the deal. The
(20:34):
problem doesn't go away. Now they have your credit card information,
they can charge you a whole bunch of money. Remember
to please go to Rosadvocacy dot org and sign up
for our free monthly email. There's our email address right there.
Have your friends and family sign up. We want to
(20:57):
get lots of people signed up. It doesn't cost us
any more money to send out more of our monthly
email than it does if we send one or if
we send ten thousand. So please please please sign up
and also go to Facebook. Follow us on Facebook, follow
us on LinkedIn. Next week, August twelfth, will be my
(21:18):
last guest hosting for a while, and I'm bringing in
a special guest. I'm actually bringing in a retired FBI
agent named Martin Helmer. He just joined the advisory committee
for Rose and we're going to have a little chat
about scams, especially with technology, things like cryptocurrency, pig butchering,
(21:39):
romance scams, anything and everything. And I want to get
his perspective of someone who's worked twenty three years in
law enforcement, and we're going to talk about reporting crimes,
reporting losses, why it's important, and things like that. So
see you all next week, next Tuesday morning, and thank
you for let's talk about scams.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Well that's all the knowledge for this episode.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
Tune in every Tuesday at eight am Pacific time on
KFOURHD Radio at KFOURHD dot com as.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Joyce explores a variety
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Of knowledge, so you have the power to make scam
protection your healthy habit and until then, feel free to
reach out to Joyce and let's talk about scams.
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