Would You See These Minor Differences That Have Huge Consequences?

This is going to be a short but very important episode. Join us as we share a scam email and scam text where there are minor differences with huge consequences.

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).

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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.

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Episode Transcript

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 Tuesday at 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. And
now here is your host, Joyce Petrowski.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Hi, everyone, welcome back. Joyce Petrowski, founder and board president
of Rose Resources Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly, where we
have a scam prevention through education platform focused on the
older adults. You can find more information on our website
at Roseadvocacy dot org. On the homepage you'll find all

(01:42):
of our social media links and if you scroll down
to the bottom, you'll find where you can sign up
for our newsletter. We have one that we send in
the mail at the beginning of the month, and then
we have one that goes out within the first week
of the month via email that has a lot of
information on there, and then every two day morning, so yes,
that would be this morning in about ten fifteen minutes.

(02:04):
It happens at nine to fifteen Arizona time. You get
a Tuesday tip on the email. And the nice thing
about that is one is it might be something new
that you didn't know, so you learned something. The other
thing and probably just as important is going to be
even if you already know it. What it does is

(02:26):
it reinforces scam prevention in your mind. So the next
time you're contacted, your more app to pause and think
about scams and do your research and due diligence before
you interact with the email, the text, the phone call,
you know, whatever the messaging, whatever the contact was. And

(02:48):
it also gives you a conversation starter, so you can
talk to your family and friends, especially your older adult
family and friends. You know, when you see them, if
you go visit them once a week, you talk to
them on the phone. It's a conversation starter where you
can have a conversation about scams and how to protect
yourself without seeming without making the other person feel defensive

(03:11):
by always telling them don't do this, don't do that.
It just talking about it in regular conversation, and it
builds your relationship with them and they will be more
apt to come talk to you when they do encounter
something or maybe if they've accidentally clicked on something they
shouldn't have, they're going to be more app to come
and talk to you. So sign up for those newsletters.

(03:33):
So today this is going to be a short show.
I'm going to share my screen. We were given some
information on a couple different scams that were out there
and it actually was pretty clever. So I'm going to
share my screen right now and show you what I'm

(03:59):
talking about. Here, I can get to the pdf. So
look at this one. This is quite interesting. So this
was a text that someone received and you know, it says, hey,
with a wavy hand, you know normal, can you help

(04:20):
me with this YouTube? Short video? Could you please check
whether I can promote this one or not? Now, look
at the link that's there, and then it says, okay,
thank you. But look at the link that's there, and
I probably should have circled it, but it's right here.
You've got the https, and you've got the two slash marks.

(04:46):
But where's the colon? If I'm not mistaken, it's https
colon backslash, backslash. And then you start with the you
start with the the website name. Okay, it could be
YouTube dot com or Roseadvocacy dot org. But it's missing

(05:07):
the colon in here. Now, when your eyes look at that,
you know that it's https colon backslash, backslash. So you
might not see that that colon's missing. It's that slight
little change that to your naked eye you might not
see it, Which is why it's so so important to

(05:30):
look at every single letter that's in there and write
it out. You know, if if you're not looking and
seeing every little thing, you know, uh, write it out,
put your cursor over it, and go okay, that's a
y oh you you know, but start here and go
h because it should have the HTTP s and the

(05:50):
S means it's secure, but the colon is missing. So anyways,
that's something that was texted to, uh, to someone and
I'm sure hundreds thousands millions of people are getting this
type of text or a text very similar with this
type of website where it's not this is actually the

(06:12):
whole website, the whole domain name is including this HTTPS
in it, So just be careful of that. And then
the other thing that we saw. And if any of
you have been to our presentations that we do, this
is one of the things that we talk about and

(06:36):
we suggest to people, especially if they're not familiar with
the website, or they get an email and they're not
familiar with who it came from, or you know. And
I've always used Amazon as an example, but Microsoft fits
as well, and this one happens to be. I don't
believe this was an actual email that somebody received, but

(06:58):
somebody put it together if my understanding's correct, or maybe
it is an actual email. But anyways, the good thing
is is it's here to show you and that we
talk about this in the presentation. So Microsoft, it's a
big company, it's a well known company. Just about everybody

(07:18):
knows or has heard of Microsoft. And yeah, when they
send you emails, a lot of times it'll come from
a no reply because it's an informational email. You might
have to click on a link within the email, or
they have a phone number that you call, you know,
whatever it is. But and this is something we say,
look at everything after the at sign because that's the domain.

(07:42):
So you look at this and you you look at
it and go, okay, well it's Microsoft dot com. That's
the right one. But if you look at it really
really closely, look at that M right there, you think
it's a lowercase M for Microsoft. It's not. It's a
lowercase R and it's a lowercase N. And is your

(08:04):
naked eye going to see that little space between the
R and the N and that right there makes it
a totally different domain. It's not Microsoft. But if you
clicked on a link in here in this email, it
would take you to that fake domain that I am

(08:25):
guessing is impersonating Microsoft. So you want to be extremely careful,
and even now when I'm looking at it and I
have my glasses on, I have to blink a few
times because when I first looked at it, I'm like, no,
that's an M. And then I have to get my
eyes in focus and really look at it. And you know,

(08:47):
the thing is is, you know what, if you want
to go to the Microsoft website and you know it's
Microsoft dot com, don't worry about clicking links in a
text or an email. Just go to the Microsoft dot
com website. So if you already know what the website
is and you have ordered things from the website, you
have a subscription with the website, so it seems reasonable

(09:09):
that you would be getting an email from them about something.
This one specifically was a password reset request. You know,
if you've not reset your pat if you have not
initiated a password reset on one of your Microsoft accounts,
then you can just ignore it. But if you did, right,

(09:31):
go directly to Microsoft dot com and go into your
settings to change your password there. Because it's hard to
see it, and like I said, before, my eyes, you know,
when I first started looking at this, it looked like
a lowercase M. And you really have to look at it,

(09:52):
and I had to blink a few times and you know,
make sure my eyes were open wide to look at
it and go, yep, no, that's a lowercase R and
a lowercase IN. So be very careful with that. Some
other things that can you know, happen is what about
a lowercase L. Does that look like a one? What

(10:12):
about capital O? Is that really close to a zero?
Look at Microsoft again? Here the C and the R,
the lowercase C and the lowercase R. Does that look
like a lowercase A. So there's a lot of different
things that you know that can be just tiny little

(10:39):
changes that a scammer makes. And the domains available and
they buy the domain and they're impersonating another company just
by switching you know, those letters around or a letter
for a number, and it makes it so close and
so similar that your mind's already thinking Microsoft. So your

(10:59):
eyes are looking at it. Your mind's thinking Microsoft, So
your eyes are telling you it's Microsoft. Well, no, I
really have to look at it and go, am I
looking at a lowercase M? Or is that this? Or this?
And you really have to look at it to determine
what the letters and numbers, capital, lowercase all that are
and it's always good to write it down. Yes, it's

(11:20):
going to take you a few extra minutes, but it's
going to protect you. It's going to help protect you
from getting onto a malicious website, because that can cause
a whole lot of damage. You get onto a malicious website,
and it can cause a lot of damage. You're clicking
on links, it can capture your information, maybe it puts

(11:40):
malware on your device, and now the scammers are sitting
in the background on your device and you have no
idea that they're there, and they're watching everything you do.
And you log into your bank account, Well, now they
see what your log in is, right, So you got
to be careful. That's another reason why you need to

(12:01):
have very strong antivirus anti malware protection on all of
your devices, even your cell phones, because your cell phones
are mobile computers, they're connected to the internet, they're mobile computers.
And have that strong antivirus anti malware on your phone
as well, because especially on your phone, it's so small,

(12:24):
you try to scroll up, you end up clicking on
a link you didn't want to click on. And there's
a lot of great antivirus anti malware software out there.
If you have a trusted tech support person, talk to
them and find out what they recommend. They might have
one that works really well with Apple. They might have
another one that works really well with Samsung or Android products,

(12:48):
or maybe they have one that's just really good all
around for desktop laptops, iPads, notebooks, mobile phones. They might
have one that you know, well, there's this little thing
in here that you have to be okay with, but
it's really really good and very easy to use, right,

(13:09):
So do your research and find that and make sure
it's on all your devices, because if you clicked on
something in one of these malicious emails, there's a good
chance that your antivirus anti Maowa is going to recognize
it and it's going to warn you. It's going to
say this is a malicious site. You shouldn't go there,
and then you can say okay, and then not go

(13:32):
there and then get into the actual legitimate website on
your own. So that's all I have for today. I
told you it was going to be short and sweet today.
Got a lot of work to get back to, so
looking forward to talking to you guys next week. I'm
working on having a guest next week to talk about

(13:54):
their scam experience and the following week. It'll either be
next week, which I realize is a couple days before Christmas,
or it'll be the following week, which is right at
the end of the year, but we'll have that guest
on and share their experience. So until next week, don't forget.
You're going to want to click subscribe so you don't
miss an episode. You can also find the shorts and

(14:17):
the live videos on our YouTube page, which the links
are on our website at Roseadvocacy dot org. And don't
forget to sign up for our emails. We have one
in the mail and one via newsletters. I mean we
have one in the mail and one via email. They're
at the bottom of the homepage. You can sign up
for them. We're really trying to get our YouTube channel

(14:38):
up over one hundred subscribers, so please if you can
click on that to subscribe. My understanding is you're going
to get a notice when a new one's coming up
and you can be ready for it. So thank you
and we will see you next week.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
Well that's all the knowledge for this episode. Julian Every
Tuesday at eight am Pacific time on KFOAHD Radio at
KFORAHD dot com as Joyce explores a variety 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.