Category: identity theft

January 22, 2020

How to Recognise a Hacked Email Account

If your normal flood of emails stops abruptly and you know emails you expected have not arrived the maybe someone else has taken over your email account. But, it could easily be that your email provider is having problems and the emails will turn on again.

It’s best to know what the situation is, so do contact your supplier first to check if the problem is at their end.

If your email account has been hacked, then you may see the following signs:-

Your mail account is sending spam messages to your contacts
Your email provider warns you of suspicious attempts to login to your account
Your account details or mail settings have been changed without your knowledge

If you think your account has been hacked – try to change the password. If you can do that, then your email account is probably fine.

Check your Mail settings

Depending on which email service and software you use, the following options may or may not be available to you.

mail filters
Sending name
Email signature
Reply-to address
Vacation response
Default sending address
Auto Forwarding of all emails

Hackers may change the settings in your Yahoo Mail account to disrupt your inbox or get copies of your emails. Access your mail settings and make sure none of your info or preferences were changed without your knowledge.

Your password has been changed

Having control over an email account enables the fraudster to read any emails you haven’t deleted and cleared from your email bin. That’s why it’s important you don’t share or store sensitive or personal information on your email server.”

Having a secondary email address or extra verification measures in place helps prevent a hacker from locking you out of your own account.

Unusual inbox activity

Some hackers won’t change your password so you won’t notice that anything’s wrong.

One way to determine if this is the case is to look at your sent mail folder and see if there are messages there that you are confident that you didn’t send. If you find some, then you know a spammer probably has access to your account.

Also watch for password reset emails that you have not instigated. The hacker may have tried to change your password on other sites, using access to your email to perform password resets.

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October 10, 2019

Means of Identity Theft

Scams reported to the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) involving identity theft or the loss of personal/banking information have cost Australians at least $16 million in 2018 year and this figure is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg.

Four in 10 Scamwatch reports to ACCC in 2019 involve attempts to gain information or the actual loss of victims’ information.

“If you think scammers might have gained access to your personal information, even in a scam completely unrelated to your finances, immediately contact your bank,” said ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard.

The most common ways scammers obtain personal or banking information are:

phishing emails and text messages which impersonate banks or utility providers seeking your login and password details
fake online quizzes and surveys
fake job advertisements
remote access scams in which the scammer has direct access to everything on your computer
sourcing information about you from social media platforms
direct requests for scans of your driver’s license or passport, often in the course of a dating and romance scam

“No one is really selling an iPhone for $1 or rewarding the completion of a survey with expensive electronic goods or large gift vouchers. They are scams to get your confidential information,” Ms Rickard said.

With the information, scammers can empty their victim’s bank accounts and take out tens of thousands of dollars in bank loans under victims’ names.

Lost personal information also leaves victims more susceptible to future scams as scammers will use the information to seem more convincing in cold calls to perpetrate further scams.

If you have any experiences with identity theft do let me know, by email.

October 4, 2018

Rise in Identity Theft in Over-60s

Identity theft is where a criminal gets personal information on someone and pretends to be that person so they can take out credit cards, bank accounts, loan agreements etc. in that person’s name.

Identity thieves generally don’t care about the age of their targets as long as they are over 18 (so they buy alcohol etc. with the fake identity) but increasingly the over-60s age group are being targeted.

In the first half of 2018, there were more than 14 thousand reports of identity theft in those aged 60 and above. The total number of identity theft cases in that time was over 80 thousand.

There are more and more people over 60 accessing the Internet so this makes it easier for criminals to find such targets.

And it may be that over-60s are more trusting and less familiar with the dangers of the Internet so don’t take the necessary steps to protect themselves as they should.

Be careful about giving away your private information e.g. name, address, email address, date of birth, bank details etc.

Be equally careful about callers claiming to be from an organisation you deal with e.g. water company, Internet provider, local government, local bank etc.

If in doubt, check the genuine phone number and call them to verify the situation.

Got to https://fightback.ninja/test/one-third-of-people-fail-on-basic-security-do-you/ for more advice on personal security.

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July 26, 2018

New Scams in 2018

Fraudsters are targeting people with these scams in 2018.

Phishing Using Social media Information

Scammers collect information on you from your social media accounts then contact you by phone, text or email and use that information to convince you they are a legitimate business you deal with e.g. an online clothes shop you buy from. Once convinced they get more information from you, usually for selling to other scammers involved in fraud or identity theft.

Brexit Investments

As Brexit is in the news almost daily and there is a lot of scaremongering, scammers invent ways to take advantage of this. Typical scams include investments that guarantee growth despite Brexit or investments that will make a fortune when Brexit happens.

All investments are a risk – there’s no such thing as a certainty in investment.

Big Sporting Events e.g. The World Cup

The Football World Cup led to a lot of scams involving fake hotels, fake travel agencies, cheap match tickets etc. This also applies to other big international sports events – fake travel and fake tickets mostly. If you’re buying such items, always use trusted suppliers.

Wedding Lists

Many people create wedding present lists online – either they create such a list on their social media or they create a list at one of the big retailer’s websites such as Amazon. Done properly these can be very helpful to Bride and Groom and guests, but sometimes leave the security open and the lists can be read by anyone and some scammers use the information provided to find ways to scam the new married couple.

There are also increasing numbers of fake venue hire websites, wedding catering sites etc.

Pension scams

Scammers trying to steal your pension funds are not new but they are continuing to target people over the recent changes to pension law making it possible for people to withdraw money from their pension fund without a tax charge. They typically start by offering advice or a free pension review.

Money Transfer

Fraudsters who need cash to be moved are targeting hard up students, found through social media. They are offered an easy way to make money by accepting and posting on items or to pay money into their account then pay out to someone else. These activities are illegal and ignorance of that fact does not give protection from the law.

If you have any experiences with scammers, spammers or time-waster do let me know, by email.

January 12, 2018

The Coffee Shop Facebook Like

A very clever way to demonstrate the danger of Facebook Likes was devised by CIFAS (Fraud Prevention Service) and BT.

They used a normal looking coffee shop with a sign in the window saying ’Like Us on Facebook for a Free Coffee and Croissant”.

People saw the sign and did ‘Like’ the coffee shop on their smart phones.. What they didn’t know was that a team of researchers watched their actions and trawled through Facebook and public websites to find them and any personal details they could find about the customer within a maximum of three minutes.

In the coffee shop, their free drink was made and the waitress listening in to the researchers on an earpiece then wrote that personal information on the drink.

The video is at http://home.bt.com/lifestyle/money/money-tips/coffee-shop-customers-shocked-by-like-stunt-in-cifas-data-to-go-video-11364071638280 3/9

The customers reactions are quite funny and range from suspicion to bafflement. Hidden cameras filmed their reactions and the film ends with the line ‘Don’t make it easy for fraudsters. Set your privacy settings’.

This is a great way to show how much of our personal information is online for anyone to find.

In 2015, 23,959 people aged 30 and under were victims of identity fraud. This is up from 15,766 in 2014, and is more than double the 11,000 victims in this age bracket in 2010.

People of all ages can be at risk of identity fraud of course.

Simon Dukes, Cifas Chief Executive, said: “Fraudsters are opportunists. As banks and lenders have become more adept at detecting false identities, fraudsters have focused on stealing and using genuine people’s details instead.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other online platforms are much more than just social media sites – they are now a hunting ground for identity thieves.

“We are urging people to check their privacy settings today and think twice about what they share. Social media is fantastic and the way we live our lives online gives us huge opportunities. Taking a few simple steps will help us to enjoy the benefits while reducing the risks. To a fraudster, the information we put online is a goldmine.”

Set the privacy settings on your social media profiles so only you and people you trust can view them and be careful what you post as fraudsters can often access it.

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December 28, 2017

The Danger of Online Wish Lists

Christmas is a time when some people make wish lists online and these can be fun but they can inadvertently give away a lot of information to scammers.

Amazon maintains wish lists so in theory other people can buy gifts for you that you do want rather than having to figure out what you might want. Amazon has three levels of privacy – Public, Shared or Private. Choosing Public lets anyone see the list, Private means just you and shared is where you can choose who gets to see the list.

Allowing this information to be public should be harmless, but people who are trying to steal your identity can use this information to get critical details about you.

Michelle Black works with Hope 4 USA in Ft. Mill. She spends several hours a day helping people recover from ID theft, which is one of the fastest growing crimes.

Black says “A scammer can log into these public websites, public wish lists. From there they might have such information as your city and state, your date of birth, your children’s names and perhaps their dates of birth and they can use that to start putting together the pieces of the puzzle they need to fully steal your identity.”

The thieves then create a fake website by making it look like Amazon or the online wish list company.

They tell you someone has purchased an item on your list and all you have to do is login to confirm the mailing address.

And if you click on that link and login, the scammer has the information needed to access your account and maybe even for identity theft.

Make sure any online wish list or gift registry is set to Private.

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