This week, the 14th of November to 20th November 2021, is International Fraud Awareness Week. It is a scheme with a global effort to minimise the impact of fraud through education and anti-fraud awareness.
The International Fraud Awareness Week is a scheme set up by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE for short). They are the world’s largest anti-fraud organisation for providing anti-fraud education. Click here to learn more about ACFE.
So, for this week, we’re examining three of the most common fraud scams online.
Phishing
Phishing essentially is a website pretending to be another more legitimate site. This can be exploited in several forms, whether it be a misspelling of a website, facebok.com rather than facebook.com, for example.
The owner of facebok.com may be a malicious actor, obtaining the domain and setting up a website that looks very familiar to the site you expected, though it just takes your credentials.
Other more malicious methods are available. For instance, on an unsecured public network, people in the vicinity can set up a network that provides you internet. Yet, little do you know, they are logging every stroke of a keyboard you make. They can infiltrate your device and privacy, without you being wise to their malicious intent.
Call Centre Scams
With so many big names in the tech industry, it is no surprise to see fraud try to make the most of their good name. India has a reputation of call centres dedicated to bombard users online with any details they can scrape online.
They often follow the same strategy, to imitate a large actor like Microsoft. Out of the blue, they’d call saying you need IT Support and to go a link of theirs. They have become adept to talking you through changing settings of your anti-virus to download and run a fraudulent program so they have full access to your device.
Once they have your PC, they have everything they need. Anything from setting up encryption of your device for cryptocurrency, to installing monitoring software on your PC to view your screen and webcam at anytime.
Gift Card Scams
There is the adage that if something is too good to be true, then it is. Even though the saying goes back through generations, it still holds true for the internet culture we live in today. You must be careful with the popups you click on when navigating on the web. Even for safe, reputable websites can have advertising with less positive intentions. So, the next time you see that you’re the millionth visitor to a website and you’ve won a spectacular prize, just close the popup.
As with anywhere on the web, you must follow best practices and always ensure you have an up to date knowledge of the latest threats.
Stay safe with Greenlight Cyber. Contact us today to learn more about our services.
