As online users become more sophisticated, hackers are becoming more sophisticated as well. Early phishing attacks relied on users clicking links without paying attention to where the links took them. For example, a hacker would create a page that looked just like the PayPal login page, but it was actually…
How much does Google know about you? Probably a lot more than you realize. According to the founder of search engine DuckDuckGo, even if you do not directly use Google products, their trackers are found on 75% of the top million websites. “(Google isn’t) really a search company anymore –…
Have you ever noticed a sudden flurry of ads in your Facebook feed on a subject you recently talked about with friends—even though the conversation didn’t take place online and you didn’t search for or read online content about it? Others have noticed that, too. They wonder if their phones…
Money mules are individuals who are hired to receive and forward funds through their personal or business bank accounts. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), “Money mules help criminals launder their proceeds derived from criminal activities, by adding layers of recipients to the money trail.” This makes it…
It’s no secret that child predators seek victims wherever they can find them and, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), one current popular avenue is online gaming. The Pew Research Center notes that 97 percent of American teenage boys and about 83 percent of girls play video games,…
There is a belief that seniors are the victims of most scams, but scams affect people of all generations. In fact, data from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) indicates that millennials are 25% more likely to report losing money to fraud than those over 40. However, the types of scams…
You look in your email inbox and see an email that says it is from someone you know. It even displays their picture. If you trust that this means the email is genuine, you are setting yourself up to be scammed as this is a technique commonly used in CEO…
Geofencing is used for a variety of applications, but it is commonly used in direct to consumer marketing. When customers and their mobile devices enter a defined geographic area (e.g., within a specified range of a store location), they are shown a marketing message, such as a discount or coupon,…
The good news about robocalls is that their numbers are decreasing, down 17% in June 2019 from an all-time high in March 2019. The bad news? There were still 4.35 billion robocalls in June! However, a new call authentication technology seems to be helping to reduce the number of nuisance…
“You Won’t Believe What Obama Says In This Video!” It turns out that you shouldn’t believe what Barack Obama says in the linked video because he didn’t actually say it. The video reveals that the voice is that of filmmaker Jordan Peele and the video has been altered to make…
The capture of the Golden State Killer in April 2018 drew attention not only because his crimes were committed decades earlier, but for the way he was identified. Law enforcement used familial searches of DNA databases to track down the killer. Familial searches are based on the idea that family…
Wired magazine reports that 94% of organizations currently monitor their workers in some way. Monitoring and analytics software may measure how often you’re away from your desk, how quickly you respond to emails, what’s on your computer screen and more. The purposes of employee tracking may include better allocation of…
According to a 2016 study, people aged 50 and greater hold 83% of the wealth in the U.S. That makes them prime targets for scammers, along with the fact that doctors have found that even older people without identifiable cognitive impairment may experience brain changes that put them at “special…
Most of us carry a big part of our lives around on our mobile phones. Phones store our contacts, photos, and more—including banking information, passwords and other sensitive personal information. If the phone is lost or stolen, our data and identity are at risk. In this podcast, we will look…