Be on your guard if contacted out of the blue
Always be wary of unsolicited or unexpected phone calls or emails as no matter how genuine the person contacting you seems to be, he or she could be simply trying to scam you.
“For the home user, what's really worrying is the amount of different ways scammers are extrapolating money out of people,” said Ronan Murphy, chief executive of cybersecurity firm, Smarttech 247. “The problem is that there's a tonne of data out there about most of us already – so regardless of whether you have anti-virus software or not, be uber alert and uber aware and question everything.”
Data about you could make its way to the dark web (the part of the World Wide Web which is only accessed by a special software – and used by those who wish to remain anonymous) after you buy or subscribe to something.
“What you see day in day out is that companies [with customer data] get breached,” said Murphy. “Once that breach happens, the criminals take the data and sell it off on the dark web – and the people who buy it are experts in extrapolating value out of that data. They'll have a team of people who work around the clock building up profiles of people – piecing together information from the dark web – and then using that information to try to scam people.”
So be very careful of unsolicited contact, even if it appears to be from someone you know.
Don’t fall prey to sextortion
Never post a sexually explicit video of yourself on social media or online. “We're seeing an epidemic of sextortion cases,” said Murphy. “Young people who have been bribed [after scammers got hold of such videos online] are paying the scammers via Western Union.”
Be safe when online shopping
“Find out if the person or company you're buying from [online] has a landline telephone number and check if you can contact them by phone and speak with them – if you can't get them when looking to buy something, what hope have you got if you've got a problem,” said Tony Neate of Get Safe Online. “Be careful of false ads. Do your research and your checks. Stay on the platform you're on: if you're looking to buy something on eBay, stay on eBay – don't go off the site to buy something from someone.”
Know the common scams
The Department of Social Protection recently warned about a scam where people have received phone calls on their mobile phones purporting to be from a named official of the Department. The person is then informed that their PPS number is compromised and they are asked to provide or verify their name, PPS number and in some cases, bank account details. Do not to engage with these callers, do not to return calls to these numbers and do not share any personal information with the callers.
Another common scam is where you get a call about a ‘problem’ with – or upgrade of – your broadband. You're asked to open up your computer and let the caller log in – but if you do so, the scammer could get your bank details.
